cover image Food and Spirits: Stories

Food and Spirits: Stories

Beth Brant. Firebrand Books, $8.95 (128pp) ISBN 978-0-932379-92-4

Most of these sensitive, engaging tales set in Canada explore the private tragedies and triumphs of Native Americans. The exception, ``This Is History,'' offers a woman-focused account of the origins of Turtle Island (the Earth) in which Sky Woman (the moon) and her daughter/companion First Woman share the ``naming'' tasks central to creation tales. In ``Wild Turkeys,'' a woman visiting her hometown is shaken when a chance encounter brings back vivid memories of an abusive relationship she fled. The title story tells of 80-year-old Elijah Powless, determined to see his twin granddaughters in the ``big city.'' Armed only with innocent charm and a bag of homemade fry bread, he travels to Detroit, making friends and allies of all whom he meets. Several of Brant's ( The Mohawk Trail ) stories consider the need to come to terms with death: in ``This Place,'' a medicine man whose ``good medicine'' ranges from butter tarts and old Hank Williams songs to a snakeskin and chanting helps a gay man afflicted with AIDS find the courage to ``see death coming and run to meet it.'' (June)