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A Calm & Normal Heart: Stories
From Oklahoma to California, the heroes of A Calm & Normal Heart are modern-day homesteaders, adventurers, investigators—seeking out new places to call their own inside a Nation to which they do not entirely belong. A member of the Osage tribe, author Chelsea T. Hicks’ stories are compelled by an overlooked diaspora inside America: that of young Native people.
In stories like “Goodbye Pizza in Los Angeles,” “The Oklahoma Ocean,” and “Moot Point,” iPhone lifestyles co-mingle with ancestral connection, strengthening relationships or pushing people apart, while generational trauma haunts individual paths. Broken partnerships and polyamorous desire signal a fraught era of modern love, even as old ways continue to influence how people assess compatibility. And in “THNXX by Alcatraz,” an indigenous student finds themselves alone on campus for Thanksgiving break, confronting racial differences and the true meaning of the national holiday. Other stories focus on women responding to and transcending familial abuse and patriarchal conditioning. Leaping back in time, “A Fresh Start Ruined” inhabits the life of Florence, an Osage woman attempting to hide her origins while social climbing in midcentury Oklahoma. And in “House of RGB” a woman settles in a home of her own, finally detaching from her pattern of seeking safety through men with the help of a series of ancestral visitations.
Whether in between college semesters or jobs, on the road to tribal dances or hasty weddings, escaping troubled homes, or choosing a new relationship, the characters of A Calm & Normal Heart occupy a complicated and often unreliable terrain. Chelsea T. Hicks brings wry humor, sprawling imagination, and a profound connection to Native experience in a collection that will subvert long-held assumptions for many readers, and inspire hope along the way.
In stories like “Goodbye Pizza in Los Angeles,” “The Oklahoma Ocean,” and “Moot Point,” iPhone lifestyles co-mingle with ancestral connection, strengthening relationships or pushing people apart, while generational trauma haunts individual paths. Broken partnerships and polyamorous desire signal a fraught era of modern love, even as old ways continue to influence how people assess compatibility. And in “THNXX by Alcatraz,” an indigenous student finds themselves alone on campus for Thanksgiving break, confronting racial differences and the true meaning of the national holiday. Other stories focus on women responding to and transcending familial abuse and patriarchal conditioning. Leaping back in time, “A Fresh Start Ruined” inhabits the life of Florence, an Osage woman attempting to hide her origins while social climbing in midcentury Oklahoma. And in “House of RGB” a woman settles in a home of her own, finally detaching from her pattern of seeking safety through men with the help of a series of ancestral visitations.
Whether in between college semesters or jobs, on the road to tribal dances or hasty weddings, escaping troubled homes, or choosing a new relationship, the characters of A Calm & Normal Heart occupy a complicated and often unreliable terrain. Chelsea T. Hicks brings wry humor, sprawling imagination, and a profound connection to Native experience in a collection that will subvert long-held assumptions for many readers, and inspire hope along the way.
180 pages, Hardcover
First published June 21, 2022
49 people are currently reading
5189 people want to read
About the author
Chelsea T. Hicks
1 book27 followersChelsea T. Hicks is a fiction writer and songwriter from Tulsa. She earned an MA at UC Davis and an MFA at the Institute of American Indian Arts in creative writing. She began studying Wazhazhe ie for her iko, or “grandmother,” and will return to Oklahoma as a Tulsa Artist Fellow in 2022 to offer creative writing workshops for writers using Indigenous languages. Hicks studies Wazhazhe ie with mentors of her tribal district, Waxakaoli^. She belongs to the Tsizho Washtake, through her father Brian Hicks, and in Wazhazhe ie she is Xhuedoi^ or “Looking to the Eagle.” Centering language study in her writing has allowed her to address trends of healing and cultural revitalization for modern day Natives in her writing.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 58 reviews
May 29, 2022
Chelsea's stories resonate not just because I am also Osage and have experienced similar impacts of colonization and ancestors who made varying choices to assimilate as many of the characters in the book, but also because the stories grapple with concepts of what it means to be a part of a community and a family but also find your own path. The characters are shaped by culture and community but are not bound by it. They are complex, flawed, and searching, looking for a place to belong but also how to get free. It is this quality of being on a journey with each character that carries the book forward, and invites hope for the future, for Native people and for all of us.
