Medicine River

by Thomas King

Winner of the PEN/Josephine Miles Award and nominated for the Commonwealth Writer's Prize, Medicine River is a great introduction to Thomas King's humorous fiction. It's the story of Will, a mixed-blood man of Blackfoot descent and a marginally successful Toronto photographer, who has returned to the reserve for his mother's funeral. Will isn't planning on staying in Medicine River, but his old friend Harlen Bigbear has other plans for him. In a unique brand of community planning, Harlen sets out to sell Will on the idea of returning to Medicine River as the town's only Native photographer, and manages to convince him to at least give it a try. Will feels alienated from his friends and family, but the ever-engaging Harlan has an answer for everything.

King's gift as a comic writer is his ability to tackle serious issues within an engaging comic narrative. He subtly explores the exclusion of First Peoples from white culture and history and the challenges faced by contemporary Native communities trying to maintain a connection to the past and a grip on the present, and he makes us laugh at the same time. Using a series of comic vignettes, King draws us into the very heart of Medicine River and creates a wonderful and intimate portrait of small-town life. Readers might also want to check out his fabulous novels, Green Grass, Running Water and Truth and Bright Water, and his short-story collection,One Good Story, That One. --Jeffrey Canton

Genres: Fiction, Indigenous, Canada, Native American, Contemporary, Literary Fiction, Humor

208 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1990

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

[Debbie Zapata · Rating 5 out of 5]

June 30, 2022 ~~ Finished this second reading of MR this morning. As expected, I don't have much to add to my original, except that this time I appreciated better the way returning to Medicine River helped our main character Will understand his life and the meaning not only of family but of community.

Reading the book again did not help me understand Buddy any better, though. lol

June 26, 2022 ~~ One of my reading projects this year is based on a group challenge where each quarter of the year featured a different author. I created a little personal challenge with that idea in mind, to help me focus on a few certain writers that have been waiting around long enough for my attention.

In print I read Ivan Doig during the first quarter, and the second was Larry Bond, a five volume series. Except I did not like those books and gave up after three. So during April, May, and June I have been reading Stray Cats (those books that purr around your ankles and demand attention but are not part of any type of challenge) and tidying up a few personal challenge lists that were thisclose to being finished.

And now I want to start my third quarter print book author, Thomas King so here we are ready to reread Medicine River. The first time was in May 2017, and I very greatly doubt I will change anything in the original review. I have been looking forward to spending time with King again so I have allowed myself the liberty to start my third quarter a few days early. After all, when it comes to personal challenges there are no set rules!

I'll be back when I finish, even if all I will be able to add is that I finished. lol

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
May 21, 2017 ~~
Not too long ago I read King's Green Grass, Running Water, which left me with a thirst for more. So I ordered this book and picked it up during my recent trip north. Medicine River was King's first novel. It won all sorts of awards in Canada and was even made into a movie for CBC television.

At first the story seems a little confusing. We meet tons of people, and memories are mixed in with the narrator's present day activities. But little by little you see how each person creates their own thread in Will's life, how the past leads to and explains the present, how he re-discovers the hometown he left years ago.

Medicine River has some wonderful characters, but I think my favorite was Harlen Bigbear. He was nosy, gossipy, butting into everyone else's lives all the time, but in such a way that you knew he was just trying to help. He wanted people to be happy, and he would do what he could to get them that way. He could drive Will crazy at times, and I think in person Harlen would certainly drive me crazy, but I am in literary love with him at the moment. How can you not love someone who thinks this way?:
Harlen told Louise he thought she was formidable. Harlen liked words like that, not because they were big or important sounding, but because people didn't use them much, and there was the chance they might get lost.
"Everyone watches too much television," Harlen said. "Good words are hard to find."

