Harare Review of Books

250 pages.

First published on 5 July 2022.

Genre: Fiction

This first appeared in The Sunday Long Read, July 17, 2022—Issue 350.

I went into this book with very few expectations, and am happy to report that this is one of the best books I have read so far this year.

In a series of stories, Morgan Talty introduces us to life on a Penobscot Nation reservation, through the life of David, the central character, and his family—his mother, sister, grandmother, mother’s partner, and somewhat estranged father— and friends, including Fellis, who has a profound influence on David. David’s life is shared in a series of non-chronological vignettes: while looking for a lost toy below his family home, he finds a jar that contains bad medicine, which seems to set off a cascade of calamity for him and his family. He has to deal with his grandmother and her advancing Alzheimer’s; he becomes increasingly muddled in his life and mind, partly due to drug use; his sister gradually falls apart.

Throughout the book, it is clear that although individual choices and mistakes are being made, they happen within a context. David’s family life is ruptured by tragedy, both the slow-moving and the sudden kind; and the book is also, indirectly, about the profound loss and heartbreak of the greater community. An event in the book is shown from the perspective of David and his friends, and then later from the perspective of the (white) community outside and the media’s narrative, to great effect. The use of methadone to “treat” members of the community is interrogated. A film crew making a documentary on the reservation are shown for the interlopers they are. In another story, David asks how objects made by the community are worth so much more than the people making them.

I found this a very thoughtful and incisive book, and if you enjoy literary and topical fiction, this will be for you.

Morgan Talty is a citizen of the Penobscot Indian Nation, and an award-winning writer.

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Rated: 9/10.