A review by ericgaryanderson
Savage Conversations by LeAnne Howe

5.0

JUST published, and in the week or so since it showed up on my front porch I've already read it THREE TIMES. It's absolutely brilliant. LeAnne's new book is a play, mostly in verse, set in June 1875-June 1876, with three major speaking characters: Mary Todd Lincoln, Savage Indian, and The Rope. MTL insists that she's being visited by an Indian ghost/spirit who does violence to her (cutting her, sewing her eyes open so that she has the opportunity to see....something, and even scalping her on occasion). In LeAnne's vision, Savage Indian is one of the Dakota 38, Dakota men wrongfully executed by decree of Abraham Lincoln in 1862. The Rope is, well, the rope—one of the nooses—and he's more than that, too. This is powerfully written work. Each time I reread, I see so much more.