This is my third time reading Jones’ work, after his creepy novella, Mapping the Interior, and the phenomenal werewolf coming of age novel, Mongrels. Sadly, this was my least favorite so far by a significant margin. The blurb for this novel proposes that it “plunders, in a gleeful, two-fisted fashion, the myth and pop-culture surrounding the American Indian”, but for me I feel it went totally over my head. I read the entirety of the 300-some pages, and I have almost no idea what happened. The Fast Red Road follows a young man going home for his father’s funeral, twined together with the narrative of his uncle’s guilt over his death (maybe?) The story is muddled with fever dream-esque hallucinatory episodes, but there were certainly some exciting and funny moments. This book probably needs a reread to untangle the wild complex story, but I’m not sure if I’m invested enough to try it.⁣
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