August 6, 2022
I want you to have a calm and normal heart.
A Calm & Normal Heart is a collection of 12 short stories about contemporary Indigenous people, tied by their yearning to find their place in the world. This collection was beautiful and different - and it really made me mull over what it means to be 1/4 or 1/8 part of an ethnicity.
highlighted phrases
"She felt love like water: it went everywhere—dispersed, evaporated, gathered overhead until it flooded everything."
"What I hate the most in the whole wide world right now is I feel like I live in a different country that's here, inside this one, but no one believes my country exists."
"...there seemed to be a mutual attempt between us to transcend breakability, to cherish and seduce ourselves into a safer kind of living."
"Some men saw vulnerabilities as reasons to leave women well enough alone, and others saw opportunities."
"Our mother doesn't have a regular way of thinking, but she is still a beautiful person, because she never stops trying to change and get her family what we need."
A Calm & Normal Heart is a collection of 12 short stories about contemporary Indigenous people, tied by their yearning to find their place in the world. This collection was beautiful and different - and it really made me mull over what it means to be 1/4 or 1/8 part of an ethnicity.
highlighted phrases
"She felt love like water: it went everywhere—dispersed, evaporated, gathered overhead until it flooded everything."
"What I hate the most in the whole wide world right now is I feel like I live in a different country that's here, inside this one, but no one believes my country exists."
"...there seemed to be a mutual attempt between us to transcend breakability, to cherish and seduce ourselves into a safer kind of living."
"Some men saw vulnerabilities as reasons to leave women well enough alone, and others saw opportunities."
"Our mother doesn't have a regular way of thinking, but she is still a beautiful person, because she never stops trying to change and get her family what we need."
April 18, 2023
The central characters in ACNH are young women, Wazhazhe (Osage tribe), both involved with and running from (or wanting to) history, broadly speaking, and men, narrowly speaking. They are unsettled temporally and, often, existentially. In creating stories about these women, Hicks is writing a literature of belonging for a new generation of indigenous youth, one that places a high importance on reclaiming indigenous language - there is much Wazhazhe ie (the Osage language) included - and that rejects old-fashioned notions of what makes one “Native” that may be held by both natives and non-natives alike, such as percentage of native ancestry one possesses, aka, blood quantum.
The first story, Tsexope, brings the language aspect straight into play, having a brief conversation between two characters in Wazhazhe ie on the fourth page of the book, untranslated but understandable through context.
The reader themselves has to smile at the “mistake of switching to English” line, which both points to Hicks’ concern for the necessity of indigenous language revival, and the de facto necessity that English has made of itself through a history of colonialism.
The second story, A Fresh Start, centers on a blended family in 1956 Oklahoma. Florence’s son Roy has just arrived from out of state with his new wife and announced a pregnancy. He wants to use the news to pry from his mother information about their racial background, specifics of which she had been unwilling to get into, though clearly the family identifies as “Indian”. It works, sort of.
The third story, By Alcatraz, perhaps the best of the lot, takes place at an off-campus apartment among students who know enough to gather for a “Friendsgiving” rather than a Thanksgiving, but whose host still failed to realize the classmate he invited over is indigenous, as she didn’t seem to look it (“Sorry, I didn’t realize you were Indian. I mean, Native,” he fumbles. “What did you think I was?” “Uh, mixed?”). Meeting his roommates, she reflects on how physical appearance is used to signal identity, a method that just doesn’t work for her.
