Indians on Vacation

 By Thomas King

I recently read one of his detective novels and didn't enjoy it much so I approached this new book with some trepidation.  However, I have to say this book was much more interesting.

It is the story of a couple, Bird and Mimi, who are currently living in Guelph Ontario but who have native indian ancestory.  Bird is part Blackfoot and part Greek, Mimi I cannot remember.

Bird is a writer, photojournalist who seems to be in a funk, Mimi is some kind of artist.

They are travelling through Europe trying to track down one of Mimi's ancestors who supposedly fled to Europe, taking with him the family's medicine bundle.  They are trying to track down evidence of him from the various post cards he sent from Europe.

The book takes place primarily while they are visiting Prague but jumps back in time, including to other European trips they have taken.  We learn that Bird has diabetes and is in quite ill health, including getting very painful leg cramps.  We also learn that Bird and Mimi were a couple, then split up for a few years, and then got back together and seem to have a pretty good relationship right now.

Mimi decides that they should go for a day trip/overnight trip to Budapest.  They are shocked and upset when they see all the refugees camped out in the train station and basically decide to take the next train back to Prague.

While in Prague they visit a lot of tourist sites.  Mimi never seems to make it down to breakfast on time but Bird is befriended by one of the employees of the hotel, Oz, who asks him why his is travelling and eventually suggests that they should just make up a story about the relative who came to Europe.  When he leaves Bird he gives him an envelope with a proposed story.

Bird does make it to Greece and with the help of people eventually finds the village where his grandfather came from and may even have found the family home.  He is really moved to be able have done this.

While Mimi is in the hotel room, feeling ill, Bird goes out to get her some bland food, white rice and meets a young couple from the U.S. who are scheduled to be married.  However, their seems to be some tension between them.  They ask Bird about marriage, commitment etc.  They find out that Bird had a relationship with another woman, a typewriter collector, when he was separated from Mimi. We also find out that the young man of the couple also has been unfaithful.  The girl is trying to  figure out how to deal with this knowledge.. Bird shares his encounter with Mimi and the next day when she is well she figures out how to achieve a meeting with the young couple.  She takes the girl aside and tells her not to get married.

As the book ends Bird and Mimi are talking about how devastated they were by the scenes of the refugees and they feel bad that they are powerless to improve things in the world.  But then Mimi starts sketching.  And, Bird thinks about going back to completing a project he had started but not finished about the treatment/state of the lives of indians in the U.S.

I found this book interesting as it looked at family histories, stories, the idea of truth in family histories, it also looked at relationships and how people have to work at them.  Also through their experiences Bird and Mimi did seem to start to work their way out of their ennui.