Post #2

Okay- An icky old man who has a son half of Fiction’s age is NOT supposed to do the dirty with her! I am at a loss. Why does a girl who seems to have nothing to lose since she is already at the, excuse my pun, “at the bottom of the totem pole” date a man much older than her? He has a son who is twelve! She is twenty three! The line that evokes my gag reflex is “let me see if you measure up to your name?” I do not understand the character of Fiction. She is living on a reservation where no one wants her, he father doesn’t recognize her, and yet she stays. She then decides to get involved in a way older man with a son. In our culture you see this often (and it still evokes my gag reflexes), usually an older man gets caught like a helpless fish by a woman ready to devour him. But these women are not twenty three; I wonder if this is something that happens on reservations? Does this story have anything to do with Bud not recognizing Fiction so she goes to the next father figure she has available? With so many other plots and stories going on in this book, why does Eric Gansworth include this sideline story? I have the feeling that they will not work out in the end and that by the end of the book something more will have developed between Big Red and Fiction. I guess we’ll have to stay tuned folks…

Smoke Dancing #1

The character Fiction Tunny intrigues me. Her Character seems to mature a times and then at others she seems to be as lost as a child. Her situation looks from an outsiders view to be hopeless. With her father a powerful man for the Nation, how can she handle so blatantly rejected by him? With her mother dead, Bert now gone too, and a father who resents her existence. What keeps her on the reservation? She has never had any contact with positive results. I would leave the reservation. Why would I stay in a place where I had nothing? With the Nation not allowing her to keep Bert’s home and land, I wouldn’t stay. I would try to make my life elsewhere. I think that this quality is something that makes her so relatable. Her struggle is real, her hurt you feel. With nothing to lose she is making the best of what she has been given by life. Since has no family to speak of (or a father who refuses to recognize her) she has bonded together with the members of the dance group out of necessity. She has formed her own family since she has none left. But I wonder if eventually her father will turn and become an important factor in her life? Or will she leave like I would? I am interested to see what happens next, will the story end in a happily ever after. Or will it follow the new trend of literature and will we find ourselves having thoughts of “what we wished happened?”