NBQ North Dakota Quarterly Volume 66, Number 3 Surnmmer 1999 Contents ‘Alice Briman 5 The Gulf (poem) Naomj Rand 7 Lonely Hearts Beat as One’ ‘Tye Importance of Family D.E Steward 24 Setembre Julianna Baggott 32 How I Feae God (poem) ‘Thomas Matchie 33 -Postuibal Sunshine in Michael Doms’ Cloud Chamber Virginia Egan 42 Seventh Floor Baleony (story) Jil Gidmark 52 Metville Here and Now Joe Ducato 61 Night Swimming (story) Ron Mobring 68 Penny Candy (poem ‘erry Caesar 70 Nationality, Gender, and Body in “Neighbor Rosicky” and “Old Ms. Haris” ‘Samrat Upadhyay 79 Mentor (story) John Calvin Rezmerski 89 Red, White, and Blue (poem) Philip Bryant 90 Malcom X at Temple No. 2: Chicago 1960 (poem) Harvey Knull 91 ‘Theses and Dissertations Reviews Faythe Thureen 113 Orm Overland, The Western Home: A Literary History of Norwegian America Jane Varley 117 Heid Erdrich, Fishing for MythTHOMAS MATCHIE Posttribal Sunshine in Michael Dorris’ Cloud Chamber Inhis critical volume Turn to the Native, Arnold Krupat sligns himself with Chippewa novelistcritic Gerald Vizenor’s posture toward postmodern Native American literature. In novels fike Bearheart Vizenor creates an imaginary postribal community of pilgrims traveling from Minnesota south (cather then west) 10 create on the symbolic level a more tolerant kind of| ‘America, i contrast io novelist-rites like Elizabeth Cook-Lyna, who see assimilation as destructive to Native culture, Krupat argues that ie che pre- sent postcolonial world one must transcend ethnicity and race in non- estructive ways for the purpose of healing. Oxe writer who might agree, though in his own way, is Michael Doris—a novelist Keupat mentions only jn passing. In Cloud Chamber Dorris fashions a realistic story of a new 20th-century westward movement in which five generations of characters ‘combine all kinds of differences—national origin, race, gender, sexual ori ‘station, and culture—in the interest of togetherness, Moving through most ‘of the last one hundred years, the author then sets on 2 small but global community situated in the geographic heart of America. As Rayona Taylor, ‘whose heritage is multicultural, says during a powwow on a Montana reser- ‘ation in the end, “There's room for everybody” (316). Before reviewing the plot of Cloud Chamber, which passes through several historical and cultural changes in this century—in Ireland and the ‘Unie States—itis important 10 be aware ofthe author's poetic and sym- bolic language which permeates and connects these different times and places. If the novel is a “multifaceted explanation of what it is to be a part of a family” (Publishers Weekly), that extended family may be seen a8 a chamber of sorts, one clouded by all sorts of misunderstanding, anger, ‘even hate, Clouds in themselves can be very dark and foreboding, filled with uncontrottable, destructive elements, but they can also be very beau- tifel, even majestic. And one must not forget that they exist in the sky, 3where eagles fly, and fight shines through, and sometimes they bring the dry land rain. It is a Montana sky under which Dorris visited his father's Modoc relatives as a child (Croft 1) and later traveled and did field work (Wong 196). For the most part, however, Cloud Chamber takes place in Kentucky, the home of Dorris" Irish mother (Gramtam 45}, Indeed, itis ‘Thebes, Kentucky, a mid-American town which becomes the center of this virtual “Greek tragedy” (Cart). But families often unite around food, and ironically i is @ rather hilarious mishap at the Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant in Montana rear the end that ties Thebes to that reser- vation so well-known from Dorris’ first novel, A Yellow Raft in Blue Water. In this context white, black, and red histories meet in what Rayona ‘Taylor calls “our owa personal ethnic rainbow vealision” (273), ‘There are seven voices in the novel, each tonally different as they tell their desperate stories set against 20th-century historical and cultural change among the three unlikely groups-—the Irish, Afro-Americans, and American Indians, But none is as distinet and powerful as that of the ‘young Rayona who brings them all together in the end where her actions, ‘ress, and language betray her self-assurance as an Irish, Black, Native American. Rollerblading in “A maroon spandex sports bra and black run: ning shorts” (268), she says of herself: “I couldn’t be Christine. ... Mom hhad retired the jersey” (271). She says this as her loose, waving dark Ihair—and hair is 9 pervasive image in Dorris’ fiction—picks up different themes spanning the novel, Initially, we learn that Rose Mannion, whose name Rayona eventually chooses for herself, has dark snake-like hair, dramatizing her Spanish, indeed multicultural, roots. Tt is an image that contrasts with one used to describe hes Irish lover, “Satan’s own serpent” (24) who betrays bis country and their love, But the dark-haired Rayona counters that betrayal by selecting in an Indian naming ceremony neat the end the name of Rose—her Irish Rose—as her own. At this time Ray is handed Rose’s “Crystal cut glass vase,” which reflects sn dhe Tight “its ‘own individual color of sky or earth" (316), just as do the separate mem- bers of this extended family. There is also the “eagle feather” presented to Ray by Dayton, a homosexual unjustly matigned by the community in Yellow Raft, but here a part of the “breeds” who “stick together" (315). Finally, the “bald eagle" (309) which flies overhead is at once a Native and American sytobal, suggesting that something truly magnificent is tak- ing place—on earth as well as in the clouds, Now to the three historical periods. The action in Cloud Chamber begins in Ireland, It is near the turn of the century when frish political his- tory is legend, Dorris, a mixed blood of Isis as well as French and Native ancestry, mentions no specific dates, and his use of places like Boyle, Ireland, only Seems to place the action in the center of Erin's Isle. In the ‘background, however, the reader can sense such events as the Sinn Fein 34Revolution in 1913 and the Trish Rebellion of 1916, followed by the treaties of 1920 and 1921. In each case, and all were zooted én economic depression and social injustice, the Trish emerged the loser, Nicholas Mansergi calls these events basic to un understanding of Ireland's hatred ofthe Crown, as they give “final, concentrated explosive force to political nationalism” (314). Against this backdrop Rose. an Irish gir! of Spanish descemt, is freed to choose her country over her lover, Gerty Lynch, a British sympathizer. Though her voice might be “hyper-romastic” (Sayers), Dorris is at his best as he roots her love story in Ireland's brutal, ongoing rebellion. Rose’s decision to have Gerry killed is breathtaking, after which she and her new husband Martin MeGarry, a weak second choice “skib" (as he calls himself), must flee to America, or Thebes, Kentucky (Dosris’ modern Greece), 10 avoid retaliation, Irish emigration is another historical reality that covers decades of history. Gerry Lynch comes from Galway, one of the poorest areas in Ireland. Rose and her Family, however, migrate not to the traditional Irish destinations of Boston, ‘or Australia—though they fake such destinations (43)—but to Kentucky, tis here that Dorris himseif grew up, giving him firsthand knowiedge of Doth Southern hospitality and, as we shal see, che stace’s incipient racism. But the Trish character is as important 10 the novel as Irish history, Political involvement is only one attribute. & is tangely a Catholic couriry ‘where men rule, but “mothers enjoy power in a behind-the-scenes matri- archy” (Connery 192). And if there is anything an Irish mother wants her son to be it is a priest. In Thebes the McGarrys have two boys, Rose's obvious favorite, Andrew, who becomes a pritst, and Robert, 2 weak sout like his father who works as a carpenter for the railroad. Bridie Kilkenny marries Robert to be close to Andy where she and Rose, like “two Ofympians” (74) compete for his affection. In Ireland the priest, while an important moral guide, is really ignored in matters of econeynics and poli ties (Connery 162), and this is Andy’s role inthe novel, When he is killed in a railtoad accident, Rose sues the railroad, though it casts Robert his job. Rose, faving made a crucial political decision in Ireland, does the ssame in America, for her “demand for justice” supersedes her son’s well- being (93), As a result Robert and Bridie, together with their two young girl, Edna and Marcella, move 10 Louisville where Robert has a mental and physical