Night of the Living Rez
New England, home of the Pats? I don’t know. But this follows closely on the heels of two-three previous novels, An Honest Living (set in NY), The Woman in the Library (set in Boston), and Locust Lane, so New England — Native American New England — is familiar ground at the moment, then weather, the people, the locations. Layered into this mix is Reservation Dogs (rhetorical, is it magical realism if it really happens?) With that as an introduction, as to my mindset at the outset, Night of the Living Rez was getting award buzz, and I tried it when the library had a free copy.
Short stories. Short stories set in and around a native enclave (reservation, or sovereign nation, depends) with the poverty, the pain, and the mythology that makes more sense than any western myths.
Some place, I’ve got a Zuni — I think it’s Zuni — charm, token, earring, or necklace. It’s a coil that represents the universe, and at the end, is a tiny piece of peridot, or sapphire, I don’t know, possibles semi-precious stone, and that represents “home.” That coiled motif shows up in the last stories in the collection, and winds the narrative thread in a loose but cohesive fashion.
Night of the Living Rez is a series of intertwined short stories about loss, despair, and the sense of place, none of it really hopeful, as the nuclear family deteriorates, and falls apart. Evocative story-telling, really a masterpiece in form and function.
Darkly comic title to the collection, as well, Night of the Living Rez.
Night of the Living Rez