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Jul
19
Book Review: The Crying Tree by Naseem Rakha
2009 at 3pm Posted by Rebecca Joines Schinsky
Recently published July 7, 2009 by Broadway Books (a division of RandomHouse)
Naseem Rakha’s debut novel The Crying Tree opens on October 1, 2004 as Oregon State Penitentiary superintendent Tab Mason receives notice that, after nineteen years on death row, inmate Daniel Joseph Robbin will be executed less than a month later on October 29th. And it will be Mason’s job to organize the team who will kill him. Convicted of murdering 15-year-old Shep Stanley, the son of Nate and Irene Stanely, when he was just nineteen years old, Robbin has spent half his life in prison, and he is tired of fighting the system. He barely reacts when Mason delivers the news.
One of the primary narrative lines of The Crying Tree follows Mason and Robbin through the weeks leading up to Robbin’s execution. Having never before led an execution team, Mason struggles to temper his emotions and make sense of what he is being asked to do. He feels instinctively that the act of carrying out an execution deeply harms those involved, and he’s not entirely sure that he is prepared or willing to perform the required actions and accept their spiritual and emotional consequences. But at least he knows that he, unlike some of his colleagues, will perform his duties with compassion and without the slightest bit of enjoyment.
The other primary narrative line flashes back to the fall of 1983, when Irene and Nate Stanley decided to uproot their family from their small midwestern town and move to Oregon, ostensibly so Nate could pursue a job opportunity. The story then moves forward in time to May 6, 1985, the day Nate come home to find that 15-year-old Shep had been shot during an apparent robbery, and follows Nate and Irene and their daughter Bliss as they seek justice against Shep’s killer.
As any family would be, the Stanleys are heartbroken and outraged, and they want to see Robbin pay for his crime. Irene shares her anger with the prosecuting attorney:
“What I want has nothing to do with justice.” Irene wiped her mouth with the back of her wrist. “You understand? What I want is revenge. God help me,” she said. “But I want that man they’ve caught to suffer. I want him to plead and scream and beg and piss himself, just like he made my boy do. I want to wrap a rope around that sonofabitch’s neck…And then—then I want to pull the lever and watch him hang. Do you understand? Can you possible understand that? ‘Cause if there’s anything called justice, it’s that. It’s only that.”
When Robbin is sentenced to death, the Stanleys look forward to watching him die, to seeing justice done, to finally being able to move on with their lives. However, the judicial system being what it is, the weeks turn into months, and the months turn into years, and Nate and Irene find themselves increasingly angry and depressed and tired of waiting for something that it seems will never come.
And then, one day, Irene decides to write her son’s killer a letter. When he, against all expectations, writes back, the two begin a secret correspondence that they will carry on for years and that will make Irene reevaluate her feelings and ideas about Robbin’s sentence.
Despite the fact that this is a not altogether unfamiliar concept for a story, particularly when it serves as a vehicle for exploring the difference between revenge and justice, I was on board with Rakha right up to this point. Staunchly opposed to capital punishment, I appreciated that she was asking us to consider the ways in which criminals may be products of circumstances beyond their control (not that that, in any way, excuses or justifies their actions) and to examine what the ability to execute another human being says about and does to one’s humanity, and I smiled when she even got Mason in on the act, allowing him to begin looking at his inmates differently.
Confused, afraid, defenseless—it wasn’t as if they’d somehow blown their change, as much as that they had never had a chance from the get-go.
Sure, I thought, it’s not the most original plot, but it’s exploring important ideas, and the writing is solid, and the author really understands family dynamics and grief and what happens in the aftermath of such a tragedy. I was ready to go with it.
And then, about two-thirds into the book, there’s a twist that I saw coming when I was one-third in and hoped against hope the author wouldn’t really go for. But she did. And I was ready to call it quits.
You’ve heard me say I don’t like Jodi Picoult, and it’s for exactly that sort of thing. Luckily, Rakha’s writing was compelling enough to keep me going, and I’m happy that I finished the book and got to enjoy an ending that wasn’t what I’d predicted it would be. The not-quite-surprise twist still ruined things for me, but that’s more about my personal preference than it is about quality.
The Crying Tree is a touching, well-written read, even if Rakha is a bit heavyhanded with the message at times, and I think readers who enjoy Jodi Picoult and the family-in-crisis model will find it satisfying. This is a story about forgiveness and redemption that would have earned a solid 4 out of 5, but the twist really did ruin it for me, so I’m going with 3.25 out of 5, though I’m sure many other readers will give it much higher marks.
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I agree with you on this one–right down to the Jodi Picoult comparison. I thought the twist actually undercut the message of forgiveness that Rakha explored fairly capably in the first part of the book. (The stereotyped characters didn’t help much either.) I do think a lot of people would like this, but I’m afraid I wasn’t one of them.
Excellent review. I have this one so I always appreciate an honest, thoughtful review.
I just brought this home from the library based on a few reviews I read. I’m curious about the twist you didn’t like and can’t wait to get started!
Thanks for the candid review. I’m not a Picoult fan either. When you said the writing was solid, I was glad because this sounds like it could be good.
Happy reading.
This sounds like Picoult’s Change of Heart. The mother writing the her son’s killer sounds interesting. Thanks for the review.
–Anna
i felt the same way about the book, especially the twist. i totally saw it coming. (but how? i don’t know. i thought i was weird for thinking of it- too movie of the week, but then bam! there it was.) i guess it’s kind of weird/funny that i didn’t like the twist, considering my undying devotion to jodi picoult. in my breif review, i think i called this book “poor man’s jodi picoult” or something like that.
About a hundred pages before the big reveal, there’s a one sentence hint that things weren’t exactly the way they were presented. You just picked up on it without knowing (yay for absorbing foreshadowing). Perhaps you only allow Jodi the right to make such twists?
Oh, oh, I can tell this book is going to break my heart but I can’t wait to read it nonetheless. Thanks for the review!
Connie @ Constance Reader
I’m always more curious about a book when there’s something that someone else criticizes in it. I wonder whether I will have similar feelings about it so I’m curious to try it. So I may read this one, the subject is certainly interesting, and important. Thanks for an honest review.
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