Jerkwater

In Zerndt's (The Roadrunner Cafe, 2016, etc.) literary novel, three lost souls cling together in an angry Wisconsin town. Orphaned Shawna Reynolds, who is Ojibwa, is a few years out of high school and desperate to get out of her hometown of Mercer, Wisconsin. She resents most white people, who've exhibited no shortage of racism. "The poor kid didn't stand a chance," thinks Shawna as she watches a young white boy fish with his father. "Whether he wanted to be or not, he was a racist-in-training. Half the kid's heart was probably already polluted, and by the time he reached high school, his insides would be entirely black." She gets on okay with her next-door neighbor, Kay O'Brien, at least. Kay is mourning her recently deceased husband and worrying about her Alzheimer's diagnosis. She mostly worries about what will happen to her son, who doesn't yet know about the disease. That son, Douglas O'Brien, is doing his best to keep the family auto repair shop from going under, feeling responsible for the death of his father, hanging out with Shawna, and making drawings that nobody ever sees in his sketchbook. The three form a moody family unit of sorts, attempting to protect one another from the rest of the world, but when a local dispute over fishing rights turns into a larger conflict about race, the wounds that each of them has been nursing threaten to rupture. Zerndt's prose is smooth and matter-of-fact: "As they waited at a stoplight in town, Shawna found herself staring at a fire hydrant. It resembled a little girl in a red coat, and, for some reason, this little girl looked to Shawna like she was about to jump off the sidewalk into traffic." Kay and Douglas are compelling characters, but Shawna steals the show with her frank declarations and hard-bitten worldview. Engaging from the first chapter, the trio propels the reader through a meandering plot that neither shies away from timely issues nor drifts too far into despair. By the end of it, the reader is left with that wonderful sense of having truly been somewhere else for a little while. A moving, character-driven tale of the limits of bitterness and regret.

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Starred review from October 15, 2019
Zerndt's fourth novel is set in the jerkwater town of Mercer, Wisconsin, where hostilities simmer between the town's whites and Native Americans. Ojibwa Shawna Reynolds' mother was murdered by her white stepfather, and someone just injured her beloved horse. Her stepfather's friend, a beer-bellied bigot, becomes the object of Shawna's white hatred. Nonetheless, Shawna likes her white neighbors, Kay O'Brien and her son, Douglas. Shawna and Douglas graduated high school together and are companions. Kay grieves her husband's death, but when she discovers a trove of his secret poems, she feels betrayed. She has also been diagnosed with Alzheimer's, and Zerndt's exceptional prose dramatizes Kay?s dread over her clouding mind. Meanwhile, Douglas is besieged by guilt over his father's demise. A fledgling romance moderates his rumination, and an uproarious coworker provides comic relief. With prose that aches in the telling, Zerndt's tightly plotted story line unfolds in chapters told from the characters' alternating perspectives. Kay and Douglas' mother-son relationship makes up many of the novel's poignant moments. All told, Jerkwater is a superb portrait of resilience and the redeeming power of friendship.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)

Starred review from November 9, 2020
Zerndt’s resonant latest (after The Roadrunner Cafe) traces the lives of three downtrodden characters struggling with death and despair in Mercer, Wis. Shawna Reynolds, an Ojibwa orphan desperately missing her deceased mother, considers most white people “polluted” due to the history of their crimes committed against her family. Living next door is Kay, a 64-year-old widow numbing the recent death of her husband with alcohol and becoming increasingly worried about her Alzheimer’s-induced forgetfulness. Kay’s son, Douglas, who lives with her, endures sluggish business at the family’s auto body shop while trying to be a friend to Shawna and coming to terms with his father’s death. Zerndt shows a knack for strong characterization as this trio of downcast friends melds into a cohesive unit, collectively processing their sorrow, disenchantment, and struggles. A community battle over a torched town mascot and fishing rights swirls up unrest between Mercer’s white and Native American populations, with Shawna embroiled at the center. Zerndt’s prose and storytelling acumen are on impressive display as he weaves together the lives of his characters, whose dreams and desires vastly outweigh their meager grief-stricken lives and uncertain futures. Compact and tightly plotted, this outstanding work is packed with emotion and restlessness.