Motorcycles and Sweetgrass
A story of magic, family, a mysterious stranger . . . and a band of marauding raccoons.
Otter Lake is a sleepy Anishnawbe community where little happens. Until the day a handsome stranger pulls up astride a 1953 Indian Chief motorcycle – and turns Otter Lake completely upside down. Maggie, the Reserve’s chief, is swept off her feet, but Virgil, her teenage son, is less than enchanted. Suspicious of the stranger’s intentions, he teams up with his uncle Wayne––a master of aboriginal martial arts––to drive the stranger from the Reserve. And it turns out that the raccoons are willing to lend a hand.
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Reviews
There is nothing portentous or heavy-handed about Motorcycles & Sweetgrass: It is a broad, bawdy, raucous, deeply felt and utterly involving narrative, a genuine pleasure to read. It is a book, for example, that reckons with the shift from traditional beliefs to Christianity — the subject of countless academic tomes — with a skinny-dipping scene. Motorcycles & Sweetgrass positively crackles with life, love and magic. What more can you ask of a book?”
“Taylor, a playwright and occasional contributor to NOW, has a mordant sense of humour and an eagle eye for the details of life in native communities. He’s particularly adept at evoking their ambivalent relationship to pop culture. And he holds nothing sacred. He’s less interested in scoring points for diversity than in engaging in some serious iconoclasm. No earnestness here. Motorcycles And Sweetgrass is a fun, rollicking book, and Taylor’s voice is fresh and unique.”
Taylor brings a modern twist to ancient native folklore. Motorcycles & Sweetgrass is a charming story about the importance of balance and belief—and a little bit of magic—in everyone’s life.”
Drew Hayden Taylor has woven an epic tale of magic, mystery and charm for the world to discover in Motorcycles & Sweetgrass. This is a novel to savor. A complete delight!”
If the great Ojibway trickster Nanabush wrote fiction, I imagine he’d write just like Drew Hayden Taylor. You will find much sadness just below the laughs, and sly humour masked by sorrow. A wisdom exists in these pages that only comes from someone who writes from his heart.”
“Fast-paced, uproariously funny and genuinely thrilling. Drew Hayden Taylor is one of Canada’s finest and funniest writers.”
“Funny, heartfelt, hopeful and illuminating. Motorcycles & Sweetgrass made me laugh and made me think, sometimes in the same sentence. Drew Hayden Taylor is a master storyteller.”
Explore Other Titles By Drew
Further Adventures of a Blue-Eyed Ojibway: Funny, You Don’t Look Like One #2
Sir John A: Acts of a Gentrified Ojibway Rebellion
