Survivor's medicine

by E. Donald Two-Rivers

In detail sometimes raw and violent these short stories show how racism and poverty plague the lives of many American Indians. Yet even as they look these realities straight in the eye, the stories affirm the healing power of laughter and celebrate the human capacity for survival. The characters dwell in small towns or big cities, or are simply on the road, whether along the highways that crisscross America from Ontario to Texas or in the network of the psyche. For some, such as Joe Walks-Bear (who struggles to build a new life after being jailed for a crime he did not commit) and the adolescent Russell (who wrestles with a paralyzing fear), their passages are life-transforming. For others, such as Chicago bus driver Harold Ball and the slow-walking child Muffin, their journeys involve the mundane stumbling blocks of everyday life.