Mapping The Interior

Page 30: I'm writing this briefly before heading out to a coffee shop to do some more reading. I'm on page 30 and it's going well so far. This is my second SGJ book so I kind of know his writing style and know that for some reason I'm the only one on the planet that loses track of what's going on with his style. I feel like he somewhat abruptly cuts to a new idea and it makes me reread what came before it beause I feel like I missed something. it's not nearly as bad here as it was in "the only good indians" but it's still definitely there.

It begins with a solid cold open of the protagonist, a little boy named Junior, describing his experience waking up from sleep walking to see what he believes to be his long dead father walking across the hall in his house. His father died years ago from drowning and Junior, his mom, and his brother Dino moved out of the reservation they were living at after this event.

It's clear that Junior has the sort of warped sense of positivity about his father that a lot of kids have, and that his mother definitely does not share. Junior is convinced it's his father that he saw and that he's here to protect their family. This is especially poignant because recently Dino has started having seizures and Junior believes that these seizures sort of "called upon" his dad to protect the family.

I've been saying "his dad" a lot but I want to be very clear that when the figure in the hallway is described, it is only vaguely meant to be like his father, with something like "spikes" protruding from the back of the dark sillouhette. Junior believes this is a new form of his father as a fancy dancer, which are important dancers (maybe spiritual, I honestly don't know for sure) in the native culture he was raised in. Junior's dad loved these dancers as a kid but eventually came to live a worse life in high school and got involved in just like being an asshole? IDK, it didn't seem like he was a great guy in life, at least according to Junior's mother.

Finished: Oh my goddddddd. Cycles girl, cycles. This was good and it ripped me!!! Okay let me catch you up.

Okay so pretty much immediately after we left off (from what was basically just the premise) we have a chapter where Junior stays home alone because he beat the fuck out of some kids being mean to Dino, and he decides that while he's checked the whole house for evidence of his dad, that he never checked underneath the house, and begins to go for the crawlspace beneath.

It's at this point that I should tell you that a few times now, there have been references to these aggressive dogs next door that are behind a fence but suddenly, when Junior is going into the crawlspace, all 4 of these dogs start chasing him and essentially trap him under the house. It's here that he finds what he calls a giant "chrysalis" and thinks that this must be where he dad's ghost is coming from. He for some reason imagines a dying cat coming under the house to die and that physical body acting as a catalyst for Junior's dad's spirit. This is awfully aware but whatever

Okay so the dogs are like growling and trying to get under the house to get to Junior and he's begging his dad to help and suddenly he here's stomping from above him in the house… no one is home. He hears the back door open and close and then hears the dogs being murdered. At this point he like hits his head and passes out and wakes up to his mom consoling him with an officer there who is arresting the neighbor who owns the dogs. apparently while he was asleep, the neighbor got a gun and was going to kill the kid because he thinks the boy killed his dogs. Whatever.

The man goes to jail, we learn that his mom is likely in a relation ship with the officer, and now it's that night. Okay, I'm going to speed up the summary because I'm tired of typing and just want to do the review now. it's night, the dad comes back, but is like feeding on Dino. Junior realizes that maybe his dad isn't there to save them, but to take from them selfishly. Junior goes to the cops car out front, gets a gun, and shoots the spectre of his father a bunch of times. turns out, the dad is spectral and nothing happens and he leaves, but behind him, the neighbor is like outside coming to kill the kid after being released from jail and Junior has accidentally shot and killed him :0. omg. the cop comes and beats the shit out of the kid, and leaves after junior's mom beat the shit out of HIM. the cop leaves the body there, which feels wierd to me. in the book Junior says that maybe he's avoiding blame because his gun was used by Junior to do the murder so he's like complicit but it kind of flies past that.

Whatever, the cop leaves the body and then omg… Junior ends up seeing something pulling the body under the house… yikes. at this point. Junior realizes that his dad is kind of a selfish asshole and vowes to kill him but realizes that after feeding on the neighbor, the dad will probably be very strong. Okay now its a few days later anjd the dad is back! Junior realizes that some toy is tied to the dad's ghost and drowns the toy as like a symbol of the dad being drowned. Junior ends up getting pulled into a memory of another guy from the past and we learn this:

all those years ago, Junior's dad borrowed this guy's truck to kill a moose, but wrecks the car and gets literally no moose. the dude finds him and beats the shit out of him. It's at this point that Junior realizes that while he's living a memory, that HE is also the one killing his father. UItimately, Junior kills his own father in the past which kills his father in the present. very cool

Flash Forward: Junior is in his 40's and his own son has died. He goes back to the house he used to live in and essentially tries to replicate the circumstances that brought his dad back to bring his son back, all while in full native regalia, just like his father. I'm not doing this ending any justice, it's worth the read.