About a year before Amber Blaeser-Wardzala’s novel, Another Name for Red, opens, Middle Sister’s older sister vanished. Her family never recovered. Her father rarely leaves his chair. He spends his time drinking and watching TV. Her mother organizes to bring attention to the cause of missing and murdered indigenous women. And Middle Sister struggles with her anger and sadness on a reservation where it seems like everyone is dying.
Every day is a fight for Middle Sister. She’s the only one earning money in her family. She’s the only one trying to take care of Nookomis, her grandmother, who grows increasingly frustrated and depressed that she’s outlived so many other members of their family. And then there’s the man with red cowboy boots, a white man who lives on stolen land and kills reservation dogs. He will not leave Middle Sister alone, to the point that other people start to think they’re dating.
We follow Middle Sister through long months of simmering conflict with just about everyone. It’s just a matter of time before Middle Sister snaps, which she does just before the book ends. I was surprised that most of the action in this book takes place right at the end. I’m still not sure how I feel about the structure of Another Name for Red. The preceding content is full of conversations that don’t really resolve anything. Given the things that the characters are dealing with, it’s no surprise that most of the scenes leading up to the book’s conclusion do more to ratchet up the emotional turmoil than anything else.
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Now that I’ve finished the book and have had some time to think about it more, I have to applaud the surprising subtlety that lies underneath the emotional force of the narrative. The changing names of the characters reflect the strong ties of kinship among Anishinaabe people. The red dress once owned by Middle Sister’s lost older sister hanging outside the family home recalls Jaime Black’s powerful REDress Project. The reservation dog that seems to help guide the family back to healing and to each other could’ve walked straight out of Anishinaabe myth. These references—and the probability that I’ve missed others—make me want to re-read the book, more slowly, to see what I can learn.
Early in Another Name for Red, Middle Sister spots another character reading Louise Erdrich’s The Round House. I would’ve had a hard time not comparing Another Name for Red to Erdrich’s novel even without the cameo. Both books deal with the crimes that white men commit against indigenous women, crimes they can often get away with because of the nightmare snarl of jurisdictions and laws that hinder investigations and prosecutions. Unlike Erdrich’s novel, Another Name for Red is a lot messier. This book is emotionally raw in a way that forces us to reckon with the pain of loss compounded with injustice.
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley for review consideration.