I didn’t mean to give a story-by-story rundown here, but these first three seem to do a fine job of getting at the themes present throughout the collection, and are representative of its quality. “A Fresh Start” and “By Alcatraz” I thought were quite good, as are most of the following stories. “Tsexope” is one of a couple that didn’t work for me or didn’t seem to be completely formed yet; sometimes the crackling ideas outpace the craft. But this is a debut collection so not entirely unexpected, and it is certainly a promising lead in to the debut novel she says is in the works and which I look forward to becoming available.
The first story, Tsexope, brings the language aspect straight into play, having a brief conversation between two characters in Wazhazhe ie on the fourth page of the book, untranslated but understandable through context.
”Hi^tse thuza ma^thi^. Do^pa dada^ othatse thaishe?”
“Dada^ a^thatse da^kadxai?”
“Are you asking me to dinner?” I said. We smiled at my mistake of switching to English, and our ability to understand each other.
The reader themselves has to smile at the “mistake of switching to English” line, which both points to Hicks’ concern for the necessity of indigenous language revival, and the de facto necessity that English has made of itself through a history of colonialism.
The second story, A Fresh Start, centers on a blended family in 1956 Oklahoma. Florence’s son Roy has just arrived from out of state with his new wife and announced a pregnancy. He wants to use the news to pry from his mother information about their racial background, specifics of which she had been unwilling to get into, though clearly the family identifies as “Indian”. It works, sort of.
”Mother, my wife might like to know. Just how Indian will the baby be?”
“If you’re asking about the baby’s blood quantum, my mother was a quarter-blood, my echo is a quarter-blood, her echo was a half-breed, and her echo was the daughter of Chief Pawhuska. He’s Indian, and any children you have will be Indian.”
The third story, By Alcatraz, perhaps the best of the lot, takes place at an off-campus apartment among students who know enough to gather for a “Friendsgiving” rather than a Thanksgiving, but whose host still failed to realize the classmate he invited over is indigenous, as she didn’t seem to look it (“Sorry, I didn’t realize you were Indian. I mean, Native,” he fumbles. “What did you think I was?” “Uh, mixed?”). Meeting his roommates, she reflects on how physical appearance is used to signal identity, a method that just doesn’t work for her.
She couldn’t guess the race of her interlocutor by phenotype, but many tiny braids signal that she’s in the category of Black, which makes Mary think that she should be doing something more in the way of presentation to signal that she is Native. But what can she do that isn’t totally offensive to herself? If she wore her hair in a left side part with a silk bow, that would be Wazhazhe, but no one would know. Or she could be like 1920s Wazhazhe people wanting to be recognizable to I^shdaxi^, wearing beaded headbands over her forehead in the popular stereotype of the time. Those old photos always bothered her, and she stares at her bare feet.
I didn’t mean to give a story-by-story rundown here, but these first three seem to do a fine job of getting at the themes present throughout the collection, and are representative of its quality. “A Fresh Start” and “By Alcatraz” I thought were quite good, as are most of the following stories. “Tsexope” is one of a couple that didn’t work for me or didn’t seem to be completely formed yet; sometimes the crackling ideas outpace the craft. But this is a debut collection so not entirely unexpected, and it is certainly a promising lead in to the debut novel she says is in the works and which I look forward to becoming available.
April 30, 2024
i really wanted to like this book but every short story was hard to follow and i struggled to stay engaged basically the entire time :/
April 6, 2023
These stories are replete with keen observations, but I often felt like that's all they were—observations, rather than narratives, like someone just set up a camera to film people existing in the world and now I'm viewing the raw footage. I've read several other books like this, so I know it's definitely a subgenre that exists; I also know it's not my personal favorite kind of fiction. Solid writing, but I wish I'd felt like more of the stories' series of events more consequential and purposeful.
3/5
3/5
May 24, 2023
It took a second for me to latch onto this short story collection (I would recommend reading until at least the third story before making any sort of opinions), but once I did I was really impressed with the writing and the range in this book. There were quite a few stories that I felt deep in my chest. It was different than what I was expecting, though. Some of the branding around this short story collection makes it seem like it is a book about like "young" young people (early 20's), and while a few of the stories were about college-aged students, a lot of them were about people in their late 20's and 30's or older (or the characters read as such).
I would highly recommend anyone look at the content warnings before diving into this one. A lot of things were addressed from alcohol and drug abuse, to child abuse (and child sexual abuse), gun violence, honestly it ran a bit of the gambit. It didn't feel too gratuitous and certainly had it's place in the stories, but there are definitely some triggers.
Some stories that I really loved:
By Alcatraz — A college-aged girl feels isolated and alone on her campus during the Thanksgiving break and ends up at a small house party. She has this fascination with trying to decide who at the party is mixed and who is Native, it made me think.
Brother — A girl meets a new brother and sister in town and helps them find a place to stay when their housing falls through. They end up witnessing gun violence at a local casino, and a classmate of hers is the victim. I really enjoyed the characters in this one and loved the dynamic of that group.
My Kind of Woman — This was a unique one, the story of a songwriter living in a Native community who meets a popular musician who wants to record music together in California. There was an unusual energy to these characters and their relationship and I enjoyed the plot.
The Wife — A woman must go home to visit her father who is on his deathbed and not for the first time. This is punctuated by her realization that she and her husband have grown apart and no longer like each other. Confusing family relationships for the win.
House Of RGB — This was magical realist sort of, a woman is able to see the ghosts/spirits of her ancestors and speak with them. A lot of this story deals with conversations around mixed-race identity and heritage. I found it really thought-provoking.
I'll end with a few quotes that I flagged as I read:
"Rose and I agreed that we had both lost many others in the same way as the person we were mourning. Lost all from drugs or hard living, less from fault of their own than from how difficult it was to live in this world as anything othered."
"I understood that my mother saw the white men in her family as too colonial and patriarchal, the Black men as facing overwhelming racism, and so had chosen a mixed man, hoping to find middle ground among her generational examples of manhood. She wanted a man who would not view her with racism, but who would be light-skinned enough to avoid attracting the racism of others. I thought this was problematic and sad."
I would highly recommend anyone look at the content warnings before diving into this one. A lot of things were addressed from alcohol and drug abuse, to child abuse (and child sexual abuse), gun violence, honestly it ran a bit of the gambit. It didn't feel too gratuitous and certainly had it's place in the stories, but there are definitely some triggers.
Some stories that I really loved:
By Alcatraz — A college-aged girl feels isolated and alone on her campus during the Thanksgiving break and ends up at a small house party. She has this fascination with trying to decide who at the party is mixed and who is Native, it made me think.
Brother — A girl meets a new brother and sister in town and helps them find a place to stay when their housing falls through. They end up witnessing gun violence at a local casino, and a classmate of hers is the victim. I really enjoyed the characters in this one and loved the dynamic of that group.
My Kind of Woman — This was a unique one, the story of a songwriter living in a Native community who meets a popular musician who wants to record music together in California. There was an unusual energy to these characters and their relationship and I enjoyed the plot.
The Wife — A woman must go home to visit her father who is on his deathbed and not for the first time. This is punctuated by her realization that she and her husband have grown apart and no longer like each other. Confusing family relationships for the win.
House Of RGB — This was magical realist sort of, a woman is able to see the ghosts/spirits of her ancestors and speak with them. A lot of this story deals with conversations around mixed-race identity and heritage. I found it really thought-provoking.
I'll end with a few quotes that I flagged as I read:
"Rose and I agreed that we had both lost many others in the same way as the person we were mourning. Lost all from drugs or hard living, less from fault of their own than from how difficult it was to live in this world as anything othered."
"I understood that my mother saw the white men in her family as too colonial and patriarchal, the Black men as facing overwhelming racism, and so had chosen a mixed man, hoping to find middle ground among her generational examples of manhood. She wanted a man who would not view her with racism, but who would be light-skinned enough to avoid attracting the racism of others. I thought this was problematic and sad."
