Night of the Living Rez by Morgan Talty
How do the living come back to life?
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 community bonds 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 thinks he is her dead brother come back to life; and two friends, inspired by Antiques Roadshow, attempt to rob the tribal museum for valuable root clubs.
In a collection that examines the consequences and merits of inheritance, Night of the Living Rez is an unforgettable portrayal of a Native community and marks the arrival of a standout talent in contemporary fiction.
I heard an interview with this author on NPR a few months ago which had me very interested in reading this book.
Check it out real quick to learn a little bit more about the author and why he wrote this booK:
This book is a collection of 12 interconnected stories of various Native Penobscot people living on a reservation, focusing mainly on one young man throughout his childhood and early adulthood and the members of his biological family.
The chapters went back and forth in time so I was kinda confused for a bit at first (yes…this happens to me VERY frequently when reading LOL) …I didn’t realize right away that it was the same characters, just at different time periods.
The story addresses many real life struggles faced by this particular Native community. The author himself is a citizen of the Penobscot Nation and grew up in the area that is the setting of this book.
Poverty and addiction are prevalent due to the underlying cause of racism, white supremacy, and colonialism.
Years of generational trauma and unreachable healing are exposed in a very raw and very real way.
These stories were depressing…which they were supposed to be…there is a lot of real life struggles and pain the author was intentionally bringing to the page to further awareness from others.
But there is also wry humor, rich heritage, and indescribable communal bonds in these pages as well.
There is darkness and honesty but also hope and traditions.
It helped me to listen to this book, which is read by a Native author, so I could hear the correct pronunciation of the Penobscot language.
Like I often do while reading a book, I hit up Google when I was done to find out more information.
The website below is a fountain of treasured knowledge regarding the Penobscot people…definitely go check it out.
https://www.penobscotculture.com/8-about/81-tribal-facts
It’s so so so important for Americans to learn about Indigenous people and tribes. Not only to understand their experiences and hear the REAL history of the first TRUE inhabitants of the land we live on, but to help prevent the loss of these cultures that colonization has caused for generations.
We should listen out of respect and we should value the wisdom and hard truths we hear.
And then we must do what we can to support the communities…with our votes, with our funds, with our appreciation.
This was not an easy or light book to take in, but I am glad that I read it. The author is a TREMENDOUS author, weaving fiction with reality with seamless ease.