Review: Winter Counts by David Heska Wanbli Weiden

I’m thrilled to review of Winter Counts by David Heska Wanbli Weiden. This is the first crime novel I’ve read that is set on a Native American reservation. If you love gritty crime fiction, honest portrayals of Native American reservation life, and vigilante justice, this book might be just your thing. (Better yet, it appears to be the start of a series!)

My thoughts

This book mesmerized me. Though I was a bit burnt-out on reading when I started, Weiden captured my attention by the end of the first page and I devoured the book. Winter Counts surpassed my expectations.

Characters

Virgil was one of the most sympathetic vigilante enforcers I’ve encountered in a crime novel. He’s tough as nails and cynical. But underneath, he’s wounded from multiple hardships. Bullied relentlessly in school. Orphaned. His sister has died, leaving him to raise his nephew with too little money and too many fears. He’s a multi-faceted, engaging narrator, one who can stare with unflinching honesty at the hardships of reservation life.

His ex-girlfriend Marie and nephew Nathan are also fascinating characters. I thoroughly enjoyed getting to know them. While it is a little cliched for ex-partners Virgil and Marie to team up, they have great chemistry and make good partners. It will be interesting to see where their relationship goes in book two (assuming there is a sequel).

Then there’s Chef Lackland Strongbow, the visiting chef from California who cooks “indigi-cultural decolo-native cuisine.” Translation: he only uses ingredients that have been around since before Columbus. Marie is enthralled by the man; Virgil is jealous and finds the chef pretentious, though even he has to admit the food is tasty.

Reservation Life

This is a fascinating and eye-opening look at life on the reservation. Almost everyone lives in poverty. Sometimes there’s barely money for toilet paper. The federal government provides some lousy food supplies; it’s all processed food, the stuff that makes dietitians and clean-eating proponents gasp in horror: canned vegetables, instant potatoes, powdered eggs. Everything fried in oil. Nothing like the traditional foods their ancestors ate before the Europeans took over. It’s no wonder that Chef Lack wants to “decolonize” their minds and stomachs.

Justice is a strange concept on the reservation. The tribal police handle misdemeanors, but anything requiring a sentence of over a year–any felony–is in federal jurisdiction. Unfortunately, the federal prosecutors usually decline to press charges unless it’s a murder case. That means there’s usually no justice for any felony that happens on tribal land–including sexual assaults, child abuse, domestic violence, and other violent crimes–that doesn’t end a life.

For crimes committed outside the reservation, however, a Native American can expect an unduly harsh sentence. Virgil’s buddy Tommy spent two years in a federal prison for hitting a white man in self-defense . . . with a can of body spray. Would a white man get that sentence? Maybe. But it seems less likely.

Weiden works in the history of the indigenous/white relationship in North America in a natural way. It’s a huge part of the world he recreates for us in this story. I didn’t feel the book’s attitude was antagonistic toward whites; Virgil’s attitude seems equal parts anger, resignation, and sadness. But it also doesn’t whitewash the ways white people and the federal government have treated the native peoples: shamefully.

The Plot

The story may seem slow at the beginning. There are lots of descriptions of reservation life, and sometimes little seems to happen. Yet tension roils beneath the surface of every scene. It’s a tension within Virgil: his internal battle as he grapples with what it means to be a Lakota man. Because of past events, he became disillusioned about the old ways and rejected them long ago. Now he’s being forced to reconsider that rejection. And I sensed that underneath, he longs for those old ways to be real.

Will he embrace the traditional Lakota values of forgiveness and compassion? But what does this mean? How can he do that, yet also seek justice for those on the reservation who are devastated by the drug cartels infiltrating the reservation? Add to that his fears over his nephew’s situation and desire to protect him. Add to that his insecurity as he and Marie, his ex-girlfriend, resume their relationship. It all adds up to create a volatile internal war that threatens to turn external.

The story takes some sharp turns. While I guessed some of the twists, others were less predictable. Soon that inner turmoil explodes. Weiden raises the stakes for Virgil, but also for other characters. As the story came to a climax, the situation unfolding on the page was so tense, so fraught with danger, that I couldn’t stop reading. I couldn’t keep my eyes off the page.

One Favorite Thing . . .

I had multiple favorite things in this book, but I’ll only highlight one.

Chef Lack’s decolonized indigenous Native cuisine was interesting. Most Americans (not only Native Americans, but plenty of others) would think his food choices strange. But his enthusiasm for foraging wild foods (think seeds, herbs, vegetables) is contagious. It was enough to make me wonder what ingredients are native to my area and how to incorporate them into my family’s diet.

Overall

This was an impressive debut. The writing quality is superb, packed with eloquence, honesty, and compassion. Winter Counts mesmerized me. I highly recommend this novel to anyone who loves crime novels or thrillers.

Note: I received a complimentary copy of this book from Netgalley and Ecco/HarperCollins, and was not required to give a positive review. All opinions in this review are mine.