Crow Mary by Kathleen Grissom is one of the most unexpectedly and universally appreciated books the Book Bistro has read in a long time. We didn’t gush or disagree. We had a pleasant discussion about a serious subject – enjoying the romance and period details that introduced the topic and appreciating the sensitive handling of the brutal reality that caused one of our members to say that reading this book made her ashamed to be a white person. Several people mentioned before and after the meeting that they would not have chosen Crow Mary on their own, but they were glad they read it.
Like many of us, our first responder loved the first half of the novel but he is 37 years sober and struggled to read the second half because of the alcoholism. He was the first to mention that the one detail that seemed off was when Burt says, “out East they’re starting to say that alcoholism is a sickness – a disease.”(p.330) It seems unlikely they would be so aware.[1] The same member emphasized how much he enjoyed “fun” details, such as the rice pudding, the Native American belief in the connectedness of all things, the descriptive language describing age as “sixteen snows” and the months as “the moon of . . .” Others were drawn to cultural details, such as how annoyed Mary was that men kept doing what she thought was her responsibility and that the crow village had a female saddlemaker.
We wondered if such young boys could really have made the trip from the Pennsylvania boarding school on their own, which led to a discussion about how young women used to marry and historical expectations. We compared Mary’s pouring water down her baby’s nose to keep her from crying to our parents’ washing our mouths out with soap or baking soda. One of us was wistful about the unfulfilled romance and another particularly appreciated the good characterizations and obvious research into the time period. Since the author of Crow Mary is a white woman writing about an indigenous woman, cultural appropriation is a real concern. The author mentions in her author’s note that she had a “sensitivity reader . . . a Crow elder, patiently guiding me through the many subtleties and nuances of the Crow culture.”
We were particularly surprised by the use of strychnine in the Whiskey Trade and by wolfers who poisoned buffalo meat to kill wolves without leaving bullet holes in their pelts. One of us mentioned that lead bullets are also concerning because they poison the creatures that scavenge the carcasses.[2] Another shared that he has read that the killing of buffalo was intended to help destroy the natives who depended on the buffalo for survival. We also asked if buffalo are now extinct, which is complicated. Just as the story of Abe Farwell has more sides and opinions than covered by the book, so does the demise of the North American bison in the wild.[3]
I often wonder if the connections between the books I choose are as coincidental as they feel or whether they reflect the connectedness that surrounds us when we look for it. I did not know that so much of Crow Mary would hinge on the trial regarding the massacre. Our next book, The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder, will be a non-fiction account of a shipwreck and court martial that took place in 1742! The author, David Grann, wrote the award-winning Killers of the Flower Moon, which is also concerned with a trial and the treatment of Native Americans in Oklahoma in the 1920’s. One member saw a connection to our March selection, Lessons in Chemistry, because it references abuses by entitled white males in the 1950’s. And last month’s All That Is Mine I Carry with Me was concerned with the idea of justice versus retribution, which can also be compared with Mary’s desire to exact immediate revenge versus the United States and the Canadian legal systems.
We don’t always feel positively about the books we read that are outside of our interests or comfort zones, but they build a foundation of shared knowledge and empathy. As we read our next book, which is nonfiction, consider how it is different from fiction. Crow Mary was inspired by a true story. The author details the characters she created. Is it any truer, more trustworthy? Is it harder to read or just different? Join the discussion – you decide.
[1] I researched this after the meeting and found that, although probably not as well known as the casual statement in the novel implied, over two centuries ago a prominent medical professor started an educational campaign against hard liquor: “[Benjamin] Rush told his readers his purpose was ‘to show, first, that spiritous liquors are unnecessary; and secondly, that they are mischievous and often produce the diseases they are intended to obviate during the time of harvest.’” https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1694575/pdf/amjph00526-0115.pdf
[2] I found this article from the National Park Service discussing the problems with lead bullets and hunting: https://www.nps.gov/pinn/learn/nature/leadinfo.htm#:~:text=Lead%20Bullet%20Fragmentation,Lead%20bullets%20are&text=Even%20if%20a%20hunter%20attempts,poison%20both%20humans%20and%20wildlife.
[3] Also from the National Park Service: Bison, Home on the Range. https://www.nps.gov/subjects/bison/index.htm
WhitneyBookBistro 
From MR:
I enjoyed Mary Crow. I loved the references to the names of the month and the phrase for passing away. I thought she was a spiritual person who tried really hard to make her marriage work. The trial was disappointing but not surprising. It ruined her husband’s future for doing what he insisted was the right thing to do. The violence was sad but true. The Indian school descriptions were in line with all the findings that have been released recently. How sad! In the end, Mary Crow ended up in a good setting with her children. Thanks for selecting it.