May 11, 2022
These stories are just the kind of stories we need right now: smart, daring, unforgiving. If Native literature is moving in the right direction, A Calm and Normal Heart by Chelsea Hicks just gave it a big push.
July 17, 2022
I was pretty excited for this, as I tend to be when I begin a new lit fic collection, but this was too MFA-core for my taste(s).
September 12, 2022
What I enjoyed most about Hicks' stories where the vivid personalities of her characters, each diverse in their life style and voice and yet similar in their heritage and loyalty to it, how it creates a community of support for them, even in the midst of difficult times. Her women are raw, honest, thoughtful, searching and confident, each finding hope and connection in their own way. Readers will be drawn to Hicks' women.
See full review in Litbreak: https://litbreak.com/a-calm-and-norma...
Thank you Unnamed Press for the ARC through Eidelweiss.
See full review in Litbreak: https://litbreak.com/a-calm-and-norma...
Thank you Unnamed Press for the ARC through Eidelweiss.
November 26, 2023
This collection of short stories evoked a mixed response, some gripped me and others left me a bit unmoored in their descriptions of their characters without a lot of action. Hicks' intentions in incorporating the Wazhashe ie language was one of the aspects that drew me to this book, and it was one of its strengths as well.
August 18, 2023
Some of these were very powerful; others were perhaps too experimental for me to get that much out of. Not sure whether that’s my fault as a reader (likely) but in the end this just wasn’t my favorite.
August 29, 2022
This is a really amazing collection. I will be recommending this one a lot.
April 30, 2022
These stories center around modern young Wazhazhe women and the multigenerational impact of the Osage diaspora on their families and identities. While some characters have been able to keep Wazhazhe teachings in their lives, others seek to reconnect with their ancestry and the land they come from-- all of them processing and managing relations of all types. A Calm & Normal Heart is a tough and tender collection packed with endurance and strength.
August 9, 2023
Not every story in this collection is a hit (some are kinda jumbled in their storytelling), but many of them are important stories that need to be told about reservation life, generational trauma, racism experienced by indigenous people, and community. These stories provide perspective into the lives of Wazhazhe women, who were pushed between a rock and a hard place. Although many of these women make mistakes (especially when it comes to love and romantic relationships, for example), Chelsea T. Hicks never looks at them negatively or disapprovingly. The stories "A Fresh Start" and "Full Tilt" (which feature some of the same characters but at different points in time) are perfect depictions of generational trauma and how difficult it is to break that cycle, and not because of the weakness of the characters. But because of history and financial means, and just a general lack of options.
It's not all gloom and doom though. This book is beautiful because Hicks very obviously loves many aspects of her culture and language, and I am so glad that she could share that with people through this book. Community is important to her and there's definitely bonding moments between characters here and there. Hicks is proud to be Wazhazhe, as she should be.
It's not all gloom and doom though. This book is beautiful because Hicks very obviously loves many aspects of her culture and language, and I am so glad that she could share that with people through this book. Community is important to her and there's definitely bonding moments between characters here and there. Hicks is proud to be Wazhazhe, as she should be.
June 9, 2022
Thank you Unnamed Press for this ARC copy. Chelsea T Hicks writes with wonder and wit in this collection of stories from Indigenous Nations across California, Oklahoma and beyond. These stories showcase young Indigenous people navigating the often unwelcoming unaccepting myopic United States. These stories subvert troupes and shine with hope and humor. Stories vary widely with a young Native student getting invited to a “Friendsgiving,” party, another young woman struggles to recover after a breakup while her ancestors keep coming up and offering her help in unexpected ways. Desire, love, millennial lifestyle, memory’, trauma and humor, Hicks touches on all these themes all the whole integrating the Osage language Wazhazhe ie. My favorite in the collection were “The Good Medicine of the Light,” “By Alcatraz,” and “House of RBG.” Highly recommended this collection for anyone interested in realistic fiction, Indigenous sovereignty, rights, and those interested in the powerful connection of memory language and revitalization.
