I really enjoyed this novel. Like a number of modern Native American authors, Thomas King tells of life among reservation Indians that's free of stereotypes and sentimentality. His central character, Will, a half-breed, lives and works as a photographer in a town called Medicine River, not far from Alberta's Blackfeet reservation. Somewhat passive and resigned to the lot he has chosen in life, his solitude is disrupted almost daily by Harlen Bigbear, a gregarious friend who knows the business of everyone in the Indian community and actively tries to act in everyone's best interest. In other words, he's a meddler.
The novel is a series of loosely strung together incidents, involving Harlen's attempts to make things happen, not the least of which are his efforts to get Will to marry the unmarried mother of a little girl with the unlikely name of South Wing. The present day stories are intercut with flashbacks to Will's past, growing up with a younger brother, their father a white cowboy having long deserted the family. And there are flashbacks to a time in his adult life in Toronto, where he became involved unknowingly with a married woman.
I loved the gentle and ironic humor of this novel, the many characters who spring to life from the pages, and the roundabout indirection of Indian dialogue, including the persistent way in which people seem not to listen to each other. I recommend this book to anyone interested in the North American West, modern day Indians, and a style of storytelling that speaks from heart.
The book "Medicine River" is awash with too many characters and no true plot on which to base the complexities that surround most of these characters. There is too much happening and not enough book to cover it, or enough words to explain it all, which makes the story come across as choppy and irrational. If someone is going to write a novel with over 30 characters, than please, write a trilogy - please don't jam a bunch of nonsensical blather into only 261 pages. Not to mention, many of the scenes leave you feeling as though you've missed something - the human and lifelike qualities that any developed characters should have in a novel. It leaves this book dull and devoid of any true feeling. Although there is a main insight into the book upon how a community can become family over a biological family that one may not possess, this book leaves you feeling like you really have read a fictitious novel, which I don't think was the intention the author had. Too bad.
