Moccasin Square Gardens: Short Stories

by Richard Van Camp

Overview

The characters of Moccasin Square Gardens inhabit Denendeh, the land of the people north of the sixtieth parallel. These stories are filled with in-laws, outlaws and common-laws. Get ready for illegal wrestling moves (“The Camel Clutch”), pinky promises, a doctored casino, extraterrestrials or “Sky People,” love, lust and prayers for peace.

While this is Van Camp’s most hilarious short story collection, it’s also haunted by the lurking presence of the Wheetago, human-devouring monsters of legend that have returned due to global warming and the greed of humanity. The stories in Moccasin Square Gardens show that medicine power always comes with a price.

To counteract this darkness, Van Camp weaves a funny and loving portrayal of the Tłı̨chǫ Dene and other communities of the North, drawing from oral history techniques to perfectly capture the character and texture of everyday small-town life. “Moccasin Square Gardens” is the nickname of a dance hall in the town of Fort Smith that serves as a meeting place for a small but diverse community. In the same way, the collection functions as a meeting place for an assortment of characters, from shamans and time-travelling goddess warriors to pop-culture-obsessed pencil pushers, to con artists, archivists and men who just need to grow up, all seeking some form of connection.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781771622165
Publisher:	Douglas & McIntyre Ltd.
Publication date:	09/28/2019
Pages:	160
Sales rank:	688,304
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.30(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Richard Van Camp is an internationally renowned storyteller and bestselling author. He was born in Fort Smith, Northwest Territories, and is a proud member of the Dogrib (Tłı̨chǫ) Dene Nation. He is the author of The Lesser Blessed (Douglas & McIntyre, 1996), a Canadian classic that has been adapted into a feature film with First Generation Films. He lives in Edmonton, AB, with his family.

Table of Contents

Aliens 11

Super Indians 25

Wheetago War I: Lying in Bed Together 41

Wheetago War II: Summoners 55

The Promise 69

Man Babies 85

I Am Filled with a Trembling Light 107

Ehtsèe/Grandpa 129

Knock Knock 151

I Have to Trust 155

After Words 157

Editorial Reviews

Van Camp has an ear for crafting dialogue, an astuteness for chronicling humanity, and a knack for evoking laughter and horror in a single passage. Van Camp is an extraordinary writer...This book is a testament that his work should be required reading for both college courses and veracious bibliophiles who want to spend time lost in the words of a true master.” - Ryan Winn, Tribal College Journal: Journal of American Indian Higher Education, December 2019

Tribal College Journal: Journal of American Indian Higher Education - Ryan Winn

Richard Van Camp has gleaned the old in the new. He holds the endangered precious out, and shows us where it is kept.” —Tantoo Cardinal

“Reading Van Camp’s stories is like sitting around the kitchen table, sipping strong tea and listening to the aunties share some really good gossip. And, like that gossip, you need to pay attention because he is saying just as much in his silences as he is with his words.” —Katherena Vermette

“Van Camp’s keen ear for dialogue and lithe storytelling breathe hope and humour even into the darkest corners of human existence. His boldest, most compelling collection yet.” —Eden Robinson

From the Publisher

Van Camp’s keen ear for dialogue and lithe storytelling breathe hope and humour even into the darkest corners of human existence. His boldest, most compelling collection yet.

Eden Robinson

Reading Van Camp’s stories is like sitting around the kitchen table, sipping strong tea and listening to the aunties share some really good gossip. And, like that gossip, you need to pay attention because he is saying just as much in his silences as he is with his words.

Katherena Vermette

Richard Van Camp has gleaned the old in the new. He holds the endangered precious out, and shows us where it is kept.

Tantoo Cardinal

2019-07-01
An eclectic mix of stories, sometimes irreverent and occasionally scarifying, about First Nations peoples in northern Canada.

"Super Indians," one of the strongest stories in this collection from the veteran Van Camp (Kiss by Kiss, 2018, etc.), has the wisecracking attitude of early Sherman Alexie, as its young narrator bemoans how the tribal leader, Chief Danny, siphons funds and keeps the community stuck in a rut. ("I would spend my life uncolonizing Chief Danny…save the North from him and every other loser leader out there.") Similarly, in "Man Babies," a man attempts to deliver some tough love to his new girlfriend's layabout son, who's proving that "our warriors will remain couch potatoes. That our languages and customs will die." Van Camp can tweak this approach to make it more compassionate, as in "The Promise," in which two boys practice pro-wrestling moves on each other to help cope with their fathers' absences. Or he can reshape it into bleak horror, as in a pair of stories in which global warming unleashes an army of demons called the Wheetago; our neglect of the environment dooms us to having our "heads like chalices served up as offerings, full of brains mixed with blackberries." Those two stories aside, Van Camp is mainly concerned with everyday lives in the region where he grew up in the Northwest Territories, and he can give everyday experience a Thurber-esque charm, as in "Ehtsèe/Grandpa," in which the narrator attempts to connect with his grandparents in absurd or ill-advised ways (watching E.T. with grandpa, getting both of them stoned). The lack of an overall consistent tone can make the collection feel centerless, but Van Camp seems capable of bringing glints of humor to nearly every predicament, be it world-ending or just day-wrecking.

Straight talk and dark fantasy from an underappreciated corner of North America.

Kirkus Reviews