May 1, 2023
I love stumbling upon a short story collection that grabs me as a reader and keeps my attention when the next story begins. That is the highest compliment I can think of to pay this author, who writes a series of stories with various characters in some way part of or connected to Native American tribes in Oklahoma and California. And rather than drop out after one or two stories like I sometimes do,or bingeing the entire book, I found myself wanting to read one story and savor it for a bit before moving to the next one. I seem to be on a kick of reading books by Native American authors this year as I’ve read several already and my TBR pile has two others just waiting to be opened. Happy to have discovered yet another with great talent for writing characters and emotions and making me care about the people in just a few pages. I like your style, Chelsea T. Hicks, and hope to read more from you.
November 21, 2022
Short story collections have been pretty hit-or-miss for me in the past, but the author blew me away with this collection.
I love the inclusion of Wazhazhe ie (the Osage language) throughout all of the stories and by characters at all levels of fluency 🙌🏽 Without giving too much away, I loved this glimpse into the lives of characters dealing with everyday issues of contemporary Osage life, learning about the communities made elsewhere by those who had fled the Reign of Terror, and about Wazhazhe (Osage) ancestors in a context other than the Reign of Terror.
I was hooked each time, instantly invested, proud, shocked, saddened, worried–all of it. Not a word or page wasted, and no single story a throw-away.
Enjoy this one in bits and pieces or all in one bite.
I love the inclusion of Wazhazhe ie (the Osage language) throughout all of the stories and by characters at all levels of fluency 🙌🏽 Without giving too much away, I loved this glimpse into the lives of characters dealing with everyday issues of contemporary Osage life, learning about the communities made elsewhere by those who had fled the Reign of Terror, and about Wazhazhe (Osage) ancestors in a context other than the Reign of Terror.
I was hooked each time, instantly invested, proud, shocked, saddened, worried–all of it. Not a word or page wasted, and no single story a throw-away.
Enjoy this one in bits and pieces or all in one bite.
July 1, 2022
I have to be the reluctant detractor here. I was encouraged by the blurbs and then sold when I learned this was written by a fellow Oklahoman/Tulsan. But I did not feel like I got any coherent handle on the characters--likewise, I felt a similar ambiguity about the book's relationship to identity, which I had anticipated being more fleshed out, in some way, than it was.
The prose wasn't particularly crisp, and the plots were...well, I was bored. To put it bluntly. I'm glad others have found it witty and a pleasure, and it's great to see more representation. But this collection did not meet my expectations.
The prose wasn't particularly crisp, and the plots were...well, I was bored. To put it bluntly. I'm glad others have found it witty and a pleasure, and it's great to see more representation. But this collection did not meet my expectations.
November 16, 2022
3.5 stars
I really liked about a third of the stories, somewhat liked about a third of them, and wasn’t a huge fan of about a third of them. My favorite thing about this collection was that even the difficult stories often ended in a slightly hopeful way; there is so much trauma in the history of Native American communities that that sometimes is all that literature focuses on, but this one showed community and friendship and women making decisions for themselves and regaining agency.
My favorite stories were A Fresh Start, By Alcatraz, Brother, House of RGB, and The Good Medicine of the Light. My least favorite were A Small Urge, Wets’a, and My Kind of Woman.
I really liked about a third of the stories, somewhat liked about a third of them, and wasn’t a huge fan of about a third of them. My favorite thing about this collection was that even the difficult stories often ended in a slightly hopeful way; there is so much trauma in the history of Native American communities that that sometimes is all that literature focuses on, but this one showed community and friendship and women making decisions for themselves and regaining agency.
My favorite stories were A Fresh Start, By Alcatraz, Brother, House of RGB, and The Good Medicine of the Light. My least favorite were A Small Urge, Wets’a, and My Kind of Woman.
