Finding Home: A Southern Indiana Story of Resilience

By: Mary Gehring from The Bookshelf

When you think of Southern Indiana, what comes to mind? Words that might come to mind are family, home, and maybe even hope. Laird Hunt's book Zorrie incorporates those three things that help make Indiana cherished by so many.

Born in 1909, Zorrie has her fair share of heartbreaks. The death of both parents, courtesy of diphtheria, and later, the death of her aunt-turned-caretaker, deepens that loss and causes Zorrie to become stoic. She learns to find comfort in a day's work, even when it's physically demanding.

She learns flexibility, too, when looking for a job as a woman during the Depression, eventually finding an opportunity at the Radium Dial Company, where she uses radium to paint the faces on wristwatches. Here, workers are encouraged to lick their paintbrushes to get a fine tip, thereby ingesting the radium, and the plant manager leads Zorrie to believe that radium can help any situation, something that comes back full circle later in the book. But the call of home is too strong, and Zorrie eventually returns to Indiana, working where she can and doing what she can until she finds her place again and a family of her own.

While Zorrie's story does have plenty of tragedy, a constant vein of optimism runs through its pages. Recognizable Indiana towns are sprinkled throughout, helping readers familiar with the area picture Zorrie's trials and travels. And Hunt's beautiful, sometimes complex syntax makes for an enjoyable read, one that reminds us to find value in a simple life.

Fiction. 2021 National Book Award Finalist. Goodreads: 3.8/5 stars. Amazon: 4.2/5 stars. 176 pages. Available in paperback and hardback.