One of the drawbacks of ordering used books online is that you can't actually look at them before you buy. When I was ready to start, I discovered this one full of underlining and notes in the margins. Notes in BIG print, too, nothing easy to ignore about this Buddy Reader, although I tried hard at first. But when I skimmed ahead to see if Buddy tagged the entire book, I found he quit after page thirty, so I relaxed and read his/her comments as I went along. Buddy became another character to keep track of during those thirty pages, and I have to admit I was curious about him. (I'll leave out the him/her stuff for now, it would get tiresome for all of us pretty fast.)

Why did he get so annoyed when one character used the word 'shit'? That is not foul enough to rate a "WHY SUCH LANGUAGE??" scribble, at least not in my opinion. Was Buddy reading this book for a class? He had underlined certain passages and commented "SIMILE". Another place was marked "DETAILED IMAGERY'.

But I began to wonder about Buddy even more after reading this sentence in the book, when Harlen takes Will to lunch at a local restaurant. There was no one else in Casey's. Simple right? Easy to understand, especially when Harlen spent the entire previous page convincing Will to meet him there. Now, I know I can be overly curious about many things, but I never did wonder about this detail the way Buddy did: "WHO IS CASEY??" Buddy dear, in this case it doesn't matter who Casey is, it is just the name of the restaurant. Same as when I was little and used to see the Justa Cafe in town and always wanted to eat there. It was just a cafe, but I liked the name even though I didn't understand the pun until years later.

Buddy must have been fairly young. Basketball is one of the threads connecting Will to others in the town. He plays at Harlen's request on the Community Center team. Harlen is the coach, and bought himself a book about coaching basketball, a book which came with a poster of Bobby Knight. Buddy's reaction here was to circle the infamous coach's name and demand "WHO???"

I am not sure why Buddy quit after page thirty. I don't even know if he quit reading entirely or just decided to quit making graffiti. Maybe it had something to do with Louise deciding right about then to get pregnant on purpose without marrying the father of the baby. She wanted a baby but not a husband. When Harlen tells this to Will, he replies that Louise was a strong woman. But Buddy wonders "WHY SHE A STRONG WOMEN??"

I guess the whole idea of a woman making such a decision for herself, in such control of her own life, really freaked out poor Buddy, because not only did he forget how to speak properly just then, he was apparently shocked into silence for the rest of the book. I hope he went ahead and kept reading. I hope he did not fail a class just because of not understanding what Will's mom and her friend Erleen and now Louise understood. Of course, Buddy may not have ever gotten to the pages where Will shares a memory of a day in the supermarket:
"Men," my mother would say, "aren't worth the time or the trouble."
"They have no appreciation of a bountiful figure."
"They have no appreciation of anything."
"Two raisins and a noodle, and a cupcake for brains."
"There you go exaggerating again." And the two of them would start to giggle until they had to park the cart at the side of the aisle and blow their noses.

Let's face it, some days all women feel that way about men. LOL (Sorry, guys. I know we drive ya'll crazy sometimes too!)

And sorry, Buddy! Best of luck to you with your next book, dude. Thanks for your company during those thirty pages, but I owe you even more thanks for stopping when you did. Moderation in all things and all that, you know.

Now I'm off to see what other Thomas King titles I can order for my next trip north. Buddy may not want any more, but I for certain sure do!

[George Ilsley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Discretion was not one of Harlan's many admirable characteristics. He kept secrets poorly and was more concerned with the free flow of information than with something as greedy as personal privacy. "People who keep secrets," Harlan liked to say, "generally got something to hide." And I don't know anyone who disagreed with that.

Harlan is not the narrator of this book, but is an instigator, a catalyst; perhaps he represents a trickster figure. Sometimes this novel reads more as linked stories, because each chapter could almost stand alone, and some characters are never seen again, and that episode's conflict disappears. Yet the book grew on me as the web of connections grew around Will, a photographer who has returned to Medicine River, a place to which he never really belonged but his mother did.