December 2, 2022
I read this because of a book discussion/ meet the author zoom meeting hosted by the American Indian College Fund. Some conversation parts of each story are written in Osage (as transcibed.) Fascinating. Hicks' use of language is amazing. While the experiences of her characters -- many Osage had moved away from Oklahoma for a variety of reasons (see the book Killers of the Flower Moon) -- are different from any of my experiences, her connections from grandmother to mother to child resonated with me. Hicks did a wonderful job explaining how she has developed her voice as a writer after being in a MFA program that valued "literary" fiction.
May 27, 2023
Collection of short stories focused on women from the Osage tribe.
Each story is a vignette of difficult modern relationships for Native American women - whether it's a girl/boyfried, husband, parents, or children. And most of the stories take place in either Oklahoma or California.
The author is Osage herself and has spent time learning the traditional language of her tribe: Wazhazhe. Each story has been titled in Wazhazhe with an English translation. Similarly she peppers each story with some Wazhazhe words and spellings.
A very engaging and interesting set of stories. I'll definitely look for more to come from this author.
Each story is a vignette of difficult modern relationships for Native American women - whether it's a girl/boyfried, husband, parents, or children. And most of the stories take place in either Oklahoma or California.
The author is Osage herself and has spent time learning the traditional language of her tribe: Wazhazhe. Each story has been titled in Wazhazhe with an English translation. Similarly she peppers each story with some Wazhazhe words and spellings.
A very engaging and interesting set of stories. I'll definitely look for more to come from this author.
July 26, 2022
Another collection where some of the stories speak to me, and some do not. The dialogue is excellent, but the overall style of the storytelling feels a bit odd -- slightly askew to the real world. There's a phrase in one of the stories that describes someone as "off-kilter prep" and I suppose that is as good a description as any for this volume of stories.
December 28, 2022
Osage short story tribute
This read like many short stories by different authors, although I did recognize the common theme of a young Osage woman in an unhealthy relationship in which both parties are dealing with past cultural trauma. I cannot say any stories stood out, although I did like some more than others. The language and the spiritual guides were my favorite.
This read like many short stories by different authors, although I did recognize the common theme of a young Osage woman in an unhealthy relationship in which both parties are dealing with past cultural trauma. I cannot say any stories stood out, although I did like some more than others. The language and the spiritual guides were my favorite.
December 4, 2023
//4.5 stars//
“Wazhazhe people are currently revitalizing our language, which is called Wazhazhe ie. Due to limited recognition of Indigenous characters in fonts, I use Latinized spellings rather than the Wazhazhe ie orthography created by Herman “Mogri" Lookout.”
“I hope my inclusion of the language will support Wazhazhe ie, and the practice of including Indigenous languages broadly in literature.”
The author has a beautiful way with language, both with her command of English and her integration of Wazhazhe. I really enjoyed how Wazhazhe language was encorporated into these stories and found that, as someone who does not know the language or culture at all, I was still able to understand enough from the reactions of the characters to understand the plot while still enjoying the demonstration of how the language creates connection for the individuals and communities within the stories.
A few of this stories did really not work for me, but overall I did really like most of them and my three favourite stories were By Alcatraz, Superdrunk and My Kind of Woman.
BY ALCATRAZ
About hanging out with a white guy on Thanksgiving and finding connection with other indigenous people.
“The coffee he gives her is the perfect temperature and when she drinks it her body feels warm, almost too warm, like she's angry or panicked or embarrassed but doesn't know which. So far, this day isn't going great.”
-
SUPERDRUNK
About a young girl dating an older man her parents do not know about and her agency around that decision.
“Since she's way out in Hampton, she goes to the Barnes & Noble in the area and reads Psychology Today in a leather chair. According to the magazine, the fact that she might be into the idea of Mark trying to manipulate her by not calling or paying attention to her on a date means she may suffer from a "weak sense of self." Still, it feels like affection to her.”
-
MY KIND OF WOMAN
About a guy half dating a singer called Rose who enjoys his company but also does not want the same things he does or love him like he does and yet they are content with the arrangements.
