Friday , March 29 2024
Tricky things them stories, tricky like that Coyote, but a lot smarter and don't get into as much trouble.

Book Review: A Short History Of Indians In Canada by Thomas King

I've never been much for short stories, either reading them or writing them. I know they're a specialized art form with all sorts of distinctions from full-length novels, size only being one of the things setting them apart. It's just I can't help feeling a little ripped off when I read one. There doesn't seem enough room for the things that happen to be properly justified and it feels like an author is forcing something to squeeze into a space that its far too big to fit into.

Of course there are exceptions to every rule, even the ones I make up for myself, and there are writers who have such a discerning eye that they can slice a small moment off the bulk of reality and turn it into something special. J. G. Ballard, James Joyce, Sherman Alexi, Jorge Luis Boges, and a few others seem to have the ability to reduce a story down to its barest essentials; they distil its essence so that what other authors might take hundreds of page to recount, they can do in five or six.

The first book I ever read by Thomas King was called One Good Story, That One: Stories. Since that time I've not only added him to my list of authors that I keep watch on for a new release, but become addicted to his short fiction. His stories find their targets with an accuracy that those Pentagon folk can only dream about.

Whether pointed comments about the state of affairs for Native peoples, satirical commentary on historical events and current affairs, insights into the workings and failings of relationships, or momentary glimpses into a life in progress, King's microscope picks out the particles that others would dismiss as unimportant. Who else but Thomas King would have figured out the tie in between The Indian Act of Canada and Star Trek? I know I'd missed them until he pointed it out in "Where The Borg Are".

Of course the clues are there for those who know how to look, but not all of us have the eye for stuff like that. But then, a lot of us don't look up at the sky too much or wander around Bay St. (the financial district in Toronto, Ontario) at 3am so we miss seeing the flocks of Indians migrating in the spring and fall. Who knew that the city of Toronto had special workers whose job it was to pick the Indians stunned by flying into the glass towers of the sky scrapers up off the street and make sure they don't wander around the city streets dazed and confused?

Of course the guys are going to miss a couple every so often, which explains why you see the occasional befuddled Indian downtown. They even have a book which helps them identify what kind they are; you can tell by the feathers whether they are Mohawk, Cree, or Ojibwa. Why you can even get the occasional off course Navajo.

Hey, you don't believe me? Well, that Thomas King has written it all down. The title story from his latest collection, A Short History Of Indians In Canada is all about it. Okay sure story tellers will sometimes stretch it a little, but those are both pretty big stretches for there not to be some truth in them.

The next thing you're going to be telling me is what happened in "Coyote and the Enemy Aliens" is made up. Who else but Coyote would have done that job? Rounding up all the Japanese in British Columbia in World War Two and taking away their property and businesses? Ain't nobody foolish enough but that Coyote to think that's a good thing to do.

Of course Thomas King is a tricky one too. Just when you think you know what kind of story he tells, he stands those stories on their heads and tells one like "The Dog I Wish I Had I Would Call It Helen". It's about the silly way men can act towards mothers and children by making promises and not keeping them. They don't know what disappointment can do to a person, but Thomas King sure does and shows us all

That story would make you cry, if it weren't such a brave story it made you proud. Sometimes that's the way of stories – they can make you feel two, maybe three different ways at once. At least the good ones can, and Thomas King writes good stories; stories that tickle your belly so you laugh but they also tickle your eyes so you cry.

That's a hard thing to do — laugh and cry at the same time — so it must even be harder to write the story that helps you do it. Of course there are the stories that don't do anything but sit there and make you have to think what they're about. Like "Little Bombs", in which the wife puts little bombs everywhere around the house for the husband to find, not real big ones that will hurt him of course, just ones that go bang. But when the woman who is not his wife does the same thing and his wife finds out, that causes an explosion all right.

That story made me think, all right. Just like "Fire And Rain," which might be about James Taylor but then again might not. Or how about "Domestic Furies," about a woman and her dreams as seen through the eyes of her son? Well of course all his stories make you think, because that's what good stories do. But some of them have as many twists and turns in them that they could be the path Coyote walks, and others just sit there waiting for you.

A Short History Of Indians In Canada has some good stories in it by that Thomas King fellow, and after you finish the stories it's not done yet. You can read about Thomas King in a biography at the end and there is an interview with him where he talks about story writing and the different ways he goes about doing it.

With a good storywriter you never know how the stories are going to affect you. Sometimes they sort of creep up on you without you even noticing and turn your head that much so they change your perspective on the world for a short while. 

Thomas King writes stories like that, and A Short History Of Indians In Canada could have an impact without you even noticing. Tricky things them stories, tricky like that Coyote, but a lot smarter and they don't get into as much trouble (well not often anyway).

About Richard Marcus

Richard Marcus is the author of three books commissioned by Ulysses Press, "What Will Happen In Eragon IV?" (2009) and "The Unofficial Heroes Of Olympus Companion" and "Introduction to Greek Mythology For Kids". Aside from Blogcritics he contributes to Qantara.de and his work has appeared in the German edition of Rolling Stone Magazine and has been translated into numerous languages in multiple publications.

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