TULUGAQ

A treasury of anecdotes about this smart and mysterious bird—gathered over years from residents of northern Canada and Alaska and paired to evocative photographs.

Plainly transcribed nearly word for word, the short entries preserve the repetitive and choppy quality of both casual conversation and ritual phrasing: “There is a story I can tell about the pregnant dog and the pregnant woman.” Along with more traditional stories of magic and transformation, contemporary comments or observations include one witness’s tale of a raven blowing out a whole town’s cable TV and others recalling how ravens stole balls from a golf course or “tricked” streetlights into warming up by covering the solar switches on top. The entries are loosely arranged by themes, like “Trickster” or “Doom and Gloom,” and most spreads include often artful color photos of ravens alone or in small groups. Though a sense of respect for the birds runs throughout, their taste for animal feces is also noted several times, and they are often depicted as pests or worse. McCluskey provides introductions and, for most, thumbnail photos of the contributors at the end.

Closer to ethnology than storytelling but still a thought-provoking glimpse of how nature and myth mix.