Sweet Medicine

This sequel begins where Seals's popular The Powwow Highway left off, with Bonnie Red Bird, sprung from the Santa Fe city jail by her brother Buddy and her lover Philbert Bono, in hiding at a nearby pueblo. The Native American trio begin a tragicomic winter trek to the Black Hills, picking up other Indians as they go and declaring their group a new nation, journeying deep inside themselves as they ride into Indian Country. Readers unfamiliar with the previous novel will get little from this volume, written in a smugly puerile style abounding with scatological language and self-serving references to Powwow Highway 's reception and how Hollywood ruined the movie version. The narrator, Storyteller--at once self-deprecating and self-aggrandizing--serves as a surrogate for the author. Seals writes convincingly of the current state of Native American life and the peoples' tragic history, but his studied attitude often comes off as mimetic rather than heartfelt. Such historical inaccuracies as an incorrect reference to Cheyenne chief Black Kettle's being killed at the Sand Creek Massacre also detract from the book's impact. The voyage of Philbert and friends aspires to be part Don Quixote , part On the Road , but the destination isn't worth the fare. ( Oct. )