Night Of The Living Rez by Morgan Talty

 

In this anthology the author, Morgan Talty, illustrates the modern life of the Penobscot tribe in Maine.  We see David go from a young boy full of wonder but knowing that he isn't welcome in school or that he has to hide his homelife to him grown up and caught in the throes of prescription drug addiction.  He lives with his mother, grown sister and his mother's boyfriend in a small house on the reservation.  He and his friends play in the woods, paddle canoes in the river and try to hunt down the supernatural beings they have heard about in Native American stories.

But as David grows up, a tragedy in his family leaves him stumbling and uncertain.  His life becomes one of addiction as his friends fight the same battle.  His mother has always had an alcohol problem and his sister fights depression as she gets pregnant and loses the baby.  There aren't jobs and school was never his thing.  But the reader can tell that David has a good heart and does what he can to help his family and friends.

Morgan Talty is himself a member of the Penobscot tribe and grew up there.  This book has gathered many awards and was a National Book Critics Circle Award winner.  I listened to this book and the narrator did a great job, taking us from David's childhood to his old age.   It took me a little while to realize that this was a series of stories but each story unveils another piece of David's life.  We don't learn the details of the tragedy that oversaw David's life until the end of the book when David is telling it to a psychiatrist but it makes everything fall into place.  This book is recommended for literary fiction and multicultural readers