“A surprising side of Poe splendidly revealed.” the reason for the darkness of the night
FROM THE ASHES My Story of Being Indigenous, Homeless, and Finding My Way
HOUSE OF STICKS A Memoir Tran, Ly Scribner (368 pp.) $27.00 | Jun. 1, 2021 978-1-5011-1881-4
Thistle, Jesse Atria (368 pp.) $17.00 paper | Jun. 8, 2021 978-1-982182-94-6
A Métis-Cree writer and professor examines how poverty, addiction, and poor choices led to a life of homelessness
and crime. The son of a Métis woman and an Algonquin-Scot man, Thistle spent much of his childhood in Saskatchewan dealing with his drunk, abusive father, who taught his children how to beg and steal. Eventually, the police put the children into foster care until Thistle’s paternal grandparents became their guardians. Under their stern but loving care, the author’s life normalized somewhat. Meanwhile, however, schoolmates taunted Thistle and his siblings for being “ugly Indians” abandoned by their parents. Self-identifying as Italian, the author began drinking and taking drugs during high school. Though his burgeoning habit temporarily abated when he fell in love with a young woman named Karen, an argument with his grandfather angered him enough to spend all of his hard-earned college money on drugs and alcohol. When his grandfather finally told him to leave, Thistle’s life spiraled out of control. He became homeless and relied on “food banks, churches and shelter beds,” drifted from city to city, and got addicted to crack. One night, while high, he fell 35 feet from an open window and shattered his leg, which eventually developed gangrene. He was in and out of jail and rehab, and his health continued to deteriorate drastically. Estranged from family and gravely ill, he returned again to rehab, “shaking and vomiting and praying for mercy.” Then he started the long road back to not only personal recovery, but also reconciliation with friends, family, and his Native past. As Thistle narrates his personally harrowing, ultimately uplifting story of survival, he also addresses the life-altering damage that colonialism has wrought on Indigenous people everywhere— especially “how, when one’s Indigeneity is stripped away, people can make poor choices informed by pain, loneliness, and heartbreak, choices that see them eventually cast upon the streets, in jail, or wandering with no place to be.” A courageously heartfelt journey from profound selfdestruction to redemption.
y o u n g a d u lt
A moving coming-of-age memoir by a young Vietnamese American girl growing up in New York City. “We arrive in the blizzard of 1993, coming from rice paddies, mango trees, and the sun to February in the Empire State,” writes Tran in the opening passage, recounting how she came to the U.S. with her parents and three siblings. With very little English and almost no money, as well as a father who suffered from PTSD due to his time as a prisoner of war, the family had limited prospects. As she chronicles the significant obstacles her family faced, Tran also shows their grit and determination to survive and thrive in their new home of Ridgewood, Queens. In her vivid depictions, the author spares no detail of harsh winters, malnutrition, and acute poverty. Progressing from their rough times during the “sweatshop days,” the family moved on to own a nail salon, and the children dedicated themselves to their education while also working to support the family in their spare time. As the only daughter, Tran describes her troubled relationships with her siblings and parents as well as the trauma of her father’s PTSD. Because he believed that wearing glasses meant admitting failure, Tran suffered unnecessarily from severe visual impairment. Her parents also imparted to her a stoic Buddhism, which emphasizes fate and endurance. Occasionally reminiscent of Ocean Vuong’s novel, On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous (2019), especially in its sharp examination of the unique cultural and social issues facing immigrants from Southeast Asia, the narrative also speaks to the hardships that non-White women endure under the double yoke of sexism and racism. Particularly difficult to read are the sections in which Tran outlines her mental fragility and the failure of the educational system to sustain her. However, with dedication and the support of friends, the author graduated from Columbia with a degree in creative writing and linguistics. A brutally honest, ultimately hopeful narrative of family, immigration, and resilience.
THE REASON FOR THE DARKNESS OF THE NIGHT Edgar Allan Poe and the Forging of American Science
Tresch, John Farrar, Straus and Giroux (448 pp.) $30.00 | Jun. 15, 2021 978-0-374-24785-0
The prolific fiction writer, poet, and literary critic viewed through a scientific lens. |
kirkus.com
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nonfiction
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15 april 2021
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89