breakdown, and eventually Bridie takes him back to Thebes ‘where his awn mother Rose cares for him as a near invalid. If Dosris uses the feud in che British Isles early in the century as a background for introducing his Irish characters, he capitalizes on some sigtificant American Ristory griar to and following World War IL to lead us into his world of Blacks. America in the 30s and 40s was not a pleasant ‘one for Afro-Americans, In the South eacise was rampant, reaching its ‘most violent expression in lynchings by the Ku Klux Klan. As late as 351940 Alonia newspapers reported that hundreds of Blacks and Black sympathizers had been tbducted and flogged during the year (Revere 445). Strangely enough, this was also a period of the Harlem Renaissance in the arts when Jean Toomer in vignettes like “Blood-baraing Moon” and Richard Wright in “Big Boy Leaves Home” portray in original forms the deep, often explosive feelings of white Americans toward Blacks. Dorris assumes this kind of history a8 a backdrop for his story, but he focuses on one struggling family’s thoughts and feelings ina climate obviously hos- tile to Afro-Americans. Perhaps the one outlet for Black males atthe time ‘was the military where integration was mandatory, ané travel Out of the United Siates gave colored Americans a chance to witness other cuivares not as prejudiced as their own. In Cloud Chamber, Earl Taylor, young Black who delivers groceries to a tuberculosis sanitarium in Waverly, Kentucky, belongs to this era It i in the middle of the Depression when hhe meets Marcella, the daughter of Robert and Bridie, recovering from TB at Waverly Hills with her older sister, Edna. Both have contracted the dis- case from their invalid father, Robert ‘Tuberculosis, a communicable but still controllable disease, was the leading cause of death in America in the first half of this century ("Brief History”), and Dorris weaves this historical phenomenon into the fabric of his novel. Before she gets too weak, the oller daughter Edna works as a receptionist to keep “Mama afloat” and "Marcella in sebool” (120-21); then the stock market crashes and both sisters end up at Waverly. In tis scenario Dorris is able to ilustrate the fragility of life and the closeness of death in a different way from the Irish Rebellion, Stil, ia the sanitarium the younger Marcella, like Rase before her, falls hopelessly in love. She develops a “magnetic attraction” for Ear, the grocery ma, wiiom she sees as “a Michelangelo statue come to life” (160) and quickly becomes preg- nant, But this is a racist climate, so they are married secretly and have to ‘avel seperately across the country to San Francisco where he joins the army to gain employment, leaving Marcella living near a California mili- tary base with their young son, Elgin, Edna, more like the later, loverless Rose, having “married hersel” like the “Oracle at Delphi" (171-72) is left to support the fatherless family as a bookkeeper after Yeaving Waverly ‘When Ear! is apparently killed in Earope, his mother Marcella, Aunt Bara ‘nd Grandmother Rose raise the boy back in Louisville. Itis the city where Dorris himself was brought up by his mother, his aunt, and his grandmoth- er Gale £7). But what is most telling in this section of the novel is the struggle this boy encounters to define himself as an Afto-American in & country unsympathetic with his kind. Like the plight of Rose in Ireland, Elgin’s is an intense and moving story. And as in the earlier case, Dortis ‘concentrates on the young man’s personal battle to Survive, not on any of the horrifying racial episodes going on in the county. 36When Elgin gets older he is stifled by “feminine swooning” (187), but Worse than this these women eaise him as a handsome, dark-skinned Italian, “exotic fooking” with “a beautiful suntan” (188-89), Racism within a family can sometimes be just as painful as overt violenee, and now Elgin begins to fume. When his mother says, “You're lish... Irish as Paddy's Pig.” he rejoins, “Black Irish?” Eventually, Elgin finds thet fe can no longer hide who he is, His friends call ins “nigger lips,” he cannot get & date forthe junior promt, and restaurants refuse to serve him food (194-95). He fas to visit his father's black cousin on the West End of town to feel real, and itis