Motorcycles & Sweetgrass by Drew Hayden Taylor

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Motorcycles & Sweetgrass

Name: Motorcycles & Sweetgrass
Price: 12.99 USD
Availability: InStock
Author: Drew Hayden Taylor
ISBN: 9780307373991

Ebook

Published on Mar 09, 2010 | 368 Pages

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Published on Mar 09, 2010 | 368 Pages

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A story of magic, family, a mysterious stranger . . . and a band of marauding raccoons.

Otter Lake is a sleepy Anishnawbe community where little happens. Until the day a handsome stranger pulls up astride a 1953 Indian Chief motorcycle – and turns Otter Lake completely upside down. Maggie, the Reserve’s chief, is swept off her feet, but Virgil, her teenage son, is less than enchanted. Suspicious of the stranger’s intentions, he teams up with his uncle Wayne – a master of aboriginal martial arts – to drive the stranger from the Reserve. And it turns out that the raccoons are willing to lend a hand.

NATIONAL BESTSELLER
FINALIST 2013–2014 – First Nations Communities Read

“A near-perfect debut, a masterful mythic-comedy balancing contemporary issues and realities with magic and history. . . . Motorcycles & Sweetgrass is a trickster story, but it’s also a fundamentally human account of individuals and of a people struggling to find a place for themselves in the world. . . . A broad, bawdy, raucous, deeply felt and utterly involving narrative, a genuine pleasure to read. . . . Motorcycles & Sweetgrass positively crackles with life, love and magic. What more can you ask of a book?” —Robert J. Wiersema, Edmonton Journal

“A winning comedy.” —The Globe and Mail

“Motorcycles & Sweetgrass may be concerned with aboriginal community politics, identity, mythology and intergenerational legacies, but it reads like a romp. . . . Yet the book’s real strength is its underlying account of a community struggling to weave an increasingly abstract traditional past with some kind of meaningful future.” —Toronto Star

“Drew Hayden Taylor’s got no qualms about poking fun at his Native roots, and that’s what makes Motorcycles & Sweetgrass such a pleasure. It’s playful yet soulful, with a narrative that keeps those pages turning. . . . A fun, rollicking book, and Taylor’s voice is fresh and unique.” —NOW (Toronto)

“Taylor brings a modern twist to ancient native folklore. Motorcycles & Sweetgrass is a charming story about the importance of balance and belief—and a little bit of magic—in everyone’s life.” —Quill & Quire

“Fast-paced, uproariously funny and genuinely thrilling. Drew Hayden Taylor is one of Canada’s finest and funniest writers.” —Ian Ferguson, author of Village of the Small Houses

“Funny, heartfelt, hopeful and illuminating. Motorcycles & Sweetgrass made me laugh and made me think, sometimes in the same sentence. Drew Hayden Taylor is a master storyteller.” —Terry Fallis, author of The Best Laid Plans

“Drew Hayden Taylor has woven an epic tale of magic, mystery and charm for the world to discover in Motorcycles & Sweetgrass. This is a novel to savor. A complete delight!” —Richard Van Camp, author of The Moon of Letting Go and The Lesser Blessed

20 Writerly Questions for Drew Hayden Taylor

1. How would you summarize your book in one sentence?
It’s a contemporary trickster tale, involving sex, mischief, motorcycles and raccoons.

2. How long did it take you to write this book?
The first draft, about eight weeks. And aboutt twelve years to develop the idea.

3. Where is your favorite place to write?
The Banff Centre is a fabulous place, almost as great as my little office on the Reserve were I look out at the trees, deer, bears and snowdifts.

4. How do you choose your characters’ names?
Through a secret aboriginal prcoess unknown and forbidden to non-aboriginals.

5. How many drafts do you go through?
Three if I can. Four if I can’t.

6. If there was one book you wish you had written what would it be?
The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton

7. If your book were to become a movie, who would you like to see star in it?
Interesting question. A young Brad Pitt would be perfect.

8. What’s your favourite city in the world?
Venice is lovely. So is Vancouver. Brisbane is very cool. I know that’s three but what the hell.

9. If you could talk to any writer living or dead who would it be, and what would you ask?
The Bible and my question would be “is this an instruction manual” or is this primarly a metaphor?

10. When do you write best, morning or night?
Usually morning. Then the afternoon.

11. Who is the first person who gets to read your manuscript?
Sometimes my girlfriend, or my agent.

12. Do you have a guilty pleasure read?
Yes I do, trashy sci-fi novels. Also, Tarzan and Conan novels.

13. What’s on your nightstand right now?
Two books. The complete D.C. Comic Book universe, and The Buddha of Suburbia by Hanif Kureishi.

14. What is the first book you remember reading?
You know, I can’t remember. How odd?

15. Did you always want to be a writer?
Yes I have. I liked creating people, places, universes, problems and solutions. It’s l ike playing God without being sacreligious.

16. What do you drink or eat while you write?
Maybe coffee, tea, soda water. An apple or something light.

17. Typewriter, laptop, or pen & paper?
Laptop.

18. What do you wear when you write?
That’s an awfully personal question, but anything from shorts to trackpant to jeans, and usually a t-shirt.

19. How do you decide which narrative point of view to write from?
I don’t. The story always decides that.

20. What is the best gift someone could give a writer?
An idea or an audience.

Author

Drew Hayden Taylor

DREW HAYDEN TAYLOR has done many things, most of which he is proud of. An Ojibway from the Curve Lake First Nations in Ontario, he has worn many hats in his career, from performing stand-up comedy at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., to being Artistic Director of Canada’s premiere Native theatre company, Native Earth Performing Arts. He has been an award-winning playwright (with over 100 productions of his work), a journalist/columnist (appearing regularly in several Canadian newspapers, magazines, and news networks), short story writer, novelist, television scriptwriter, and has worked on over twenty documentaries exploring the Native experience including the popular Searching for Winnetou. His documentary series on APTN, Going Native, is in its third year. The author of thirty-four books, he looks forward to finding out where his imagination will take him next.

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Part of Penguin Modern Classics (Canada)

By Drew Hayden Taylor