“It was really vodka, but we called it wine in our text messages to each other. Why? It is the level of denial necessary to make a game of your own life: you must first lie to yourself.”
-
All these stories are a bit flat in terms of plot but I loved that, they feel deflated and realistic like life. The stakes feel real rather than like a plot and the language was breathtaking.
Excited to see what Chelsea T Hicks writes next!
“Wazhazhe people are currently revitalizing our language, which is called Wazhazhe ie. Due to limited recognition of Indigenous characters in fonts, I use Latinized spellings rather than the Wazhazhe ie orthography created by Herman “Mogri" Lookout.”
“I hope my inclusion of the language will support Wazhazhe ie, and the practice of including Indigenous languages broadly in literature.”
The author has a beautiful way with language, both with her command of English and her integration of Wazhazhe. I really enjoyed how Wazhazhe language was encorporated into these stories and found that, as someone who does not know the language or culture at all, I was still able to understand enough from the reactions of the characters to understand the plot while still enjoying the demonstration of how the language creates connection for the individuals and communities within the stories.
A few of this stories did really not work for me, but overall I did really like most of them and my three favourite stories were By Alcatraz, Superdrunk and My Kind of Woman.
BY ALCATRAZ
About hanging out with a white guy on Thanksgiving and finding connection with other indigenous people.
“The coffee he gives her is the perfect temperature and when she drinks it her body feels warm, almost too warm, like she's angry or panicked or embarrassed but doesn't know which. So far, this day isn't going great.”
-
SUPERDRUNK
About a young girl dating an older man her parents do not know about and her agency around that decision.
“Since she's way out in Hampton, she goes to the Barnes & Noble in the area and reads Psychology Today in a leather chair. According to the magazine, the fact that she might be into the idea of Mark trying to manipulate her by not calling or paying attention to her on a date means she may suffer from a "weak sense of self." Still, it feels like affection to her.”
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MY KIND OF WOMAN
About a guy half dating a singer called Rose who enjoys his company but also does not want the same things he does or love him like he does and yet they are content with the arrangements.
“It was really vodka, but we called it wine in our text messages to each other. Why? It is the level of denial necessary to make a game of your own life: you must first lie to yourself.”
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All these stories are a bit flat in terms of plot but I loved that, they feel deflated and realistic like life. The stakes feel real rather than like a plot and the language was breathtaking.
Excited to see what Chelsea T Hicks writes next!
December 26, 2023
3.5. I think I struggle with short stories, especially read all together in one go. I get confused with the new characters and new story lines and I try to connect them linearly. Otherwise, the stories were a from a voice and place we don’t hear from enough. I loved the audiobook so I could hear the native language spoken.
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September 3, 2022I think I'll need to revisit this one. I read it at a stressful time; one story per day. There were some stories where I couldn't understand the progression from one sentence to another. I absolutely think this was my problem and not the fault of the book.
June 12, 2023
3.5 stars. The stories told were important, but the way they were told and their content didn't fully resonate with me. There were moments, but too few and far between. However as a non indigenous person I still felt this was important to read.
July 14, 2023
Each story is told with such grit and heart. Some are so heartbreaking it's hard to read, but every story in this eclectic collection is so vivid and artfully crafted that's its worth the emotional roller coaster.
March 25, 2024
my functional heart, where are you?
what turned you into an empty glass
is it that I love the spiders & am like one
wherever I go making my house
I have only to wait & all things
come to me & therein break their
necks but a calm & normal heart where does that come from?
what turned you into an empty glass
is it that I love the spiders & am like one
wherever I go making my house
I have only to wait & all things
come to me & therein break their
necks but a calm & normal heart where does that come from?
May 24, 2024
These were mostly quiet, slice of life stories with the added layers of Native culture, connections, history. The author weaved in the Wazhazhe language in an easy to follow way. The final story was more of a legend and includes a beautiful passage about the title, a calm and normal heart.
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