The Last Ghost Dancer,by Tony Bender, $24.99
Set in Pale Butte, N.D., “The Last Ghost Dancer” is an old man’s recollection told from the future with messages telling us not only are we aware of only a fraction of what we see, but that doubt will continue to make us uncomfortable until we open our mind to see the truth.
The story opens in the summer of 1977 with Bones telling us the story of how it was then, how he wheeled his older brother, Charlie, who was born a blue baby and is suffering from Williams syndrome as a result of a fall into a frigid lake. And how he worked at the Lazy J Ranch.
We learn of Bones’ growing love for the beautiful Maya and the complications it brings to his life. And how, in the larger world, both the American Indian Movement and the Vietnam War were growing.
Yet even as locals see little connection to what is happening in the outside world and their own backyard, Joe, a Lakota medicine man, and his friends discover truth has many pieces and its share of perils. “The Last Ghost Dancer” is a thoughtful examination of difficult times lived by what the outside world would consider to be, at best, ordinary people.
Everything, by Kevin Canty, $25.95
“Everything” opens when June and her late husband’s best friend, RL, meet as they have for the past 11 years at what had been the favorite fishing spot of June’s husband. This year, however, June is filled with a realization she should move on with her life and sell her beloved house, making this their last meeting.
RL, a divorced empty-nester looking for a change, has offered to lodge a former college girlfriend while she undergoes chemotherapy. Yet once actually confronted with June’s anguish and hope, RL not only wonders whether he is strong enough for the love “that knocks you down” offered by both women, but he also realizes the years of building strong defenses have left him largely isolated.
In spite of the occasional studied passage regarding character, the author’s obvious understanding and love of the land — “the sun flattened all of it into a white picture, desert, sky, spiky thorn plants with red flags of flowers at the top” — are compelling enough not only to carry the story but to also firmly hook the reader.
Author of three earlier novels and a faculty member in the University of Montana English department, Canty has done a fine job of capturing the challenge of the landscape and the spirit of its people.
Sybil Downing is a Boulder novelist who writes regularly about new regional fiction.
