Perspective by Krist Novoselić (December 20, 2024)
The nights are long in Deep River and I have been reading a lot of fiction. A good source of books is Robert Michael Pyle’s house — which is packed with literature. I have been puling some classics like Melville’s “Typee” and Stienbeck’s “The Red Pony and other stories”. I’m a snob for old books, and Bob caught this as I was combing his stacks. He suggested modern fiction and handed me “The Entire Sky” by Joe Wilkins (Little, Brown and Company July 2, 2024).
Bob cautioned my departed bandmate Kurt’s death features in the story. I was undaunted and started reading. The story is about Justin, a teenager growing up in Seattle and eventually landing in Montana. Justin lives with his single-parent mother, who is unstable and prone to abusive relationships. That’s one part of the story, the other thread is about Rene, an old-school sheep rancher in Montana.
I know, or have known, people like Rene, however they are cattle ranchers on the Lower Columbia river. These are folks who came of age in the 1950s an 60s. This old world is long gone, I am afraid. But I am happy to have gotten a sense of it through some great people.
At any rate, Justin is on the lam after a terrible experience with a PTSD veteran uncle. I don’t want to spoil the plot so will offer instead some observations. There is a scene which alludes to the Matthew Shepard tragedy. There is another episode with a runt lamb and an old ranch trick to get a ewe to take it in as her own. The trick involves skinning the stillborn lamb and making a “jacket” for the runt. This is some kind of allegory with human relations that I did not really ponder.
Justin is a Nirvana fan and that part of the plot takes place in April of 1994. In fact, Wilkins, titles many chapters simply as “April 1994” as a device to move the story through time. The other chapters are titled “Before”, to set up the character development. Seeing “April 1994” was for me, like a flashcard of bad memories. Nevertheless, I can deal. I know Justin’s story because I have heard it from so many fans over the years — how the music changed their lives. I have lived this through my own musical journey in the early 1980s, so can relate.
Finally, there is the chapter “May 1994”. This, after the story peaks and there is enough suspense in the aftermath to keep the pages turning until the end of the book.
The day I finished “The Entire Sky”, I just so happened to get a Christmas present in the mail. John Silva, Nirvana manager, sent me “Twist” by Adele Bertei (ZE Books March 14, 2023). The liner notes say Bertel is a “pioneering creator of The Bloods — the first out, queer, all-woman rock band”. This book is her origin story.
The protagonist in “Twist” is Maddie Twist. She lives under similar circumstances as Justin in the story above. Maddie is a teenager in the mid 1960s. Her mother is schizophrenic. Eventually, Maddie is separated from her two younger brothers after she’s placed in a foster home.
Maddie does nothing really wrong, and gets beaten by another girl. At one point, she’s raped by a “Hippy”. Nevertheless, it’s Maddie who finds herself in a maze of institutions. These are girl schools and detention centers, so Maddie, who has no inner conflicts about her sexual orientation, should be in a good spot around other girls. She gets caught messing around and is punished. Eventually, she turns 18 and comes of age in a gay lesbian community centered around a club and cabaret scene in Cleveland during the early 1970s.
Maddie loves music and much of the sounds of the era is intertwined throughout the story. Maddie tells us of the news of Janis Joplin’s death, but it’s not that big a deal to her. She seems to be really tough throughout the book, even in dealing with her rape. She brings it up again later in the story, but it’s not something she gets hung up on. I was shocked at the scene and felt bad reading about it.
Everyone deals with loss eventually. Dysfunctional family is terrible, and perhaps worse than dealing with death. Justin and Maddie, in their respective stories, survive the dysfunction, while at the same time find personal meaning. In the end, everyone wants a home. I hope I don’t spoil the plots with that last sentence.
(Krist Novoselić 2024 All Rights Reserved)