Fire Exit by Morgan Talty review – beautifully crafted debut set in a Native community in the US
Morgan Talty, author of the short story collection Night of the Living Rez, is a quarter Penobscot. The idea for Fire Exit came while he was studying tribal Indian law, and in a recent interview he said he wanted to explore the “weird situations federal Indian law has created for Indigenous people”. He writes from experience – his wife isn’t Native, so their son cannot be enrolled in the tribe.
Talty’s narrator, Charles, grew up on the Penobscot reservation in Maine with his white mother, Louise, and Native stepfather, Frederick. Tribal rules force Charles to leave the reservation as an adult, and Frederick helps build him a house across the river from his childhood home. When Mary, Charles’s Penobscot girlfriend, falls pregnant, she leaves him and returns to the reservation. Only by claiming another Native man as the father can she ensure their child is given tribal membership.
Humorous strands are threaded through the narrative, often involving Bobby’s drunken antics
Over two decades Charles has watched his daughter, Elizabeth, from afar. While looking after Louise, who has dementia, Charles muses on her lifelong bouts of depression, and decides that Elizabeth should be told of her heritage, reasoning: “We are made of stories, and if we don’t know them – the ones that make us – how can we ever be fully realised? How can we ever be who we really are?”
Like the bad weather that periodically hits Maine, Charles is buffeted by misfortune, guilt and loneliness. He has just two friends, also outsiders: Gizos, his childhood Penobscot friend, brutally beaten by his father for being effeminate, and Bobby, the middle-aged alcoholic he meets at AA who develops an affection for Louise. Talty’s characters are richly drawn, but it is Charles who lingers with us.
His relationship with his mother and unwavering love for the daughter he doesn’t know are deeply affecting. Humorous strands are threaded through the narrative, often involving Bobby’s drunken antics. Charles is a flawed and vulnerable character, but one you can’t help rooting for throughout this humane, beautifully crafted novel.
Fire Exit by Morgan Talty is published by And Other Stories (£14.99). To support the Guardian and Observer order your copy at guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply
