Stories for a Lost Child

American Indian Studies (AIS)

by Carter Meland

The summer before going into high school, Fiona receives a mysterious box in the mail, one that she hopes will answer her questions about her Anishinaabe Indian heritage. It contains stories written by the grandfather she never knew, an Anishinaabe man her mother refuses to talk about. As she reads his stories about blackbirds and bigfoot, as well as tales about Indians in space and homeless Native men camping by the river in Minneapolis, Fiona finds other questions arising—questions about her grandfather and the experiences that shaped his stories, questions about her mother’s silence regarding the grandfather she never knew. Fiona’s desire to know more and her mother’s reluctance to share stir up bitter feelings of anger and disappointment that slowly transform as she reads the stories into a warmer understanding of the difficulties of family, love, and the weight of the past.
 

Genres: Indigenous, Fiction, Adult Fiction

164 pages, Paperback

Published March 1, 2017

Reviews

[K. Lincoln · Rating 4 out of 5]

It kind of doesn't matter how many stars I gave this book. It is not a book you read for plot or character or great literary themes.

Instead, its a kind of dream-walk. Short bursts of stories about Fiona, a girl getting a box of stories from an Anishinaabe grandfather she never knew provide a light framework for the grandfather's dreaming philosophical tales of a Bigfoot who hollers at men to "kneel at the creek" like they do at church. It is poetical and rhythmic and you can't go into it thinking it will "make sense" but rather experience it like a melody-- let it wash over you and see what feelings it evokes.

The last part of Fiona's story was a bit strange, I have to admit. I'm not sure why she and her friends are chased through the forest...unless it was to circle back to the tale of her ancestor the French Priest who hears a baby crying in the forest, but it was strange.

But the whole book is strange. And lyrical. Worth reading for the particular flavor each of the grandfather's stories exudes. Keep an open mind.

[Michele · Rating 5 out of 5]

I highly recommend you get a copy of this novel – it’s that damn good! Wonderful storytelling that grabs from the first page to the very end is found in Stories for a Lost Child. Fiona receives a box in the mail, containing stories from the grandfather she’s never met, who was estranged from her mother. Through stories of space-traveling Indians, characters who reach through the past to the present, and the wisdom of Sasquatch, Fiona becomes familiar with her Anishinaabe roots and leads to intergenerational healing – but in a way that is completely unexpected.
The author Carter Melandties with Mary Gaitskillfor my favorite author, they both have a wonderful ability to reveal characters with full range of emotions. Where Gaitskill prose is piercing, Meland brings a “sharp tongue and a gentle touch,” according to a review on the back cover of the book. I heartily agree. Some of the stories told by Fiona’s grandfather have been previously published. Meland has done a fantastic job crafting a narrative to support these elements. I’ve seen other works where the author has tried this, and has failed. These stories flow along, as if crafted at the same time as the novel. Well done!
I’ve made it a rule to borrow most of books now from the library; this is a matter of sincere self-defense. When books sing to you, as they do to me, you need to be careful not to fill every single cranny of your home with bookshelves. I’m making an exception for Stories for a Lost Child however, and I will be buying my own copy of this novel to have on hand, so I can read it again (and again!), lend it out to friends. Maybe through study I can find out how the author makes the novel so fresh and believable, and unlock this secret authentic voice in some of my own writing.

[Aspen Andersson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book for an Indigenous Literature class at my university, and it was AMAZING! I loved seeing the fluidity and cyclical nature of native story telling throughout the book, and it made me wish I had been exposed to more literature by native authors in grade school. The author uses a series of "short stories" within a larger narrative to showcase how identity is deeply rooted in language, history, ancestry, and many other values often found in various native cultures. If you have not read a book by an indigenous author, I recommend this one as your first! You'll see many reoccurring themes throughout the book including the importance of nature and its cycles, the closeness of family, and the continuous and inescapable interconnections between past, present, and future. The short stories are open to many different interpretations, and, as a person who is not of native descent, it helps to do a little research on native storytelling and writing to get a better sense of what is happening. All-in-all, a very educational and exciting read!

[David W. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Carter Meland’s Stories for a Lost Child is beautifully written. The reader feels the joys and sorrows of the major characters. Complexity is central to his book. Like a cultural anthropologist, he helps us see the many painful difficulties that urban Native Americans face in preserving their tribal traditions in a fragmented urban environment. European Americans will learn about their neighbors who reject the European American commitment to independent individualism. Native Americans are interdependent within a sacred tradition. This novel is a cautionary tale for modern people who imagine the lives and cultures of others are simple—a stupid notion, stupid enough to destroy us.

David W. Noble
Professor Emeritus, American Studies and History
University of Minnesota

[Ben Siems · Rating 3 out of 5]

Detailed rating:
First 2/3 of book: 4.5 stars
Last 1/3 of book: 1.5 stars

NOTE: This review includes a couple of semi-spoilers.

For the most part, Meland's Stories for a Lost Child follows a literary format that has been around since at least The Canterbury Tales. Namely, the plot and characters we encounter in the first chapter amount to a frame story—a vehicle to present a succession of other stories that relate and do not relate to each other to varying degrees, and to loosely connect those stories into a single narrative flow.

And I must say, as a frame story construction, Stories for a Lost Child is bloody brilliant. Briefly, during her summer break after eighth grade, a girl named Fiona receives a package out of the blue, with the return address identifying the sender simply as "Jimmy." The package contains a mish-mash of writings by Fiona's grandfather, who disappeared from the family long before Fiona's birth. Reading these stories and letters brings Fiona into contact with her Anishinaabeg (a Native American nation that includes Ojibwe, Chippewa, and other tribes) heritage.

Grandpa Robinson's writings make up the heart and soul of the book, and they do not disappoint. They are random, chaotic, nonlinear, magical, and at times nonsensical, and I love them. Bigfoot/Sasquatch as the savior of lost travelers in the wilderness? Check. A Native American space exploration program? Check. Keen blending of deep science, speculative science fiction, and spiritual oral traditions throughout? Check. Seriously, the stories provide an extraordinary ride, the kind that takes you dozens of places you never fathomed, and would have never given a second thought to even if you did fathom them, and then has you on the edge of your seat in the hope of going back there again. It all adds up to superbly imaginative storytelling, without doubt.

A single line encapsulates the wonder of Grandpa Robinson's tales and letters, from "Indians in Space: Episode One":
It is tough to be an Indian with no horizon.
So, so smart, and so, so subtly meaningful in so, so many ways.

My problem with Stories for a Lost Child is that two-thirds of the way through the book, Meland decides to make the frame story the thing, leaving Grandpa's story collection behind with the exception of rather forced callbacks. Had I known what was coming, I would have done well to stop reading right then and there, walking away with the joy of having consumed a near-masterpiece.

The whole construction of the last third of the book suggests that we have real knowledge of the various characters in the frame story, when of course we do not. We hardly even know Fiona. I kept thinking based on the unmotivated thrusting of her friends onto center stage that the book must be part of a novel series, with these characters developed in previous installments of the x-ology. However, unless I have missed something, that is not the case. It is incredibly weird to be reading the last chapters of a book and thinking in a very real way, "Who are these people, anyway, and why am I suddenly immersed in their activities?" Weird can be great, as it surely is in Grandpa Robinson's stories, but for me, the weird of the frame-story-becomes-central construction of this book was just an unsatisfying, unfulfilling weird.

Far worse, Fiona's supposed big moment of drawing power and strength from her newly discovered heritage amounts to her becoming a helpless damsel in the woods, ultimately rescued by and collapsing into the arms of a boy. And oh by the way, only moments earlier, that boy had violated her consent boundaries in traumatic fashion, and neither truly apologizes for that act nor promises to never do it again when she asks for said assurance. I cannot be okay with all that, and I do not think other readers should be, either. The thought of girls and young women reading the last third of this book genuinely troubles me.

In short, this book could easily have become one of my all-time favorites. Instead, I find myself uncomfortable in its presence. Make of that what you will. Yet I can still recommend reading the first two-thirds of it (up to about page 100).

[Ziggi Chavez · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think this may grow to a 5 star when I come back to it after some time. As of yet I enjoyed the stories and the way it let me feel good connecting to a heritage I have long been cut off from. As I grow in that connection I do believe this will be the type of book I can revisit and take new wisdom from. At first pass I think some parts went over my head. But reconnecting to the land and the culture is not a smooth process, so I am not upset by this in the least.

[Brenda · Rating 3 out of 5]

I appreciate this story for a few things: the stories told by the grandfather and the ending which made me cry a little bit. I found a few things distracting - mainly the anger the teenage girl has towards her mother for withholding information about her grandfather. I don’t know many teenagers that are that empathetic to their progenitors.

[Dennis Gerwing · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting concept (13 year old native American girl learns about the grandfather she has never met ... and her native American culture ... through letters and short stories he has written and had delivered to her). Novel has great reviews ... and I wanted to like it more that I did.

[Lindsey · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked the stories in part 2 more than the larger frame narrative, but it's such a quick read, and the creativity of the stories are definitely worth it. I would love to read a whole novel about the astronauts Amos and Wayne! Their chapters were the highlight for me.

[Jan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book and wonderful, evocative writing. Highly recommend.

[Marie Zhuikov · Rating 4 out of 5]

A delightful tale of family estrangement and redemption, with a little Bigfoot mixed it.