My mother had a favourite expression for all those times in life when things didn't make sense or couldn't be explained. "That's the way things are," she'd say. It wasn't an answer. It was more a way of managing the bad times.

With simple language and common sense insights, Thomas King has created a powerful, resonant work of contemporary First Nations literature.

[Melinda Worfolk · Rating 4 out of 5]

I will be using this as a required text in my First Peoples English course (it's being offered for the first time in January! Yikes!). Medicine River is a quiet novel; at first glance it's just a series of anecdotes about the narrator, Will, and his family and friends. It seems at first like not much happens (see some of the very disappointed reviews of this book on Goodreads!), but I think it is actually a powerful meditation on many themes pertaining to contemporary Aboriginal life in Canada: identity, tradition, sovereignty, the legacy of colonialism. It also has plenty to say in general about friendship, families, and romantic love. Of course, Thomas King's excellent writing and dry, subtle wit are reason alone to read it.

I chose Medicine River as my assigned text before King's Governor General Award was announced, so I feel pretty prescient!

[Kara Babcock · Rating 4 out of 5]

At first glance, Medicine River has a gentleness to its plot that is easily mistaken for the monotony of nothing happening. I’ll freely admit that, especially at the beginning of the novel, I had trouble finding something specific about the story that I could point to as a defining moment, or even a central conflict. Will’s circuitous narration, interspersed with frequent flashbacks, and Harlen’s idiosyncratic way of saying everything indirectly, make for a book that might seem frustratingly dull on the surface. To his credit, however, Thomas King packs much more into this slim story than initially meets the eye. And as I devoured the last few chapters, I started understanding why Medicine River has received so much praise.

My first instinct was to ascribe this book’s slow pacing to the fact that it’s “character driven”—but it’s not, not really. Even the characters seem to drift in and out of focus like a camera with a slightly janky lens (see, I worked in a photography simile). Medicine River’s power comes from context rather than character or even event. It is a novel steeped in cultural and symbol; and so, I can see how people unwilling or unable (for whatever reason) to engage at that level might find it wanting.

One way to approach the book is a bit obvious but no less revealing: the protagonist, Will, is an Indigneous man who moves back to Medicine River after spending much of his adult life in Toronto. As a result, he has kind of lived in “both worlds,” rural and heavily urban. He knows what life is like on a reserve (which Medicine River borders) as well as what it’s like in Canada’s biggest city. And one of the recurring motifs in this book is the way Will feels various “pulls” from different aspects of the societies he belongs to.

On the one hand, Will has spent a great deal of his life away from his people and his spiritual home. We don’t earn a lot about Will’s teenage years, about how he ended up in Toronto after living in Calgary and Medicine River with his mother and brother as a child. It’s clear that Will enjoys the art of photography, and that he is a capable small business owner. But there is a question mark hovering over his head, a kind of latent sense of expectation: What now? What next?

If Harlen Bigbear gets his way, “now” and “next” entail moving back to Medicine River as the town’s “only Native photographer” and moving in, if not marrying, Louise Heavyman. And so we see Will’s Indigenous identity interrogated. He constantly finds himself involved in his culture and its practices in a way that he wasn’t back in Toronto, where he was usually the “token Native.”

This is really the most brilliant aspect of Medicine River, but you really need to want to see it in order to appreciate that brilliance. King parodies and subverts and lampshades the stereotypical depiction of Indigenous peoples in media: almost always absent, when Indigenous people show up in Canadian or American productions, they almost always fit into one of a few narrow moulds. From the “noble savage” or “warrior” stereotype in historical productions to the “intensely spiritual, connected to the land” stereotype you might see in more contemporaneous depictions, Indigenous people in settler media seldom have the chance to be individuals. Contrast this with Medicine River, where the cast is predominantly Indigenous and the characters are just that: individuals, just regular, everyday people, with all the hang-ups and vices you might expect.

