Working Men by Michael Dorris (review)

Reviews TheHedge, TheRibbon. By Carol Orlock. (Seattle: Broken Moon Press, 1993. 254 pages, $13.95.) TheHedge, TheRibbon, winner of the 1993 Western States Book Award, is an engaging and fanciful novel recounting the lives of the residents of the fictional town of Millford. Brief monologues by the creator of the stories to her elderly listener alternate with the storyteller’s extended tales of Millford. The stories themselves, while whimsical and light, explore the relationship between desire and creation, and imagination and creation. Of the storyteller and her listener we know little. Each tale is introduced by a briefmonologue by the storyteller, awoman sent byan agency to look in on an elderly, bedridden client. Most of the introductions are scarcely more than a page, and readers are likely to be frustrated by how little can be learned about each woman’s personality and history and about their relationship. While a final chapter poses unexpected questions about the relationship of the elderly listener to the narrative, this purposeful puzzlement would still have been possible had the two women been drawn with thicker, more complex strokes. The residents ofMillford, who populate the extended tales ofthe book, live in a world in which desire becomes creation, in which thought becomes act. For example, Angela Maxwell believes itwill continue to snow as long as people wish it to snow, and it does. Homographs bring thought, which bring reality: a busrider reads that a “feather front [is] moving in tonight,”so genuine feathers fall all around the bus. Unconscious desire becomes reality: Johnny Maxwell sorts misdelivered photos at a photo lab and finds occasional but recurring pictures of a debonair world traveller he names Max; he initially notices no resemblance between himself and Max but eventually comes to realize that he and Max are one. While some of the stories are surreal and somejust fanciful, most explore this relationship between desire and creation. The stories have twists that make readers want to continue, and hints of complex issues in narration and philoso­ phy make The Hedge, TheRibbon an interesting and pleasant book. MARGARET DOANE California State University, San Bernardino Working Men. By Michael Dorris. (New York: Henry Holt, 1993. 286 pages, $19.95.) Byvirtue of a fine first novel (A YellowRaft in Blue Water) set in Montana and 158 WesternAmerican Literature Washington, Michael Dorris has been labeled a western writer. Because the three main characters in that book are mixedbloods, and Dorris himself is part Modoc, he has been labeled a NativeAmerican writer, too. With the publication of Working Men, a collection of fourteen short stories, these labels no longer apply. Only four of the stories take place in the West, and only two involve Native American characters. Yet, as in A YellowRaft (and in The Crown ofColumbus, the novel that Dorris co-wrote with Louise Erdrich), Dorris remains deeply committed to the themes of love, loyalty, and loss. Stories about family and romantic relationships, which Dorris writes as well as anyone, bring these themes to the forefront. Not all of these stories strive for profundity, however. Indeed, some, such as “Earnest Money” and “Oui,” charm by their unwillingness to take themselves too seri­ ously. The former re-acquaints readers with Sky and Evelyn, the offbeat couple who befriend Rayona in A YellowRaft. The latter concerns a Montana plowman and his marriage to a woman who has come West to start a new life. Coached by Cecille, the narrator lands ajob teaching high school French, though he knows about three words of the language. It’s an improbable tale—endearing love stories typically are—but very funny, nonetheless. Decidedly more serious, but just as pleasing, is “Shining Agate”—which provides a welcome break from all the stories about relationships. Its protago­ nist is an anthropologist in Alaska who gains acceptance by the native commu­ nity only after he has stood up, unwittingly, to a ghost. “Layaway,”also notewor­ thy for its uniqueness, is a truly original Vietnam tale about a clerk in an Army PX. In this and other stories, Dorris makes one of his favorite satirical points: in a consumer culture, people express themselves through what they buy. Aware of this, the clerk/narrator prides...