Brother Frank's Gospel Hour

Matt Hartman is a freelance editor and cataloguer, running Hartman Cataloguing, Editing and Indexing Services.

This follow-up visit to the Reserve at Hobbema, Alberta, provides 11
more opportunities to answer the question “are Kinsella’s Indian
stories legitimate humor, or are they (as some have insisted)
condescending at best, racist at worst? ”

The narrator, Silas Ermineskin, and his friend Frank Fencepost, last
encountered in The Miss Hobbema Pageant, are back and as ingenious as
ever; their money-making schemes skirt the law and tweak conventional
noses. In story after story, the Natives emerge with the upper hand
against the non-Indian establishment. The stories serve mostly as
vehicles for Kinsella’s brand of humor, but there are exceptions.
“Conflicting Statements” is a sad, dark story about a murder or
suicide “based loosely on a Japanese folktale.” In “George the
Cat” a talking cat rescues a man from drowning. Readers who enjoy
Kinsella’s whimsy and satire will find much to embrace in this
collection.