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A review by ssohn
Drowning in Fire, Volume 48 by Craig S. Womack
4.0
In a bit of a departure for myself, I am going to write a review on a non-Asian American text. Some of you might be sighing in relief. Did I only read Asian American books? I think not! In any case, so this is the story of Josh Henneha, a Muskogee Creek, who comes of age in contemporary Oklahoma. His life is one of otherness from the very beginning. Pegged as a sort of sissy boy and nerd, he isn’t able to make friends that easily. The only alliance he is really able to tentatively make is with Jimmy, a mixed blood Creek (apparently, he “reads” as an African American), who becomes the star of the basketball team during high school. The narrative shifts in viewpoint between Josh, Jimmy, and Josh’s Great Aunt, Lucille, who is introduced into the novel as a sort of intricate plot device that helps in a large bit of Muskogee Creek history. Much of the story, not surprisingly, deals with Josh’s burning desire for Jimmy, whom he finds difficult just to be around. Of course, Jimmy ends up conveniently homosexual as many of the boys they grow up with… On a personal level, I always find these narratives kind of bizarre because you see it sort of repeating in gay novels, the whole, I had a friend in childhood who ended up being gay and then they have some sort of love affair.
In any case, Lucille ends up being a sort of maternal grandmother with interesting stories, one that begins to infuse and infiltrate Josh’s life even after Lucille died in 1993 at a ripe old age. He begins to be able to do an interesting sort of time travel, suddenly appearing where his great Aunt was in a photograph and reliving moments in the past. At one point, he begins to understand the larger struggles of the Muskogee Creek as brought forth in particular by three men, Chitto Harjo (a kind of unofficial chief at the turn of the century, 1900) and two supporters, Sebhorn and Tarbie. At one point in the novel, the blending of past and present reaches a sort of apotheosis as Josh envisions himself and his now-lover, Jimmy as both Sebhorn and Tarbie (who themselves were in fact queer). In any case, the ending of the novel has a sort of surprise twist which is extremely sad but very pertinent to the genre that Womack is writing within, not only as an ethnic American text but also as a gay coming-of-age story.
In terms of the style, Womack has a brilliant eye for landscape, bringing forth a sense of Oklahoma’s rich floral life cycles. He also is fairly good at weaving an intricate family history that twines Josh and Jimmy to Aunt Lucille and Chitto Harjo all to the larger effect of creating the larger narrative of the Muskogee Creek Nation. At the ending of the story, as Josh and Jimmy take to a contemporary modern-day dance floor, and begin a traditional Muskogee dance, they are of course attempting to reclaim a past which has been ignored by them. In this way, it seems to fall into the kind of “homing” plot narrative, in the sense that things have sort of skipped a generation and returned to these grand-“children.” It is also in this sense that I was reminded of American Indian Literature and its connection to Asian American literature. Often times, you have to be able to read Asian American literature through the lens of particular ethnic groups rather than as a racial category. In Womack’s novel, he is not simply speaking to the American Indian tradition of homing plots or that, but also very specifically to the struggle of the Muskogee Creek to maintain tribal lands as Oklahaoma territory became divided up and turned into states of the Union. I’m not an expert in this particular history and its with that kind of amateurish eye that I bring this review to you all, my adoring fans.
In any case, Lucille ends up being a sort of maternal grandmother with interesting stories, one that begins to infuse and infiltrate Josh’s life even after Lucille died in 1993 at a ripe old age. He begins to be able to do an interesting sort of time travel, suddenly appearing where his great Aunt was in a photograph and reliving moments in the past. At one point, he begins to understand the larger struggles of the Muskogee Creek as brought forth in particular by three men, Chitto Harjo (a kind of unofficial chief at the turn of the century, 1900) and two supporters, Sebhorn and Tarbie. At one point in the novel, the blending of past and present reaches a sort of apotheosis as Josh envisions himself and his now-lover, Jimmy as both Sebhorn and Tarbie (who themselves were in fact queer). In any case, the ending of the novel has a sort of surprise twist which is extremely sad but very pertinent to the genre that Womack is writing within, not only as an ethnic American text but also as a gay coming-of-age story.
In terms of the style, Womack has a brilliant eye for landscape, bringing forth a sense of Oklahoma’s rich floral life cycles. He also is fairly good at weaving an intricate family history that twines Josh and Jimmy to Aunt Lucille and Chitto Harjo all to the larger effect of creating the larger narrative of the Muskogee Creek Nation. At the ending of the story, as Josh and Jimmy take to a contemporary modern-day dance floor, and begin a traditional Muskogee dance, they are of course attempting to reclaim a past which has been ignored by them. In this way, it seems to fall into the kind of “homing” plot narrative, in the sense that things have sort of skipped a generation and returned to these grand-“children.” It is also in this sense that I was reminded of American Indian Literature and its connection to Asian American literature. Often times, you have to be able to read Asian American literature through the lens of particular ethnic groups rather than as a racial category. In Womack’s novel, he is not simply speaking to the American Indian tradition of homing plots or that, but also very specifically to the struggle of the Muskogee Creek to maintain tribal lands as Oklahaoma territory became divided up and turned into states of the Union. I’m not an expert in this particular history and its with that kind of amateurish eye that I bring this review to you all, my adoring fans.