Prudence (2015) By David Treuer

If you are looking for happy endings, stop now. No one in Prudence by David Treuer has a happy life. If you are looking for writing that often climbs to brilliant, you’ve found it. 

Treuer’s novel is set in the woods of Minnesota where each summer a family from Chicago travels north to open up a vacation resort. They are Emma and Jonathan Washburn, and their son Frankie. Other main characters include Felix, a World War I veteran who serves as the caretaker & handyman at the resort, and Billy, who is Frankie’s age. Felix and Frankie are from the nearby Indian reservation. And of course, there is the title character Prudence, also a Native American, originally from Standing Rock Reservation, to the west.

 

The story begins in 1942 when Frankie, having just graduated from Princeton, is visiting his parents at the resort before leaving for basic training, and then on to the war in Europe. But perhaps more important, he is visiting Billy who he has had an ongoing intimate relationship with all the years they’ve known each other.

 

During the week-long visit, Frankie and Billy will join with others to hunt down a German prisoner of war who has escaped from the prison camp across the lake from the resort. With testosterone running high, a shot is fired into some bushes in the belief the prisoner of war is hiding there. He was not. Instead, shot and killed is the younger sister of Prudence. They had been in hiding, having run away from an orphanage that planned on separating them from each other. No charges are filed, because after all it was “just” an Indian girl. The Washburns care for the in-shock Prudence, and bury her sister. As the guilt stricken Frankie visits Prudence’s room, he promises her he will come back after the war and care for her.
 

As the story unfolds over the next ten years, the events of that week are examined in detail and from ever perspective. It has impacted each of them profoundly. It is at this point in the novel Treuer’s writing soars, his ability to capture a character’s hopes, dreams, and heartache, is flawless. His chapter on Frankie’s letter to Billy written just before his final mission in Germany is of award winning caliber. The final chapter, Prudence’s letter to her long dead sister, will make you hurt.

The book ends with Prudence’s suicide in 1952. That’s not a spoiler, it’s the prologue. 

 

I have two disappointments. First, the stereotypes in the book strike me as overplayed, though they are perhaps necessary for readers who may not be aware of the social history of the time period. If one is not aware of them, then much of the story will not make sense. My other disappointment is that Treuer drops the characters of Frankie’s parents -- we know that after the war they stop coming to Minnesota, I’d like to know more.

Recommendation:  Read it for its superb writing, but be aware it is not a pleasant story.

Bombay Stories (Urdu, early 1900's, English translation 2012) By Saadat Hasan Manto

Salmam Rushdie’s quote on the cover of Bombay Stories by Saadat Hasan Manto calls the author “the undisputed master of the modern Indian short story.” In reference to his writing skills, one could hardly disagree. His topic selections however, left me uncomfortable.

Manto did not write a history of India or Pakistan, but his writings are set in that part of history spanning their partition – two countries, before and after. It’s a gold mine of a literary period, a topic central to two of my favorite books: Vikram Seth’s A Suitable Boy, and Rushdie’s Midnight’sChildren, both which are epic in scale.  Manto’s short stories are the opposite, individual short stories about day-to-day life, with the epic nature of the era being a not-all-that-important backdrop. It wasn’t an easy era to be having a day-to-day life. The social upheaval caused by independence and partition impacted everything, particularly the country’s economy. 

Bombay Stories is a collection of 14 short stories written by Manto about his years in Mumbai, known as Bombay in the colonial period. In a sense, his personal story isn’t that unusual: small town boy moves to the big city to hopefully find success. But again, the era makes it anything but the usual story.

Concurrent with this time period was another culturally significant series of events, the early days of what would become Bollywood. The more autobiographical of stories are about how he came to the city as a writer, yearning to be a scriptwriter.  He worked as a reporter while waiting for that dream to play out, taking whatever job paid.  He wasn’t alone in this career path, as anyone familiar with the waiter-actor connection to the film industry can attest. Manto ended up having some success both as a reporter and as a scriptwriter, receiving writing credits for some early Bollywood films. 

Perhaps my favorite of the selections is a story titled Mummy. In it the character referred to as Mummy takes under her wings an assortment of aspirants to acting careers, to literary fame, and to marrying-for-money dreamers; caring for all of them through life’s ups and downs -- while managing a prostitution ring on the side. 

Hamid’s Baby is also an interesting short story. It is about a married man who may, or may not have, fathered a daughter by a prostitute. Economics dictate the girl will probably grow up to be a prostitute, which is okay if it’s not his child, but horrifying to him if it is his child. He’ll never know for sure.

Prostitution, the world’s oldest profession, plays a major role in most of these stories. In Bombay Stories it’s an accurate reflection of the economic times, and it’s not unlike the aspiring writers and actors -- you do what you gotta do to survive, until you no longer have to do it. And, I personally don’t make any value judgements about the subject. What leads to my discomfort is the blatant sexism of the arrangements portrayed in this book – but, we are talking about 100 years ago, except I know that in parts of the world, including big city America, that 100 years ago is today.

Recommendation:  If one is a student of India, or Bollywood, yes.