While it is not Green Grass, Running Water, Medicine River is wonderful in its own right. I guess I was expecting more of the same offbeat, coyote-genre theme that Green Grass was, simply because it was the first novel by Thomas King that I read. Medicine River is more "normalized" in that it is a narrative that we are more familiar with. It doesn't require as much work on the reader's part that Green Grass did; in fact, it doesn't require work on the reader's part at all. You can just sit back, relax, enjoy and read on.

Medicine River is about a Blackfoot Indian community that is located in Canada in a town named Medicine River. The story centers around the two main characters, Will and Harlen, and the rest of the community members. I wrote story and not plot; this is because there isn't the traditional plot that most Western stories utilize. This novel is more a snippet of life in Medicine River; there isn't a beginning and end with a plot climax and all that classroom rhetoric that we study. It is more of a "slice of life story;" in this way, it stays in line with the traditional format of Native American stories.

Through events, conflicts, and personal relationships, King gives us a glimpse of life on and off the reservation. King creates memorable and true-to-life characters, eccentricities and all. Will comes back to Medicine River for his mother's funeral and ends up relocating there. As a child, Will and his family were not allowed to live on the reservation because his mother married a white man. Even when Will's father abandoned his family, they were not allowed to move back on the reservation...(looks like the Native Americans didn't just get a raw deal from the U.S.)

Harlen BigBear is the centralizing figure in this novel; he holds the community and the novel together. We might call it nosiness, and manipulation, but he calls it "keeping on top of things" and "helping out." I really enjoyed his conversations with Will; the deadpan humor of Will's thoughts while Harlen is "circling around the issues" is very funny. There is a great deal of humor in this novel.

The culture of the Native Americans is community centered, not individualistic. Therefore, the novel which is traditionally a genre that celebrates the individual might seem like an odd choice for a Cherokee author to utilize. When reading Native American stories, sometimes it is hard to see the point of one story, but when you look at all the stories together, they make sense. It is the whole picture that tells the story; this is true for Medicine River also. It is not a novel about one particular event; it is the whole picture of the town and its inhabitants that make up the whole story. And you cannot portray Native American life without the whole community. (notice this circular argument which parallels the circular structures of traditional Native American storytelling -clever huh?)

I would recommend this novel to anyone who is looking for a good read, but don't expect a page-turning thriller of a novel. The reader has to embody the slowed-down pace of Medicine River and just go along for the journey. If you only have time in your life for one Thomas King novel, and if you are looking for a memorable experience with your literature, then read Green Grass, Running Water instead.

Keep on reading!