Motorcycles and Sweetgrass

Partly because he sees Jesus as having stolen Lillian from him, Taylor’s Nanabush conceives of himself as a rival to Jesus—competing with the Christian deity for the affections of his people. Taylor’s Nanabush is an updated depiction of the trickster demigod figure common in North American Indigenous peoples’ mythologies. Taylor’s characterization of the mythical Nanabush contains the hallmarks of the trickster: He is a shapeshifter, changing names and eye colors—and, at the end of the novel, transforming from a blonde-haired, white man to an Indigenous one. Nanabush interacts with nature and all living things—though he is not always in control of the forces he contacts: He can call forth a thunderstorm but must contend with mosquitoes and yield a long-running feud with raccoons.

Nanabush is neither good nor bad—instead, he can take on the role of hero and villain in quick succession, revealing the hollowness of those archetypes and suggesting that morality is contingent on context. He meets Maggie when he rescues her from a hopeless flat tire—but then reveals to the reader that he caused that flat tire in the first place. Nanabush often deflates what at first appears serious or portentous, puncturing self-importance with wit and earthy humor.