I don’t want you to get the impression, however, that King is only saying, “Hah hah, see, we’re just like white folk!” But this is a vital reminder—and one that even people like me, who work with Indigenous individuals on a daily basis, need: we get so caught up in “Indigenous issues” that we fall into the trap of generalizing experiences that are often very personal. King does engage with the stereotypes and the racism and marginalization that Indigenous feel in various ways. Take, for example, the casual wisecrack to Will about the irony of him being a photographer given “what Indians believe about photographs” (cricket chirp). Or the various references to clashes between colonial powers and Indigenous peoples, from Custer’s Last Stand to the more recent Wounded Knee occupation. Even among Indigenous people, there are conflicts and confrontations about how to perform Indigeneity (see Big John versus Eddie). And while it is not always in the foreground, the struggles with alcoholism, abuse, and crime that disproportionately affect Indigenous members of our society are always there in the background, as Will and Harlen discuss members of their community who experience these traumas.

The point, then, is that while many other books (like the amazing Indian Horse) by Indigenous authors address poignant issues head-on, King does so through a snapshot of contemporary Indigenous society as he sees it in the 1980s. It’s very easy to complain about this, to say it’s just a very literary book where “nothing happens”—but white people write books like that all the time and win awards for it! Medicine River looks the reader in the eye and challenges you about what you believe a book by or about Indigenous people should be like.

I read this because I’m embarking on my first time teaching Grade 11 College Preparation English to a group of adult Aboriginal students. There are also four students in the class taking it as a “Contemporary Aboriginal Voices” Native Studies/English credit, so I’m very much focusing on Indigenous issues, culture, and content. Obviously this is a challenge for a white guy like me! Although my fellow teachers often teach Indian Horse in their Grade 11 classes—and I might very well do it at some point soon!—Medicine River appeals to me for its broader scope and less traumatic tone. That’s not to say we should avoid trauma (hell, I taught Lullabies for Little Criminals to my previous English class); however, we will touch on residential schools and other traumas plenty in other areas of the course. I’m very much looking forward to studying this book in further depth with my students and hearing their feedback and opinions about it.

[Katje van Loon · Rating 3 out of 5]

It seems a lot of people either love or hate this book. I'm somewhere in the middle and I think it's a matter of expectations.

I've read Green Grass Running Water by King and I adored it. It was absolutely fantastic, in my view. I've also seen King speak (and met him) and he's bright, funny, and incredibly engaging. So I was expecting the same sort of great things I'd experienced from him before when I picked up Medicine River.

The thing is, this book doesn't follow Western expectations of plot or characterization or dialogue or...anything we tend to really expect in what we call "literature". Green Grass, Running Water didn't either, except in one respect: plot. It built up to a satisfying conclusion and denouement, even if it did get there in an unorthodox way. There was still a feeling of building action, of something happening.

That doesn't happen in Medicine River. It's more a snapshot of life than what we expect from a plot in a book. Which isn't a bad thing! It's just different, and it defies expectations. Likely this is why it took me so long to really get into the book -- but by the end, I was enjoying it.

I'm not a fan of privileging the same sort of storytelling over and over again because it's a) what we're used to and b) what white men do and therefore the dominant cultural narrative. I think it's important to look at different ways of telling stories or showing characters and not immediately write them off as "bad", just because they come from a different point of view (Indigenous, in this case) and we don't immediately understand them.

So, bottom line: if you're used to Western (white dude!) literature as the dominant narrative, then you need to erase your expectations when picking up this book. It does not follow the dominant cultural narrative we have around literature: it deliberately bites its thumb at those expectations. It's different, and that's not always bad.

I'm not sure I'd read it again, but I'm not going to write it off as a bad book. It's a book I didn't enjoy as much as I thought I would -- because it didn't meet my expectations. In the future, I just need to adjust those expectations.

