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Fiction. Literature. Humor (Fiction.) HTML:When Will returns to Medicine River, he thinks he is simply attending his motherâ??s funeral. He doesnâ??t count on Harlen Bigbear and his unique brand of community planning. Harlen tries to sell Will on the idea of returning to Medicine River to open shop as the townâ??s only Native photographer. Somehow, thatâ??s exactly what happens. Through Willâ??s gentle and humorous narrative, we come to know Medicine River, a small Albertan town bordering a Blackfoot reserve. And we meet its people: the basketball team; Louise Heavyman and her daughter, South Wing; Martha Oldcrow, the marriage doctor; Joe Bigbear, Harlenâ??s world-travelling, storytelling brother; Bertha Morley, who has a short fling with a Calgary dating service; and David Plume, who went to Wounded Knee. At the centre of it all is Harlen, advising and pestering, annoying and entertaining, gossiping and benevolently interfering in the lives of his friends an… (more)
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Will was raised in this area by his mother who was from the nearby Blackfoot reservation. She had lost her Indian status by marrying a white man, Will's father, and so she couldn't return to live on the reserve when her marriage fell apart. Will moved to Toronto to become a photographer and had little to do with his indigenous heritage for many years. However, when his mother died he returned for the funeral and he spends time with Harlan, a friend from his youth. Harlan encourages Will to return to Medicine River and after a romantic relationship in Toronto fails he does. Harlan helps him set up a photography studio and encourages him to join the basketball team that he coaches. Will is treated as an outsider for a while but with Harlan's assistance he is soon partaking in community events. He also meets a woman, Louise, who is pregnant and planning to raise the child on her own. Will ends up drving her to the hospital when Louise is due to deliver her baby and the hospital staff assume he is the father. Will doesn't correct them and as time passes he does take on a paternal role. The child is named Wilma but Will always calls her South Wing because that is the area of the hospital where she was born. Will seems to have a better life in Medicine River than he did in Toronto and perhaps that is the message of the book: a person needs to feel connected to the land around him/her and the people in that land.
I wouldn't call this my favourite Thomas King book. It didn't seem to have as much meat to it as some of King's other books. It was chosen by one of the people in my pandemic reading group so it will be interesting to see what others think of it.