Confession: I got this book as an advanced reader’s copy through a librarything give-away waaaay back in April, but it got buried under other books so I didn’t get around reading it until yesterday.
Anyway, Him Standing is definitely more of a novella or a fairly long short story as opposed to a novel. It’s only 129 pages long and the margins/print are HUGE so the page count is misleading. This, of course, doesn’t impact the quality of the work; it’s only a statement about the book itself.
Simply put, (and without spoilers) this story details the misadventures of a young woodcarver when he is taken advantage of by an evil shaman. Him Standing reads almost like a myth/fable providing a nice (but brief) glimpse into the richness of the folklore and mythology of the Ojibwe people. The writing style is very straightforward and the pacing is quick providing an easy, easy read. However, Wagamase’s simple prose should not be mistaken as being stunted or overly-simplistic. His words seem to accurately reflect the gritty/simple lives of his characters and he does still manage to fit some beautiful passages/imagery into this work.
Because the time commitment to read this book is so low and because this story provides a window into a culture that has not received the largest of audiences, I would recommend this book to anyone who is looking for a nice story.
Broken Baseball Services 