[Ron · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this novel. Like a number of modern Native American authors, Thomas King tells of life among reservation Indians that's free of stereotypes and sentimentality. His central character, Will, a mixed-blood, lives and works as a photographer in a town called Medicine River, not far from Alberta's Blackfeet reservation. Somewhat passive and resigned to the lot he has chosen in life, his solitude is disrupted almost daily by Harlen Bigbear, a gregarious friend who knows the business of everyone in the Indian community and actively tries to act in everyone's best interest. In other words, he's a meddler.

The novel is a series of loosely strung together incidents, involving Harlen's attempts to make things happen, not the least of which are his efforts to get Will to marry the unmarried mother of a little girl with the unlikely name of South Wing. The present day stories are intercut with flashbacks to Will's past, growing up with a younger brother, their father a white cowboy having long deserted the family. And there are flashbacks to a time in his adult life in Toronto, where he became involved unknowingly with a married woman.

I loved the gentle and ironic humor of this novel, the many characters who spring to life from the pages, and the roundabout indirection of Indian dialogue, including the persistent way in which people seem not to listen to each other. I recommend this book to anyone interested in the North American West, modern day Indians, and a style of storytelling that speaks from the heart.

[Julia · Rating 1 out of 5]

I absolutely hated this book!! (not to be rude or anything) but this book lacked any plot whatsoever. It circled around Will's life after returning to Medicine River and basically random events that happen during that time. I had to read this book for English 11 whereupon my teacher said "I really like this book." This book seriously annoyed me because it was just a bunch of randomness. Basically, each chapter is a short story in its own. I would not recommend this book to anyone, and wish that it would be taken off the school curriculum. =P

[Maayan K · Rating 4 out of 5]

This earlier effort explores some of the same themes as King's better known Green Grass Running Water, but without the allegorical spirit world chattering alongside the human characters. Bluntly, I prefered this book. In Medicine River, fate isn't as fixed. The episodic stories and flashbacks are rounded out with both pleasure and pain, generosity and as it is called in the book "bad luck". While Green Grass buffets its characters around in a chaotic storm where they have very little agency or motivation, the residents of Medicine River are capable of some exertion, and sometimes, modest ideas come together and unity is created. It's a sorfter and more humane book.

One shortcoming is that although painful and serious issues come up (broken families, alcoholism, jail) they are treated breifly, matter-of-factly, with very little emotional engagement. I'm not sure that King's style or purpose in his fiction are fitted to addressing these issues head on, but I was made somewhat uncomforatable with these issues hovering aorund the edges of the stories. But, maybe that is the point - to share stories from a relatively "normal" aboriginal axperience, not ignoring, but also not focusing on the big P Problems facing aboriginal communities as a whole.

As always, King is very sucessful at drawing humerous and real situations. His portrayals of the Blackfoot characters and their community are sympathetic but also satirical at times. I found the reading cosy and familiar, but also at the same time there was insigt there into a different culture and community.

[Catherine · Rating 2 out of 5]

(2.5 stars)

Medicine River is a quiet, unassuming book. Not much happens - and yet everything happens; births, deaths, arguments between friends, fights, basketball, the flu, picnics. The book rounds out to be a study of a place, a town and Reserve and all the characters who inhabit both, and there's perhaps no larger "point" to the book than simply acting as witness to life. There's subtle commentary on who's Indian and who's not (and who gets to decide); on isolation and exile; on the meaning of community and land - but unlike many books of its ilk Medicine River is reticent in bringing things up, leaves the reader to figure things out for his or herself from small asides. It's a warm, inviting tactic, and a pleasant book.

[Colleen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you, Thomas King! It felt like home again! You're almost a real Blackfoot or Albertan, but you said, "soda," not "pop." I really hope more of our people take comfort in reading your homey 📚 books! Just put the real prairie pic on the cover! How else will people know EXACTLY why they need to read it. It's easy reading. 😌 I wish I could buy a few million and hand them out. Then people would take comfort in culture and family and value the simple life more. You said you wrote your last book, but nobody is willing to play first base!

[Jaclyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was an alright book. Definitely just a story. Nothing exciting really happens in the book and the ending was unsatisfactory for me. I feel like it could have finished better. Mainly read cause I wanted to finish it since I technically didn't when I was suppose to. I felt it was easier too read now when I didn't have school textbooks as well trying to read this book.

[Jayme · Rating 1 out of 5]

Such a horrible book... did not get it at all. Seemed so pointless. Definitely would never have picked this up on my own - Can't believe I had to read this for school.

[Sara · Rating 4 out of 5]

King writes dialogue like no one else and creates so many specific believable characters. This is a meandering book without a classic (Western) story structure and more like a collection of short stories that all mesh well together.

[Kayleigh Wiebe · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved all of the stories that weaved through this book, and reading a novel set in my home province of Alberta made me feel warm.

[Hannah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not much plot, just vibes. But that’s the point! I liked it, just not aggressively. Poignant but subtle.

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really terrific novel. After reading Thomas King's Green Grass, Running Water I had very high expectations. This was a very different book, but no less enjoyable. While Green Grass, Running Water played decadently with meta-texts and inter-texts and was very upfront on its dealings with the Big Ideas, this book is much more subtle and understated, but as effective and, in many ways, does the same sort of thing, only not so loud.

The principle characters in Green Grass were flamboyant, grabbing the narrative and tossing it around wantonly, here we get Will, who so often seems to the one being grabbed and dragged and tossed about.

But at the heart of both texts is the trickster. In Green Grass, we get Coyote and Changing Woman and the Lone Ranger, Hawkeye, Ishmael and Robinson Crusoe (and a particularly mischievous narrator) ripping stories, past and present, to pieces, leaving Noah and John Wayne and others stunned and castrated and confused. In Medicine River this role is subtly staged by Harlen Bigbear. Like the trickster in Green Grass, Harlen trips through the text, trying to make good and set things right and create the world as it should be, and like a trickster it rarely, if ever, goes to plan, but somehow all works in the end as it should, according to some unwritten, easy code of righteousness, justice and balance.

So, Medicine River doesn't come with the bells and whistles of Green Grass, but there is a different joy to be had in its subtlety, the way it does so much without seeming every to try. Terrific.

(Incidentally, if you live in Southern Ontario, Thomas King is running in a by-election for the NDP in Guelph. Visit their site here and support him -- we need people like this in government!)

[E · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a charming book, with a distinctive setting, a sense of humor, real characters, real CHARACTERS (Harlen, I'm looking at you), and a beautiful sense of community and culture. Many books move back and forth chapter by chapter between the past and the present or between points of view, sometimes to such a structurally strict degree that it is mathematical (one chapter for so-and-so, one for other person, then back to so-and-so again). This kind of style often calls attention to itself, distracting from the reading experience in a manner that I find annoying, even maddening (witness All the Light We Cannot See). I like better King's more organic movement between the present and the past within chapters (especially flashbacks to Will's childhood or memories of his mother, but also his relationship with Susan): the connections are not always immediately obvious, yet somehow feel right. While the book proceeds almost like a series of vignettes more than a novel with a clear narrative trajectory, several characters do experience movement, change, and growth (Will's movement is rather glacial, but slow and steady is who he is). Time slows when entering the world of this community, this book, and glad for that I was.

[Diana Sandberg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Splendid. As I finished it, I anticipated, correctly, that criticism would focus on "nothing happens" in this book. And yet, a great deal happens - birth, death, conflict, love. It's just all depicted in a very low-key manner that illuminates the sweetly ironic and rather fatalistic nature of the narrator, Will.

Through intermittent flashbacks we learn about his past history and the events that shaped his reality and influence his present. His mother's response to the imponderables of life was a simple, "That's the way things are", a maxim Will has clearly taken to heart.