this woman, not his immediate family, who squares with him, telling him about his father and encouraging the boy to follow in that rman’s footsteps, claiming: “It’s your ticket out of town (195). A typical vietim of white racism long before the Civil Rights Bill ofthe 1960s, Elgin opts against his mother, like Rose choosing against her lover, though ‘Marcella thinks she is going to die (199). As does his father before him, he enlists in the army in order “to find out who Tam (197). Like his father he also goes to Europe where he meets « gay officer, Paul Jenkins, who accompanies him to the Austeian border in search of his father; ironically, he meets his half-sister, Veronica, in a bar in Passau, ‘who tells him about their father. In Dorris’ fiction gays are particularly sensitive and caring individuals. Sergeant Jenkins reminds us of Dayton Nickles in Yellow Raft; maligned unjustly by the Native community, Be takes in Christine when she retuens from Seattle to de. In Cloud Chamber Paul helps Elgin follow his grandmother's advice: “Visiting the past is a way to goarantee your own immortality” (227), What he finds through Veronica is that Ear, now dead, had faked his death to marry, changed bis name to “Hans,” and worked as a grocer to support his family (233) Dorris’ own father served in Europe, where he committed suicide, a fact Dorris never admitted and which came to iight only after the author's own suicide in 1997 (Covert All). After another stint in the army, Elgin returns to Seattle where he meets and marries Christine, a Native ‘American “more heart-wasted” than he is and to whom Rayona is born. In the context of the Vietnam War Dorris introduces a third cultural ‘group, the Native American, This war represents contemporary history, ne that hovers in the background of Yellow Raf, much as do the Irish rebellion and Black oppression in Cloud Chamber, What we know from the first novel is that Christine championed her brother Lee's entry into that war, that Dayton Nickles, Lee's friend, and much to the consternation cof Christine, vehemently protested that war, and that Christine goes to Seattle to seek information on Lee, missing in action, where she meets and marries Elgin Taylor. in the process of coming to terms with Lee's death and Elgin's infidelity, Christine dissipates her lite before deciding to come ‘back tothe reservation to de: ironically, she chooses to live with Dayton, 7her old competitor for Lee’s soul, now falsely accused of abusing his stu Gents and alienated from the community. Heze she abandons her now teenage daughter Rayona, who like her father before her runs away tp find herself, something she does by the end of the second part of Yellew Raft We know lite of the married life of Elgin and Christine, chough in Cloud ‘Chamber Elgin returns once in the 70s to the Midwest, bringing Rayona as, child when Christine is sick. The famity then learns about Christine from. Dayton, who writes to Marcelia from the reservation. Montana with its “pearl sky” was a nostalgic place for both Dorris and his wife Louise Erdrich (Whiwe 18). He had “a very strong feeling” (Wong 208) for that state, which now becomes the focus of the meeting of several cultures. ‘What is most interesting is that there is no mention in Yellow Raft of the Irish, and perhaps the major contribution of Clow Chamber is that Dorris attempts something extremely unusual in the interest of unity: he brings together three highly unlikely cultures in a common cause, In the Native world, being a mixed-blood can be very painful because one runs the risk of not being accepted by either race, So commingling three groups ina single meaningful celebration can be even more tenuous. The deeper irony is that, as Mary Crow Dog claims in her autobiography, Lakota Woman, historically as a matter of policy the whites destroyed the ‘yospaye, or extended family as Native peoples conceive it. She continues, ‘The close-knit clan, set in its old ways, was a stumbling block in the path ofthe missionary and government agen, its Waditions and cus- toms a barrier f9 what the white man called “progress and cviira- tion." (13) What Dorris attempts in Cloud Chamber reverses the process, and he does it by bringing one of these oppressive white groups, the Irish, back into the picture, not as