Brother Frank's Gospel Hour: StoriesThese eleven stories continue the adventures of Silas Ermineskin and his sidekick Frank Fencepost, as Kinsella returns to the Cree Indian reserve in Hobbema, Alberta, where his cast of zany characters, last seen in The Fencepost Chronicles and The Miss Hobbema Pageant, is at its wry best. Here Frank Fencepost, true to form as a fast-talking con artist, outwits the Alberta Supreme Court in a hilarious cattle-insemination case in "Bull." In the title story he becomes an evangelizing Robin Hood, turning the government-sponsored K-U-G-H radio show into a scheme to use listeners' donations to fund listeners' wishes (and incidentally line his pockets), and in "Miracle on Manitoba Street" he visits a Montana reserve where he carves a picture of the Virgin Mary on a derelict Frigidaire and convinces the local medicine woman it's a miracle--one worthy of an admission charge. Not all the stories are humorous: "Dream Catcher" grapples with sexual violence when Silas's twelve-year-old sister is assaulted and Mad Etta, the community's four-hundred-pound medicine woman, provides a nightmare "cure" for the would-be rapist; "Ice Man" depicts gender discrimination, as Jason Twelve Trees fights to participate in a cooking competition despite his father's wish for him to become a mechanic; and "The Rain Birds" shows the consequences of the government's computer-driven corporate farms riding roughshod over the human and natural environment in western Canada. |
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ain't Alberta Baptiste Johnny baseball Bedelia Coyote Bob Iron Legs Brother Bob Brother Frank's Gospel cabin Carstairs Charlie Chilcotin Constable Greer couple Delores door drive-in theater Eddie Edmonton eyes foreman Frank ask Frank Fencepost Frank say Frank's Gospel Hour fridge friends George the Cat girl gonna Grande Prairie Granny guess hair hand Highway 2A Hobbema Illianna Indian Jason jeans Juanita K-UGH kids KINSELLA lady lawyer Leona look Mad Etta mail box muskeg never night okay Ovide Ovide Lafrenierre pick pretty pull Ramona ranch RCMP Red Wolf Sanderson saskatoon berries say Lenny says Baptiste says Etta says Frank says Rita shirt Shoeless Joe Jackson Silas sitting smile Standing-in-the-bush stare sure Tailfeathers talk tell there's things Thomas say Tipton truck Twelve Trees Vince W. P. KINSELLA walk wearing week Wetaskiwin