Medicine River

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Medicine River
Author	Thomas King
Language	English
Genre(s)	story collection
Publisher	Viking Canada
Publication date	1989

Medicine River is a short story cycle written by author Thomas King. It was first published by Viking Canada in 1989. The book was later adapted into a film version.

[edit] Plot summary

The main character, Will, is a half-Blackfoot, half-White, whose largely absent father was a bull-rider in Calgary. He and his brother James were raised by his mother in Medicine River. He moves to Toronto to become a photographer. When he goes back to Medicine River for his mother's funeral he is persuaded by Harlen Bigbear, the local jack-of-all-trades, to stay and open a photographer's shop. The book is a series of episodes and flashbacks that reveals life on the reserve and how Will adapts himself to it. Will meets Louise who becomes an unfulfilled love interest that very much represents Will existence, a series of half fulfilled expectations. That is, he develops an on-going relationship with Louise and her daughter, Southwing, for whom Will becomes her closest male figure. He neither marries or develops a common-law relationship with Louise. The basketball team of which he is a part, receives some success when Clyde, an ex-convict joins the team. They soon return to mediocrity when Clyde is sent back to jail. In Toronto, Will has an affair and shares accommodation with a married woman by the name of Susan. Predictably, soon after Susan leaves Will after breaking up with her husband giving Will hope of a lasting relationship. And so it goes with all the characters in this story. Where there's hope, there's also despair. Be happy with what you've got.

[edit] Critical studies

1. The Aesthetic of Talk in Thomas King's Medicine River By: Robinson, Jack; Studies in Canadian Literature/Etudes en Littérature Canadienne, 2006; 31 (1): 75-94.
2. There Is No Bentham Street in Calgary: Panoptic Discourses and Thomas King's Medicine River By: Stratton, Florence; Canadian Literature, 2005 Summer; 185: 11-27.
3. 'Stay Calm, Be Brave, Wait for the Signs': Sign-Offs and Send-Ups in the Fiction of Thomas King By: Hirsch, Bud; Western American Literature, 2004 Summer; 39 (2): 145-75.
4. Steinbeck's Influence upon Native American Writers By: Hadella, Paul. IN: Shillinglaw and Hearle, Beyond Boundaries: Rereading John Steinbeck. Tuscaloosa, AL: U of Alabama P; 2002. pp. 87-97
5. Purana Narratology and Thomas King: Rewriting of Colonial History in The Medicine River and Joe the Painter and the Deer Island Massacre By: Vahia, Aditi H.; Canadian Journal of Native Studies, 2002; 22 (1): 65-80.
6. The Art That Will Not Die: The Story-Telling of Greg Sarris and Thomas King By: Mackie, Mary Margaret; Dissertation, U of Oklahoma, 2001.
7. Time Out: (Slam)Dunking Photographic Realism in Thomas King's Medicine River By: Christie, Stuart; Studies in American Indian Literatures: The Journal of the Association for the Study of American Indian Literatures, 1999 Summer; 11 (2): 51-65.
8. Beyond the Frame: Tom King's Narratives of Resistment By: Peters, Darrell Jesse; Studies in American Indian Literatures: The Journal of the Association for the Study of American Indian Literatures, 1999 Summer; 11 (2): 66-79.
9. Thomas King: A Trickster Healing through Humour By: Pascual Soler, Nieves. IN: Alvarez Maurín, Broncano Rodrígues, Fernández Rabadán, and Garrigós González, Actas III Congreso de la Sociedad Española para el Estudio dos Estados Unidos/Spanish Association for American Studies (SAAS): Fin de Siglo: Crisis y nuevos principios/Century Ends, Crises and New Beginnings. León, Spain: Universidad de León; 1999. pp. 299-305
10. Status, Mixedbloods, and Community in Thomas King's Medicine River By: Mackie, Mary M.; Journal of American Studies of Turkey, 1998 Fall; 8: 65-71.
11. Coyote Agape: Thomas King's Working for Love By: La Bossiere, Camille R.; River Review/La Revue Rivière: A Multidisciplinary Journal of Arts and Ideas/Revue Multidisciplinaire d'Arts et d'Idées, 1995; 1: 47-57.
12. 'Tell Our Own Stories': Politics and the Fiction of Thomas King By: Walton, Percy; World Literature Written in English, 1990 Autumn; 30 (2): 77-84.