a destructive element but as « catalyst for unity. Bull Moyers ‘observes that Dorris characters, though “bonded across time and space by kinship and community,” are often “Separated from their community, oF their extended family” (460), In Cloud Chamber, however, the author brings together families separated by international barriers as a way of healing local scars. He does it from the inside out, so to speak, so that that healing grace comes from within the different cultural groups. For Dorris, the Native context, in this case the Montana reservation, is best suited for such a union, or reunion, because Europeans, by and large, lack “the expe- rience of pluralism,” something Indian people across the continent have because “they were surrounded by other cultures” (Moyers 466). By the novel’s end, Rose has died, and Edna and Marcella return (0 Ireland to spread her ashes under a tree where she had met Gerry Lynch, Itis a gesture which connects her to her true love and to Irish history, one these girls never experienced. The last two chapters then belong to 38Royona, She is now a young woman preparing for her naming ceremo- nhy—something she has to explain to Elgin, her Black father who lacked any ceremony surrounding his growing up. Here she chooses the name “Rose” (267), though she knows Hite about her Irish-Spanish greatgreat- ‘grandmother. Now her extended family retums—her father, grandmother Marcella, and great-aunt Edna, only to witness a comic catastrophe at the Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant where Ray works. In this context Aunt Edna, the hard-working, racist virgin, one who aever had a child of her own, but who worked to save her femity during the Depression, now sur- faces as a “savior,” supplying her expertise as a cook. Finally, at the pow= wow Ray is presented with a crystal vase, Rose’s Irish treasure, as well as fer uncle Lee's Purple Heart and an eagle feather from Dayton, her moth- er’s (fiend and “savior” in her last days, For Rayone and the whole farni- ly, the circle is complete as the celebration unites three cultures in a cere- ‘mony that is truly healing. As Krupat would say, it is an event that is “posttribal” or “transnational,” Skow equates it with the cooling effect of 4 “spring breeze" after an “intricate and brooding plot.” ‘To go back to our discussion of imagery in the begizaing, Rayona is a young woman on the brink of womanhood, and Dorris uses her as his uni- fying catalyst, Her blades, dress, language, and job at a Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant betray a self-assured, joyful person thoroughly jmversed in Americana—a far different picture than we have of Elgin’s youth. We know much of her growing psins from Yellow Raft, pains ‘equivalent to Rose’s in Ireland or Elgin's in Thebes, but here she is a per- som al peace and “in the clouds,” iis a context in which several aspects of her Native culture come through, One is her naming ceremony, a ritual cel- bration of maturity—something Elgin never had. “It's like when you get toa certain age you get to become... yourself” (272), she tells her father. ‘Another is her idea of the extended family; her relatives from all three ides—ttish, Black, and Native—join her for the celebration, Elgin, we remember, chose to ran away from his family. ts interesting that even the blowup at Kentucky Fried Chicken tums into a communal affair where Edna, who knows the Colonel's wife, saves the day with her knowiedge of the “formula” (292), The meal itself is communal, as itis comic, thus serv- ing to unite all the disparate elements. The “bald eagle” (309) Ries over- hhead as Dayton presents Kayona with an eagle feather, symbolic of her relationship «0 the power of the tibe, And the “crystal vase” coming from. ose suggests another Native value, the importance of one's ancestars. For Native Americans life is cyclic rather than linear, and that is what happens at the novel's end. The chamber may be cfouded, but itis also strangely crowded as this trifold group joins together in Montana, Like Vizenor, Dorris is posttribal and healing, but he is realistic rather ‘han allegorical. His plot is Linear, covering the century with its major histori- 39cal events, but it is also cyclic, uniting individuals, families, cultures in a Montana