Return of the Bones
By: Belinda Vasquez Garcia / Narrated By: Sarianna Gregg
Length: 8 hrs and 8 mins
A magic dream catcher that brings centuries of atrocities to life
And I dunno if that’s what makes Return of the Bones decent, or if it makes it a tad histrionic. I saw one reviewer seeeethe that it was about rehashing old atrocities, and blah blah blah. But really: If the atrocities are there, and are true, and are written about? Well, isn’t that just an airing out of History? If such horrific happenings occurred back in my heritage, within my own family tree, I’m pretty sure I’d be pretty volatile whilst writing about it.
That’s one of the reasons, however, that I started listening to this book, like, years ago only to give up on it. You see, Grandfather and Hollow-Woman are supposed to be the last in a long line, and Grandfather has always been disgusted that Hollow-Woman doesn’t give a rat’s patoot about her heritage, DNA, whatever. He only sees that she’s complacent and content to work in a casino, never caring about her ancient lineage or what happened to her people. Of course, he doesn’t see that she has her own personal burdens either, that being unable to bear children has caused her sorrow. He just growls and jeers at her, and kinda disgusted me with his verbal abuse towards her.
But I digress. Okay, see he crafts her this magic dream catcher, and after he’s convinced her to take him on a trip to the East to have the bones of ancestors returned to them, he gives it to her. And all along the journey, Hollow-Woman has “dreams” which are actual occurrences of actual atrocities. Hence, the whole Based On A True Story feel of the book. That first time I tried listening to it, I was like that reviewer with the: Here we go again: Yet another atrocity, after the last atrocity, after yet even more atrocities, Atrocities, ATROCITIES! It got old.
This time, I listened the whole way through, and I must say that I felt much more patient, and even got mad about the horrors we inflict upon our fellow men, all in the name of either Power, or Religion, or just cuz we’re Up to No Good. And I came to really like Hollow-Woman, to feel for her, came to see how all these dreams turned her from a sorrowful and self-absorbed woman into a woman who had definite pride in her history.
Gotta admit, tho’, that Grandfather still wore me out as a character. He was written in a way where I did get a few chuckles out of his antics, but it wasn’t until the very end where I came to care even a little bit about what happened to him.
This is about their journey to get bones dug up from ancient burial grounds and used for science, and experiments, and whatnot. And that part is indeed true.
But holy cow! I have GOT to point out here that the Most Helpful Review over on Amazon calls the whole book balderdash and historically inaccurate. It’s written by a woman who’s Chair of the American Indian Studies Dept. at a California College, so one gets the feeling that she’s not just talking outta her hat. She points out that dream catchers were used by an entirely different tribe, that they weren’t structured the way the magic one is depicted in the book, that the timeline of events and ages of the characters are off. All in an obvious attempt to be shocking.
So make of it what you will. It’s like I said: It’s heavy-handed, but if it happened to one group of people, does it make it any less valid to make it known in a fictional account? Dunno. I only know that the book appealed to me far more this second time around when I was more open to listening to all of these things. Maybe it’s cuz our little audiobook group had a book choice that delved heavily into the misery and terrors that the Spanish Inquisition wrought.
I also liked Sarianna Gregg’s narration much more this time also. Initially, I thought her dramatics sent the story over the top, made the dreams excessive, and turned the characters, especially Grandfather, into cartoonish caricatures. But I found her performance kinda fearless here. Grandfather was MOST unabashedly over the top in his emotions. He didn’t speak so much as deliver pronouncements and judgments from on high.
All in all, I think Return of the Bones will go down better if you listen to it not so much as history but as mishmashes of historical anecdotes combined into fiction. Take it with a bit of a grain of salt, don’t take it as gospel. But do listen to it if you're in the mood for…
ATROCITIES!
And a little bit o’ hard-earned pride at the end.
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