Will seems to drift rather aimlessly through life, allowing others to set the pace and the direction. He is reticent, guarded, avoiding conflict to the point of missing opportunities to reach out and connect. Over the course of the gently humorous stories he tells, we begin to grasp the bargain Will has made with life.

I note that most of the hostile reviews I've read here are from schoolchildren. Meaning no disrespect, I tend to feel this book is perhaps too subtle for a youthful perspective, which commonly strives for the wider horizon, and possibly they are impatient with Will's apparent passivity. I would be willing to bet that if they read it again in 30 or 40 years, they'd see it very differently.

[Jackie · Rating 4 out of 5]

At first this contemplative novel felt like a meditation on the protagonist’s friendship with Harlen Bigbear, but it turned out to be a great character study of many people, Will’s mother, her friend Arlene, Will’s brother Jake, a love interest, Louise, and her daughter South Wing, Will’s basketball teammates, and then of Will himself. He’s steady.

I loved Will’s character, and even though I just finished the novel I miss his presence already.

Will’s descriptions of the other characters and of himself remain steady but become more expansive and deepening as time passes and he grows older. He doesn’t give the reader a quick summary of anyone. The characters, even those with flaws are portrayed as themselves through descriptions of their actions rather than descriptions of how we are meant to view them.

Most of the characters he describes are the people Will meets when he comes “home” to Medicine River and even that move seemed as though it were a slight shift towards Will becoming the person he is.

I have made this book seem like a serious homecoming novel, but at the same time, this book is a lighthearted perspective of one man’s life and his community.

[Bennison Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

An even better book on the re-read. A wonderful, humourous novel with very little in the way of a conventional plot - which is sort of the point. In some ways its not unlike Leacock's Sunshine Sketches with a loose narrative that unfolds in one small town in a contemporary version of Canada. This novel is definitely more prescient for today's times however, despite being written in the late eighties. King adds plenty of small details that explore indigenous-settler relationships in a realistic manner without distracting from the lives of the funny, endearing characters. A great book that I count among my all time favourites.

[Talia Krishka · Rating 5 out of 5]

i absolutely loved this book, something about the no frills and the real feeling of getting to know the characters made me happy!! it felt like life:) there was also the interesting aspects past and present, and how they both have a way of influencing each other. i found this to be an insightful pleasant read, and i wish there was more!!!

[David]

A clever novel about life itself. Funny, not without some pathos. Unresolved: life itself has only one resolution. Resonates especially well with Newfoundland culture, to my mind. And, of course, since it’s Canadian, also about identity. And because it’s Thomas King, about story.

[Gayle · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love Thomas King books. Loveable, funny and kind characters

[Braggu · Rating 4 out of 5]

Schön, liest sich gut. Verglichen mit Coyote tanzt "nur" ein gutes Buch.

[Elisabeth (Bouquins & Books)]

This is Thomas King's first novel. We follow Will, who came back to Medecine River after his mother's death, while he runs his business as a photographer. Through his friend Harlen, who takes it upon himself to help everyone in the community even though his not very good at diagnosing the problem or finding an appropriate solution, Will slowly finds his place in the community. Even though this is a debut novel, King's style is already recognizable. I very much enjoyed reading this novel.

[Emma Moore · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it

Beautifully written book about transformation and returning home, let’s you into Will’s life and community only to fall in love with all of the characters

[Teri · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars.
I definitely prefer King’s non-fiction. Not much driving the plot forward in this book, but I appreciate the subtly between Will’s memories and his present.

[Ephemera Pie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Also on my blog, which includes essay/discussion prompts.

I decided to do a short review here because in my AP literature class in high school, another student was assigned this book. Plus, I believe it was included in one of my university classes.

