Morgan Talty

Twelve interconnected stories set on the Penobscot Indian Island Reservation give episodic glimpses into the childhood and young adulthood of the central character, David, along with his family and friends. A small and sparsely populated area, Indian Island is literally and figuratively isolated, by rivers and poverty and social stagnation. The horror reference of the titular story indeed refers to this latter aspect:

I passed by a large boulder - rolled and placed back when the reservation was a burial ground. Couldn’t tell that to anyone, though, because people talked Pet Sematary. But it was true - this reservation was for the dead.

With not much happening, substance abuse is the main pastime of most of these characters. David and his best friend Fellis get their daily methadone treatments, smoke, and drink. David’s older sister Paige uses heroin. His mom and stepfather drink heavily. These dependencies are treated matter of fact; the characters are treated with humanity.

A frayed but still intact connection to their tribe’s history and identity provides a measure of meaning and creative outlet for the characters. Penobscot mythology and spiritual belief weave through the stories, and David’s stepfather is an occasional medicine man who tries to provide some protection for the family through the ceremonial and ritualistic methods he knows. Whether they do much good outside of providing some sense of purpose is pretty hard to see, of course, and ultimately they can’t save his own body from his pain and addiction.

Coming with cover blurbs from Brandon Hobson and Tommy Orange, among others, this collection introduces a promising young writer from the Native American community.… (més)

I've read a lot of indigenous writers, some have hit, some have missed. This unfortunately felt like more of a miss. I didn't take a lot from it and although it's a collection of short stories, they're all about the same characters. That's not bad, but the jump around in times for those characters made it hard to follow what was going on sometimes and took me out of the story. The stories started to feel like there was little variation between each piece, not enough to really make me feel something new with each switch.… (més)