The Missing Morningstar and Other Stories

Denetsosie debuts with a bracing and poignant collection portraying the rugged lives of her Diné characters and their complex family bonds. The title story concerns the aftermath of powwow beauty queen Charmaine’s abduction. The unnamed teen narrator, who identifies as dilbáá or “masculine female,” recounts Charmaine’s exploration of her queer sexuality on the powwow circuit and the false rumors of her promiscuity with men, and describes how Charmaine’s disappearance calls up memories of a previous abduction in their community (“All we had were flashlights, Facebook shares, and ceremony”). “The Casket in the Backseat” finds a teenager named Leo haunted by the ghost of his recently deceased Grandpa Clyde, who wants to reconcile with Leo’s mother after he regularly left her as a child to visit his other family in a different town. The narrator of “Conception” elicits disapproval from her family after marrying a white man instead of her sweetheart from the reservation (“I remember the crease in my aunt’s brow as she asked if I planned to enroll my non-existent future baby into the Navajo Nation”). Some stories truncate suddenly, just as they seem to be getting off the ground, but Denetsosie soars when depicting the characters’ close relationships with one another. It’s a potent display of modern Navajo life. (Sept.)