All My Relations: An Anthology of Contemporary Canadian Native Fiction

by Thomas King (Editor)

Contents:
An Okanagan Indian becomes a captive circus showpiece in England / Harry Robinson --
Coal oil, crayons and schoolbooks / Ruby Slipperjack --
Run / Barry Milliken --
Weaver spider's web / Peter Blue Cloud/Aroniawenrate --
Compatriots / Emma Lee Warrior --
The seventh wave / Jordan Wheeler --
The Rez sisters : an excerpt from Act I / Tomson Highway --
An afternoon in bright sunlgiht / S. Bruised Head --
The one about Coyote going west / Thomas King --
Turtle gal / Beth Brant --
Hookto : the evil entity / Bruce King --
This is a story / Jeanette C. Armstrong --
Rain / Maurice Kenny --
Welcome to the real world / Joan Crate --
The last raven / Richard G. Green --
Cement woman / J.B. Joe --
King of the raft / Daniel David Moses --
Song one : the riverside / Jovette Marchessault --
Summer holidays in Spanish / Basil H. Johnston.

Genres: Indigenous, Canada, Fiction, Short Stories

220 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1988

About the author

Thomas King was born in 1943 in Sacramento, California and is of Greek and German descent. He obtained his PhD from the University of Utah in 1986. He is known for works in which he addresses the marginalization of American Indians, delineates "pan-Indian" concerns and histories, and attempts to abolish common stereotypes about Native Americans. He taught Native American Studies at the University of Lethbridge in Alberta, Canada, and at the University of Minnesota. He is currently a Professor of English at the University of Guelph, Ontario, Canada. King has become one of the foremost writers of fiction about Canada's Native people.

Reviews

[M F · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is one of the random books which have been accumulating at an alarming pace on the various bookshelves in my apartment. My partner picked it up as a potential resource for the English classes we teach, and that's really the only context in which I can imagine someone wanting to read it front-to-back. There are some great stories in here, particularly Thomas King's "The One about Coyote Going West," Daniel David Moses's "King of the Raft," and Barry Milliken's "Run," and a couple flawed ones that are nonetheless worth reading, such as Jovette Marchesault's bloated-but-fascinating "Song One: The Riverside," Jordan Wheeler's tale of self discovery via surfing, "The Seventh Wave," and S. Bruised Head's "An Afternoon in Bright Sunlight," which might be the only thriller every written whose antagonist is, I think, a wolverine. There is also an excerpt from Tomson Highway's The Rez Sisters, but who wants to read just an excerpt when you could read the whole play in a couple hours? (If you haven't, do so: it's great!)

The rest of the pieces are inessential. The collection opens with an especially dull and meandering tale from the usually entertaining Harry Robinson, followed by a mediocre memoir piece by Ruby Slipperjack recounting a day in the life of a young girl on a reservation. There are a couple mildly interesting but forgettable Coyote tales by Peter Blue Cloud and Jeanette Armstrong, and a couple truly awful pieces by Beth Brant and Bruce King that have no business every seeing the light of day. Rounding out the collection are a few totally fine tales by Maurice Kenny, Joan Crate, and Richard G. Green which feel like excerpts from a cycle of stories but do not satisfy on their own, a surrealist sketch by J.B. Joe, whose stiff prose cannot get out of its own way, and a residential school narrative by Basil H. Johnston which, again, is totally fine.

This collection is about thirty years old now, so I'm sure there are better anthologies of contemporary Indigenous Canadian fiction out there, and much better stories available by most of these authors, many of whom were near the beginning of good writing careers when the book was published. Unless you're doing an intensive study of Indigenous Canadian lit, I'd recommend you find other copies of the few stories worth reading in this collection and give the rest a pass.

[Cassidy Brinn]

All short and of great variation in quality. Some were just too short to be of much interest; they mustered all the character depth of a Norman Rockwell drawing. The ones that incorporated aspects of what I guess are traditional Native stories were pretty awesome. I loved the editor's own "The One About the Coyote Going West." The way it used dialogue and interruptions and such brought a great flavor of the spoken word into the written - much more successfully than the first story which just transcribed an oral tale. Beth Brant's "Turtle Gal" was also crazy short, but there was something about the imagery and the contrast of the two characters - an old bluesy black man and a silent indian girl - that rang on in me after the last word. I would totally read the rest of the novel that Bruce King's "Hookto: the Evil Entity" is an excerpt from. There was a shameless brutality to the language that got me interested. Finally, the exuberant mystical feminism of J.B. Joe's "Cement Woman" and Jovette Marchessault's "Song One: The Riverside" was good food for the every-hungry exuberant mystical feminist in me.

[Luce Cronin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm usually not a lover of collections of short stories, but i really enjoyed this anthology. I particularly enjoyed Turtle Gal, by Beth Brant, the story of a little native girl who befriends an older Black man. Thomas King did a good job of choosing a good mix of stories.

[Brittany · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've read some of the stories in this book, but not all

[Steve Clark]

2010

[Laura · Rating 2 out of 5]

although some of the stories were stand alone stories several were segments form larger pieces- as an avid reader I find these little teasers frustrating rather than interesting - I find that I am left hanging. Although definitely includes some amazing authors in this anthology.

[Lindsay]

Filing as a record-keeping placeholder for the Beth Brant story.

[Jacalope · Rating 3 out of 5]

Many poignant stories written by previous generations of Indigenous literary greats. Favorite stories were "Hookto" by Bruce King; "Run" by Barry Milliken, "Compatriots" by Emma Lee Warrior