“The Removes,” “Zebra Skin Shirt” and more
“The Removes” by Tatjana Soli (Sarah Crichton Books)
Tatjana Soli brings a new twist to the oft-told love story of Libbie and George Armstrong Custer. In this fictionalized account, Libbie is Custer’s soulmate, but he is a narcissistic philanderer whose betrayals drive Libbie to tears. Soli gives flesh and bones to the suspicion that Custer had an Indian mistress who bore him a child.
“The Removes” is more than the Custer tale, however. Soli adds a second story, that of Anne, a young white girl whose family is butchered by Indians. She is captured and forced into a life of brutality. As an Indian slave, she is assigned the dirtiest, hardest work and all but starved. And she is repeatedly raped until she is given to a cruel husband, Snake Man. She survives because she believes that she will escape one day and return to civilization.
She bears Snake Man two children. When she eventually is rescued, she realizes she is no longer a white woman and plots then to retrieve her children.
The two stories parallel each other and, of course, at some point they intersect. The filthy, sunburned feral look of Anne against Libbie Custer’s corseted satin dress and perfume makes for a haunting picture.
The Custer account, even with the nuances the author brings to it, is hardly startling. It is Anne’s story of survival with her realization that she fits in neither the white nor the Indian world that bring poignancy to “The Removes.”
“Zebra Skin Shirt” by Gregory Hill (Conundrum Press)
So what do you do if everybody in the country suddenly freezes in place except you? For Narwhal Slotter-field, a basketball referee sometimes known as “Zebra,” you take off on a trip to Denver, peering into stores and houses, adjusting people’s poses and occasionally moving them out of future danger. Narwhal has just left the bathroom of an eastern Colorado diner, having made up his mind to propose to his girlfriend, Vero, using an onion ring as an engagement ring. He spots Vero sitting at a table, a French fry halfway up to her mouth. Like Vero, the waitress is frozen, coffee from a pot on the way to a cup stopped in mid-air.
After determining he is the only one who can move, Narwhal lifts Vero’s diary and discovers she cheated on him with an old boyfriend. In disgust, Narwhal removes Vero’s chair so she’ll fall down if she wakes up and, as a joke, places a gun in the waitress’ hand, aimed at Vero. That’ll show her.
Then he sets off to Denver to find Vero’s ex. On the way, he encounters frozen humans and animals, moving them around as whimsy dictates. Only later is he filled with remorse that if Vero wakes up, she’s going to be shot, and rushes back to save her. By then, the frozen have begun to move in excruciatingly slow motion, and Narwhal arrives just in time to save Vero from being struck by a bullet.
The story, by Colorado author Gregory Hill, is part of a trilogy set on the Colorado Plains. It is as wacky as it is unbelievable, and except for a really weird ending, is an enjoyable farce.
“All Coyote’s Children”
by Bette Lynch Husted (Oregon State University) Tragedy has struck a perfect ranch family. Riley, the teenage son, is found guilty of drunken driving and takes off into the mountains. His father, Jack, goes to search for him. Riley returns, but neither Jack nor his body is to be found. The mother, Annie, is traumatized and Riley is sent off to rehab. Now, six months later, the two are reunited on the ranch.
“All Coyote’s Children” is a literary story, centered on a ranch surrounded by an Indian reservation. Riley is helped by his best friend, Alex, who moves into the ranch house, and girlfriend Mattie, both of them Indians. Annie turns for solace to neighbors, one of them an Indian.
They must all come to terms with life without Jack and grapple with the mystery of why he took off without telling Annie or even taking supplies with him. Annie turns to notes Jack kept and learns that her husband was deeply affected by his own father, a stoical man who never got over the death of Jack’s young mother.
“All Coyote’s Children” can be tedious in spots, but overall, it is a well-crafted novel of loss and redemption.
“Remind Me Again What Happened,” by Joanna Luloff (Algonquin)
Reporting a story in India, Claire is bitten by a mosquito and winds up with encephalitis. Her husband, Charlie, and best friend, Rachel, take her home to Vermont where Claire tries to cope not only with physical problems but also with fragmented memory loss. She remembers her childhood and early days with Charlie and Rachel, but her memory of recent events has been wiped clean.
She is left to guess what her relationship was with her husband and why she was away on assignment for months at a time. Did she love Charlie? Did he love her? Claire suspects she herself was having an affair. She thinks Charlie is having one, too.
Meanwhile, Charlie and Rachel, frustrated with Claire’s slow recovery, have problems of their own. Charlie is angry and tries to control Claire, while Rachel longs for the past years of friendship when the three of them lived in her house. It’s an untenable situation, and you can’t help but wonder how it will end.
Denver author and University of Colorado teacher Joanna Luloff pulls off a satisfactory conclusion.