Night of the Living Rez
Ratings17
Average rating3.6
Set in a Native community in Maine, Night of the Living Rez is a riveting debut collection about what it means to be Penobscot in the twenty-first century and what it means to live, to survive, and to persevere after tragedy. In twelve striking, luminescent stories, author Morgan Talty—with searing humor, abiding compassion, and deep insight—breathes life into tales of family and a community as they struggle with a painful past and an uncertain future. A boy unearths a jar that holds an old curse, which sets into motion his family’s unraveling; a man, while trying to swindle some pot from a dealer, discovers a friend passed out in the woods, his hair frozen into the snow; a grandmother suffering from Alzheimer’s projects the past onto her grandson; and two friends, inspired by Antiques Roadshow, attempt to rob the tribal museum for valuable root clubs. A collection that examines the consequences and merits of inheritance, Night of the Living Rez is an unforgettable portrayal of an Indigenous community and marks the arrival of a standout talent in contemporary fiction.
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Night of the Living Rez is marketed in a lot of places as a collection of short stories which it is but not in the anthology way, it's short stories in the sense that it is slices of life going back and forth in time which at the end completes the overarching life story of the protagonist.
This book felt both unique and familiar, it speaks of the type of brokenness that is passed down from one generation to another and of the banal and grandiose ways in which it happens in a very human way which I think is so important these days.
Powerful collection of stories, weaving in and out of time and families living on the Penobscot Nation's reservation. I found the nonlinearity compelling, one that added a lot of intrigue and emotional depth, but for some reason I wasn't as drawn into this set of stories as I felt I should have been. I'm not sure where the disconnect was, other than the prose was great but not the most beautiful prose I'd ever read.
Compelling all the same.
Though this is said to be a story collection, it reads much more like a novel. Told in an episodic fashion, every “story” is a short, almost slice of life segment in the life of Dee, and his Penobscot community in Maine. We are given snippets of his childhood and adulthood non-linearly, which means the reader always questions how and why adult Dee ended up in the position he is in. This book deals with lots of issues; family problems, drugs, alcohol, grief, loss and native tradition, and Morgan Talty switches from laughter to heartbreak with flair and ease. That's life, I suppose.
Recommended, especially to people who enjoyed Tommy Orange's “There, There”.
