The Hystery of the Broken Fether

David R. Hutchinson is an educator on the Peguis Reserve in Manitoba.

At the outset of Allison Muri’s short novel, the elderly
narrator/protagonist, Indigo de Plume, indicates that the mystery she
details was inspired by a creative-writing instructor who had visited
her senior citizens’ home. After reading the novel, it is apparent
that this plot structure might function as a clever way for Muri to
avoid criticism for writing a story that essentially reads like a
first-time effort produced in a creative-writing class. The book is very
difficult to read. As I attempted to wend my way into the plot, which
centres on Indigo de Plume’s description of the mysterious
circumstances surrounding the death of Sam Colridge, a rancher she had
known as a child, I became bogged down in the first-person dialect that
constitutes the entire text. Although I understand the place of dialect
in character definition, Muri overuses this device to the point of
interfering with the reader’s ability to make sense out of the
developing mystery. I nevertheless applaud Muri’s innovation and
imagination, and feel that she has great potential.