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Contemporary Fiction Views: Grief and transformation in a debut novel [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2023-08-22
The loss of a brother by one man and the loss of a sister by one woman are at the core of Swim Home to the Vanished. This debut novel by Diné poet Brendan Shay Basham explores both grief that consumes people, and the way grief can transform some not just emotionally, but literally.
The novel does not wallow in grief, although main characters teeter on the edge of falling into it. Instead, grief is the catalyst for journeys and transformations.
Six months after Damien's brother drowns in a river near the ocean, he gives up his restaurant job. A great deal of his time is spent prepping fish. Damien then goes on a long journey, walking through the desert, climbing a mountain, meeting a mystical goatherd and landing in a tired seaside town. We know we're in magical realism territory when Damien begins to form gills behind his ears.
He arrives in the sun-baked town by the sea as a funeral is under way. The eldest daughter of a woman rumored to be the local bruja has been killed. Her two younger sisters are in attendance, but their mother is not. Paola, the middle sister, tries to act protective, as she thinks an older sister should. The youngest, Marta, is ready to plot how to kill their mother and take over her leadership position. After the funeral, Damien is found by the mother, Ana Maria, who gives him liquor, food and a job cooking with her daughters in the family business.
The passages describing food and its preparation are lyrical and are infused with authenticity. They are as vivid as the descriptions of nature in the story. A sample:
The last light fades and a waxing moon peeks out and ignites all the fluttering leaves and needles in the forest. He watches the forest inhale wisps of warmer air catching in their nets of moss and branch. The pines are slow breathers. An inhale might take months, but the exhale is quick.
Damien is targeted as a pawn by all three women in the family before he even knows their names. The machinations build while the weather intensifies.
There is a lot going on in the novel -- missing family members, the twists and turns of family loyalty and love, transforming into fish and other animals, reflections of the Long Walk that the Diné were forced to undergo in the mid-1800's and climate change. Each aspect works within its own part of the story, even when they don't play well with each other.
What does work, works very well. This bodes well for future fiction from Brendan Shay Basham. Readers can latch onto the aspects of Swim Home to the Vanished that work for them without the rest getting in the way of that enjoyment. It is as Damien's brother, Kai, would have told them:
Life is a tragic comedy, Kai would have reminded them, and it is futile to live any longer in suffering and defeat.
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