Mattaponi Queen: Stories
Boggs’ debut collection of interwoven stories is simultaneously sharp-edged and pastoral, downcast and humorous. Her tales are set on the Mattaponi Indian Reservation in rural downstate Virginia, an unfamiliar landscape that springs to life as each story unfolds, revealing another layer in time. A young woman, raised by her father after her mother deserted them, drops out of art school, $30,000 in debt. Now pregnant, she awaits her husband, who returns from a short stint in Iraq as an amputee. In another story, her father’s longtime friend, dying of liver disease, tries to reconnect with his kids, now living off the rez with their mom. The title story features the long-suffering nurse of a “mean and stubborn” elderly woman, gradually making payments on an old houseboat, the Mattaponi Queen. He hates to part with this wedding present he gave his second wife, who later ran off with her yoga instructor. The reader feels privy to each conversation, so pitch-perfect is Boggs’ feel for the godforsaken place her characters inhabit. --Deborah Donovan