Genre, Pace, & Plot

Goodreads has this listed as Fiction and Cultural > Canada. I'd call it literary fiction. It has literary merit and subtle complexities regarding social issues that deserve insight and further thought. The pace is fairly slow, with the stories revolving around Medicine River and Will. While the stories can be intriguing in a slow-burning and quiet way, they are realistic and quite frankly, boring. A lot of criticism I see online for this is that it is boring, which I do not refute. However, welcome to real life. There are no big explosions, rarely do people get "hero" moments in their lives. Life is usually a string of mundane experiences with occasional knots of mild interest.

The major problem I have with the plot is with regards to Will's overall arch. He is insecure, passive, and simply floats in life. The thing is, this doesn't change! By the end of the book, he doesn't learn, despite Harlen's attempts to make him DO something. The book ended and I turned the page, expecting there to be more. No, there isn't. It's like King just stopped writing. Did he forget to write the end? Is my copy missing pages?

Final Thoughts

For a personal read, it was an okay book. I hate that the reader is left with Will being exactly the same, unchanged, learning nothing. There area few spelling errors in my edition which bothered me (this was published by Penguin!). For an academic read, it does give an interesting dynamic to dissect. It was a quick, easy read. This book is similar to Stone Angel, as it is set in the present day and there are flashbacks to the past (I know this sometimes bothers readers). If you need to read Canadian fiction for a class, this is a good pick.

Also, question, if this book is set in Canada, why does it use miles rather than kilometres?

[Em · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was so terrible I don't know where to begin! Honesty I'm not even going to worry about being a spoiler because nothing worth while happens in this novel. Through out the 249 pages (I think) I found countless inexcusable typos that even the least competent of editors should have been able to catch. I understand that this novel has been translated, but that's no excuse for not having an editor. I have read books like Sarah's key that have been translated and found no errors.

The main character will pissed me off to no avail! There was countless occasions that I just had to find an excuse because I couldn't stand to read another sentence. For example the car trip to the states that will and harlen take was enough to make me want a paper cut so I could stop reading. Will is incredibly insecure about everything and relied on harlen to solve all his problems.

With the exception if chapter 2, this book is only good as a fire starter. In chapter 2 Louise has her baby, and will helps her out. Because of how poor of an author king is, he neglects to mention Louise and/or the baby for 10 chapters. Like who doesn't mention a central character for that long?

King wrote a very confusing format for this book by introducing add ins such as the letters before explaining them. There was also the constant ineffective contrast between present and past. The way king structure this in bothered me as it made no sense. One minute will is having an affair with a married woman and the next he's a little boy watching a women be beat. It just made no sense and offered little to no relevance to the present text.

Please, please don't waste your time on this novel. The native culture is portrayed poorly and so is the RCMP.

[Susan Quinn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thomas King writes books that I thoroughly enjoy. This one was no exception.

King, who self-identifies as Cherokee, and German, and Greek descent, moved to Canada from the U.S. years ago, so we claim him as Canadian. The Canadian Encyclopedia says "King is often described as one of the finest contemporary Aboriginal writers in North America."

I first became aware of King years ago when he scripted and played a part in a radio show on CBC called "Dead Dog Cafe" in the late 90's. I would rearrange my day to try to catch the show on the day it was on. I even remember finding an excuse to be near a radio on show day when we were on vacation so I wouldn't miss out. So yeah, I'm a fan.

The list of books that he has written is long and while I've read a number, the ones I have read have been both different from each other, and yet with the same sensibility and humour running through them. It is a particular humour - not everyone will enjoy it. It is subtle, characteristic of First Nations and I love his style. Dreadful Water, Bad Men who Love Jesus, A Short History of Indians in Canada, The Back of the Turtle, Truth and Bright Water, An Inconvenient Indian, Green Grass Running Water and now Medicine River (read other reviewers for a plot summary - but that summary will not do it justice. You have to read it for yourself).

His writing is both poignant and funny - is it laugh-out-loud funny? I think sometimes it is and other times I just chuckle quietly. In An Inconvenient Indian, there's no laughing though - it is a different book.

I think he's well worth a read.