"Father Juniper's Journey to the North"
By Grania Davis
The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction - Sept/Oct 2012

I'm going to start this review with a couple of pertinent disclosures. My mom is Blackfoot. She never really talked about her life on the reservation much and I know precious little about the culture, but I still have an inherent interest in Native American mythology. However, while I have read much of it, I do not have as strong a historical background to go with it as I should. Therefore, I have some vague ideas of what the stories are and how they related to the people, but only enough to get myself in trouble and to create my own biases.

This is important because Grania Davis's story "Father Juniper's Journey to the North" calls upon some of that mythology. I'm not going to get into a plot synopsis as that might ruin some of the enjoyment of the tale, but I will say that the blending of ideologies between a Franciscan missionary and the natives he seeks to convert is at the heart of this quiet tale.

The style is intriguing, narrated by a scribe along on the journey and there is a lyrical resonance to the voice that makes it seem as though the reader is trapped in something of a fever dream or listening at a campfire. It's an extremely effective approach to what is a complicated merging of ideas.

I suspect had I not gone into the story with the biases already mentioned I might have been able to better surrender to the tone and simply enjoy, but unfortunately, I found myself getting hung up on matters such as disagreeing with the portrayal of Coyote. This is a reader issue, not one inherent to the story, however, it did keep me just disengaged enough that other minor issues seemed heightened.

For example, there is a great deal of repetition within the story. This happens on a word level-'brutish' is the one I recall noting; on a phrase level-there were multiple phrases repeated exactly or close to it that pulled me from the story; and on an informational level. As a reader I felt like I was being told the same bits of story multiple times.

These may seem like flaws, and to me they did interfere with the reading, but they were also very obviously deliberate and essential to setting that feeling of being drifting along the course of the story. It was only that my own opinions had me swimming against the current that made them seem grating.

This is a story very much about the telling, not one that is dependent on some twist at the end or clever idea at the center of everything. In fact, while there is something that might be considered a reveal at the end, I found it predictable, and that was fine. The point was not to be surprised by it-the author worked too hard to lead me there-but to understand it.

What is most interesting in this work is the people, not individual characters, but cultures. It is an exploration of two groups, both established in their beliefs, coming in contact and dancing around one another. It is not a happy pairing, but it is an interesting one that says a great deal about the motivations and intents of people and how these may or may not be reflected in their actions.

"Father Juniper's Journey to the North" is just that. It is a journey. What you get from it is in part determined by what you bring to the reading as much as by what is on the page. For me, there was a bit too much baggage to lug around for it to be a satisfying journey but I know for many others it will be a wholly enjoyable trip.