powwow-~at least for the moment. If there is something that makes this gathering possible, this “clouded chamber" less clouded, itis, interdependence, In spite of the wholesale Irish manipulation, or Blacks jumping” society, or Indians limited to a reservation, people need each other, and that need is paramount. Rose needs Gerry, but she also needs Martin, however much an unconssious “skib.” In a similar way Bridie necds Robert, and Robert, unloved and used, knows he's @ good father, and he reeds Rose in the end. Marcella and Edna need their father, as they do each ‘other, in spite of their differences and constant fighting. Marcella needs Earl, ‘no matter his color, to know she’s alive and normal, though he seems to need ‘a Buropean woman to forget America’s racist laws and customs. As a visgin, Edna couldn't be happier than to have Marcella's Elgin, even without Earl Elgin needs Paul Jenkins, though be is gay, and maybe itis his gayness that ‘rakes him so available and helpful, a surrogate “father” (222) In Sosing her “brother,” Christine needs Elgin, as she later does Dayton, another gay unjustly ostracized by society, but fundamentally other-centered, Rayona sees him as the greatest of human beings. Kentucky Fried Chicken needs Edna to save the day, and Rayona needs everybody—Edna, grandmother Awat Ida (Christine's “mother” who returns from the pages of Yellow Raft), her father Elgin, Dayton, and finally her Irish Rose—to make her day. Family i just that—family. In Dosis’ own words, itis the “we” more than the “T” (Moyers 467). It is mote basic, more powerful, more necessary than nationality, race, gender, anything else, That is the case in the end of Cloud Chamber. A kind of apocalypse, it may remind us of Sastre’s No Exit (we have each other though it sometimes seems like hell), but itis also Camelot, that “one brief shining moment” when the sun shines through, at least momentarily, to dispel the clouds. Or to look at it from a more Native American per- spective, when those mysterious chambers within the clouds let loose their life-giving rain, Works Cited “Brief History of Tuberculosis.” Revised: 23 July 1996. 17 March 1997 -hutpivww.umdn edu/-nibewebyistory bm: I-t>, Car, Michael, Rev. of Cloud Chamber, by Michael Dorris. Booklist 15 Oct. 1996: 379, Cook-Lynn, Elizabeth, “Politics and the Novel.” Wieazo Review 7:2 (1991): 78 40, Conrety, Donald, The irish. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1970. Covert, Colin, "The Anguished Life of Michael Dorris.” Minneapolis Star Tribune, 3 August. 1997: Ale.Croft, Georgia. “Something Ventured.” Valley News {White River Valley, Vermont) 28 April 1987: 1-2 Crow Dag, Mary, with Richard Exioes, Latota Woman, New York: HarperCollins, 1990, Dorris, Michael. Cloud Chamber. New York: Sevibnes, 1997, —.A Yellow Raft in Blue Water. New York: Wares Books, 1997, Gate, laine. “Character Builder.” Minneapolis Star Tribune 23 Jan. 1997: Els Grantham, Shelby, "Intimate Colleboration or ‘A Novel Partnership.” Darrmouth Allan’ Magazine, Mach 1985; 43-47, ‘Knapat, Amold, The Turn tothe Nau: Stes i Chico and Culture, Lincoln: U of Nebraska P, 1996, Mansergh, Nicholas, The Irisk Question, 1840-1921, Toronta: U of Toronto P, 1975, “Moyers, Bill, “Louise Erdrich and Michael Doris.” A World of Ideas. New York: Doubleday, 1959. 460-69. Rev. of Cloud Chamber, by Michael Dorris, Publishers Weekly Nov. 1996: 55. Revere, Richard H, “The Ku Klux Klan Rides Again." Nation 30 (1940): 445.46. Sartre, ean-Paul. No Exlr and Three Otker Plays. New York: Vintage Books, 1955, Sayers, Valeri. “Thy People Shall Be My People.” Rev. of Cloud Chamber, by Mictiael Doris. New York Times Book Review 9 Feb, 1997: 11. Skow, John, Rev. of Cloud Chamber, by Michael Dorris, Tine 17 Feb. 1997: 8. ‘Toomer, Jean. "Blood:-buring Moon,” Cane, 1923, New York: Harper & Row, 1968. 51-67 Vizenor, Gerald. Bearkeart: The Heirship Chronicles, Minneapolis: U of ‘Minnesota P, 1990, ‘White, Sharon, and Glenda Burnside, "On Native Ground: Am Interview with ‘Louise Exdeich and Michael Dorris.” The Bloomsbury Review 8.4 (1988): 16- 18. ‘Wong, Hertha D. “An faterview with Louise Erdrich and Michael Dore." Nore Dakora Quarterly 3.1 (2987): 196-218. Wright, Richard. “Big Boy Leaves Home.” Uncle Tom's Children, New Yorks Harper & Row, 1940, 17-53, 4