#303 Shamengwa- Louise Erdrich

#303 Shamengwa- Louise Erdrich

Shamengwa is an old man living among the Ojibwa community. His arm was broken when he was young and healed in a mangled way, like a broken wing, and was given his named after the Monarch butterfly. His father played the fiddle but traded it for religion when his brother dies young. The fiddle was put away, and the parents turned despondent and had, in many ways, lost their music. Shamengwa needing life, found it:

“It was a question of survival, after all. If I had not found the music, I would have dies of the silence. There are ways of being abandoned even when your parents are right there.”

Despite his mangled arm, or perhaps because of it, the music he created became the soul of his community:

“The sound connected instantly with something deep and joyous. Those powerful moments of true knowledge which we paper over with daily life. The music tapped our terrors, too. Things we’d lived through and wanted never to repeat. Shredding imaginings, unadmitted longings, fear, and also surprising pleasures. We can’t live at that  pitch. But every so often, something shatters like ice, and we fall into the river of our own existence. We are aware.”

When the violin was stolen, we learn of its incredible history, and when we find out who stole the violin, we learn of his incredible history as well. Instruments, like music often find people most in need of spiritual healing.

This is just great story telling.

Notable Passage: “I do my work. I do my best to make the small decisions well, and I try not to hunger for the greater things, for the deeper explanations. For I am sentenced to keep watch over this little patch of earth, to judge its miseries and tell its stories.”

Rating: 9-10-10-10 Total= 39

#281 A Virtuous Woman- Jabari Asim

#281 A Virtuous Woman- Jabari Asim

 In the second story of this collection (A Taste of Honey), we see the young political activist, Gabriel, waiting outside a the funeral of a community leader to distribute leaflets about a big meeting. He is taken over by the sound of an angelic singing voice that is “Something like God,” floating from inside. That voice is Rose.

That was Rose’s first public performance in many years. Her husband, Paul, is abusive and controlling and not inclined to allow his wife to do anything publically. But this was a special occasion, and he knew nothing could stop her. Now Paul has disappeared and Rose feels liberated. Like the story of creation in Genesis, Rose’s new life is created in six days, on Sunday she prays.

Fate brings Gabriel and Rose together. Music is entwined in politics, is enmeshed in life. “Okay, Lord, you’ve given me a sign…Now I need a way.”

I really love the way these stories have come together, especially the nice moment when Gabriel recognized the meaning behind Crispus’ name.

Notable Passage: “…patience could easily decline into dangerous passivity.”

Rating: 8-8-8-8 Total=32

#268 Mines- Susan Straight

#268 Mines- Susan Straight

Clarette works at the juvenile prison. She sees her community locked up in there, she sees her family locked up in there. But she works there anyway, because somebody has to and she needs a job. She needs a job so she can keep her own son out of prison. She’s there so he won't be.

She resents the people outside with opinions about here working there. She resents her family telling her to look out for her nephew who’s inside. They had 17 years to look out for him, and now it’s her responsibility?

For some, the issue of prisons and the racial realities of the prison system is an abstract talking point, for some it’s more personal, and Clarette doesn’t care about the concepts, she cares about keeping her son safe. She does what she has to. As her nephew points out, “I’ve got to get mines.”

Notable Passage: “The old days, the men go off to the army. Hard time, let me tell you. They go off to die, or they come back. But if they die, we get some money from the army. If they come back, they get a job on the base. Now them little boys, they go off to the prison just like the army. Like they have to. To be a man. They go off to die, or to come back. But they aint got nothing. Nothing either way.”

Rating: 7-7-8-8 Total= 30

#184 The Hat- T.C. Boyle

#184 The Hat- T.C. Boyle

Like within a family, personalities are magnified in small communities. You can’t hide, and everyone becomes something of a caricature or a stereotype. This tiny deep mountain community in the Sierras has 27 year-round residents. Jill and Michael are two. Of the 25 others, only 3 were woman, 2 of those were married and old, and the other a drunken walleyed man-hating poetess. So you can imagine, during the long winter months, things could get a bit ornery.

“I’d read somewhere that nine out of ten adults in Alaska had a drinking problem. I could believe it. Snow, ice, sleet, wind, the dark night of the soul: what else were you supposed to do?”

And drink they did, all day and night. Visitors and seasonal residents made things interesting, and so do bears that stalk the food stores of the only bar in town.

Notable Passage: “Her tone was so soft, so contrite, so sweet and friendly and conciliatory, that I could actually feel the great big heavy plates of the world shifting back into alignment beneath my feet.”

Rating: 8-7-8-7 Total= 30

#151 Sic Transit Gloria- Jabari Asim

#151 Sic Transit Gloria- Jabari Asim

Gloria is paralyzed by fear, fear of people, fear of outside, and more of all fear of the Devil. She is a shut-in, trying her best to fend off the evil of this world and raise her son, Roderick. Roderick is a special child with unnatural intelligence, he is aptly named by everyone in the neighborhood, The Genius. Gloria rarely leaves the house, not even for her own mother’s funeral, because cemeteries have too many places for the Devil to hide. While looking out for Satan, she awaits signs from God.

“All these years of fearing—maybe even believing—that I’ve been marked by the devil. All these years spending every living minute looking over my shoulder for Satan, and here come God, right on time.”

Roderick’s story is an interesting one. He is a Christ-like figure in these tales. Born of a mother with no father, he will bear suffering to uplift the community, his talents likely will have to be sacrificed like his Mentor/Father (figure) Orville. But for now this story is about his mother. What will it take for her to overcome her own burdens, her own fear, and face her own demons. It appears that she is now prepared to face the world to protect her son, her very own savior.

“The sound doesn’t enter my ears like noise normally does. It’s born in my bones, rises out of my pores, and takes shape in the air. It makes me hot and cold at the same time. Chills up my spine, sparks in my limbs. My son speaks, God touches me, and I get up and go.”

Rating: 8-8-9-8 Total= 33