THE STICK GAME
by Peter Bowen
Laconic Gabriel Du Pr‚, a native Montanan who drinks when he drives, rolls his own, and talks back to his gal-pal Madelaine
(but only in his mind), wonders why so many kids on the reservation are born with birth defects or suddenly turn bad—genetics or ecological crises? Between fiddling at festivals, fairs, and bar hangouts and just leaning against his ramshackle truck fender, Du Pr‚ mulls over the problem—a problem that has caused the death of the son of one of Madelaine’s relatives and the gone-haywire behavior of one of Du Pr‚’s close friends. A wizened medicine man and his sardonic apprentice point Du Pr‚ in the direction of the Persephone Gold Mining Company and pollutants that travel through the earth to crop up in innocent folks’ drinking water. Du Pr‚’s rich friend Bart, who is funding the alcohol rehab of the dead boy’s mom, finances the documentation of Persephone’s dirty habits, and to combat the company’s trial-delay tactics, the Indians stage a media event at the company’s gates—too late to help several generations of Montanans. The quirky syntax takes some getting used to, but this seventh outing for Du Pr‚ (Long Son, 1999, etc.) is a strong
indictment of rich companies (think: tobacco industry) that manage to outspend and outlast litigants rather than clean up their own