Coyote, Ivan E. The Slow Fix: Stories. Vancouver, BC: Arsenal Pulp Press, 2009. 152p. paperback. $16.95. ISBN: 9781551522470.

A proud native of the Yukon, Ivan Elizabeth Coyote is a spoken word performer, longtime columnist, and author of three previous story collections. Her 2006 novel, Bow Grip, was named an American Library Association Stonewall Honor Book.

In The Slow Fix, Coyote collects a series of brief first-person vignettes and essays that first appeared in Xtra!West, Vancouver, BC’s largest gay biweekly. Strongly autobiographical in flavor, they celebrate the ties of family, a love for the unspoiled wilderness, and the connections sometimes forged by lonely strangers. Coyote also muses on gender identity, notably in “The Future of Francis,” which returns to a boy she first wrote about when he was three. Back then, he loved wearing dresses and regarded Coyote as his favorite uncle because they were the “same kind of different.” At eleven, he’s turned tough and cool and is nearly indistinguishable from the other boys in blue parkas. As he barely acknowledges her from the playground, Coyote misses the Francis he used to be, but recalls her silent promise that she will always love what he is right now.

Overall, these are quiet stories, with little angst or knee-slapping humor, although the self-identified Mafioso who took exception to Coyote’s sloppy necktie and gave her a “nonconsensual thirty-minute lesson in proper manly attire” did make me laugh out loud.

Recommended for inclusive GLBTQ collections and those with an interest in Canadian literature.

Reviewed by Joyce Meggett
Division Chief for Humanities
Chicago Public Library