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Ruby Moon by Jenny Knipfer - This novel's setting in 1890s Ontario was what initially appealed to me. It is essentially a coming of age story, as Jenay learns to reconcile her mixed French and Ojibwe heritage and through difficult circumstances is forced to grow into maturity very quickly.
The story is told in two converging timelines, beginning about a year apart. The chapters begin with a segment from the more recent timeline, with Jenay's troubled dreams and fractured memories of impressions of a traumatic event. Then the chapter switches to the older timeline, beginning about a year before. The older story eventually "catches up" with the newer and they merge towards the end of the book. Jenay is the narrator of the newer, through a journal she is writing in, while the older storyline is a third person narrator, with different viewpoint characters. Although the switches from one timeline to the other are clearly signaled, I did find it a bit disorienting, as I did some of the changes in viewpoint character. Jenay's journal entries and letters are often lyrical and poetic in their introspection, and the narration spends a fair amount of time in fanciful and detailed description as well. In some places, this slowed down the movement of the story for me, but the word pictures were genuinely lovely.
Jenay Follett is a teenager living with her French-Canadian father and his sister, as her Ojibwe mother died many years earlier. Jenay is very close with her mother's sister, an Ojibwe healer named Maang-ikwe, and spends a lot of time with her learning about plant life and nature. Her father John Pierre owns a shipping company, and is beginning to teach Jenay a little about the business as she has reached the end of her schooling with a private tutor. One of John Pierre's business acquaintances, Renault La Rue, decides to pursue Jenay and when her father realizes Renault's plans he sends his daughter on a trip to the city. John Pierre's assistant Jacque accompanies Jenay and their friendship blossoms into romance, and then news of John Pierre's death arrives. Jacque and Jenay return home to mourn and to take over Follett shipping, as it has been left to Jenay's ownership and Jacque's management.
With Jenay's return, Renault resumes his attentions to her, even after she marries Jacque. Still naive and trusting, Jenay wants to believe that Renault is a friend and business partner, but finds she avoids telling Jacque about this friendship. When a tragic accident occurs, Jenay falls ill and struggles to regain a clear memory of the events while under a crushing weight of guilt for what she fears she has done.
I enjoyed the story, despite my impression that it moved very slowly and wandered down a few tangents as it developed. There was a lot of extraneous detail and background that weighed the story down. The dilemma Jenay finds herself in, and the psychological aspect of her memory lapse are compelling and create interesting conflicts. The resolution was satisfying and settled the story nicely, while introducing a little twist at the end which looks like it will lead neatly into the second novel in this series.
From the publisher:
Ruby Moon embodies a tale of grief, guilt, and romance set on the shores of Lake Superior in Ontario during the mid 1890s. Jenay, a young woman of mixed French and Ojibwe descent, must survive the trauma of causing a horrific accident.
Amidst this drama, Jenay is caught in a web spun by Renault, a rich, charming man who once threatened ruination of her father's shipping company but now seeks something even more valuable . . .
Jenay must find where her strength lies in order to face the challenges life brings her or be washed away like driftwood on the tumultuous shores of Lake Superior. Life's richest dramas are played out under the banner of two ruby-colored moons and become the hidden gems which forge her into a mature strong woman. Jenay realizes God is by her side, using even the harsh events of life to create something precious in her.
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