Red Ants by Kimberly Blaeser is a short story collection forthcoming from Counterpoint Press in October. The publishers were kind enough to send me an early copy for review.
On the whole, the collection tends toward literary and contemporary stories, with hints of other genres peeking through. Common threads resonating across the various pieces are friendships, family, memory, and characters reconciling with their pasts or where they came from versus where they are now in their lives. Anishinaabe traditions and traditional stories are also central to many of the tales, giving slice-of-life pieces that capture a specific moment in time the depth and weight of history and making them feel like part of a greater whole.
One of the standout stories opens the collection, “River Dreams”, a bittersweet murder mystery about coming home, reconnecting with family, and seeking justice. Bineshi’s Uncle Smoke supposedly drowned accidentally, but she suspects foul play stemming from his advocacy for environmental justice. She and her cousin Sherri set out to investigate, ultimately finding a sense of peace and closure at the end. The story has a wonderful sense of place and highlights the idea that leaving home and forging your own path in life doesn’t mean abandoning one world for another.
The title story, “Red Ants”, touches on some similar themes, with characters who feel caught between worlds as it looks at tribal membership rules and who can and cannot be officially recognized. The piece is centered on two childhood best friends, one of whom has a tribal ID card and the other who does not, both on the cusp of going off to college and figuring out their futures while they reckon with their pasts, family bloodlines, and heritage. “Copper Traces” also shares some similarities with “River Dreams” as the narrator’s brother, an environmental activist, is missing, and presumed dead. She sets out looking for him, and is repeatedly visited by a wolf she believes may hold the key to his location or at least in some way help her find the closure she needs.
“Growing Things” is a sweet story that looks at the intersection between science and faith as both offer a form of connection to something larger than oneself. Connection between individuals is another central theme in the story as Spanish invites a tree doctor to give her advice advice on caring for a sick oak, and his visits seem to indicate the beginning of a potential romantic relationship. “Birch Tally” is a bittersweet story about a woman who keeps a mental count of all the horrible statistics around life on the rez – unemployment rate, suicide rate, abuse, and addiction. She meets a young boy and they become chosen family. Despite or because of the abuse in his birth family, he is always telling jokes, but his attitude and experiences inspire her to speak out and change statistics into names and people with specific stories, rather than just numbers that are easily ignored.
Another one of the standout pieces in the collection is “Sky Stories” in which a sheriff comes to the rez following a tip about a fugitive named Nanabozho. Suz and her friends try to tell the sheriff he’s chasing a myth, but when he refuses to believe them, they decide to lead him on a wild goose chase to the burial grounds on the edge of the woods, where they call to the Trickster, planning on wasting the stubborn cop’s time, but end up possibly calling the real Nanabozho to their aid.
“Translation for Dummies” has a strong voice, told from the perspective of a dog named Finn who lives with a woman whose boyfriend is an abusive asshole. One night, when he gets especially violent, Finn steps in to defend Kari. “The Broken Year” is another story about finding balance as Maddy struggles with taking care of her elderly father after a fall, while also having recently been laid off, and raising two kids alone. The difficult year leads her to reconnect with both her Roman Catholic and tribal roots, helping her find new sources of strength that allow her to carry on.
The stories are largely quiet and meditative, with struggles and triumphs that are both deeply personal for the characters and also universal. Lovely prose and imagery are evident throughout the collection, and the themes that echo across stories give it the feeling of a cohesive whole while dipping in and out of various characters’ lives.
