Give Me Some Truth

March 19, 2018
Gansworth returns to the setting of his 2013 novel, If I Ever Get Out of Here—the Tuscarora Nation reservation in New York. It’s 1980, and high school senior Carson Mastick reasons that, if he can get a band together, he can win the local Battle of the Bands and get off the reservation. But a racist store owner has just shot Carson’s brother, his shy guitarist is wavering, and he needs something to make the band stand out. When 15-year-old Maggi moves back to the “Rez,” Carson thinks she might be just the answer, for him and for the band. In alternating chapters, Carson and Maggi narrate this story of racism, bullying, protests, the complications of figuring out what love and friendship mean, and world-opening music, particularly that of the Beatles and John Lennon. Gansworth, who accentuates the book with his drawings, is interested in identity: 17-year-old Carson (light-skinned and thus what he calls a “ChameleIndian”) and his friends live within a Native American community, but they work and attend school off the reservation, and Maggi, who gets involved with a much older white guy, is an artist, but what she can make is limited by what tourists will buy. Gansworth vividly captures the difficulties of reservation life and showcases his thoughtful protagonists’ multidimensional interests and far-reaching aspirations. Ages 14–up. Agent: Jim McCarthy, Dystel, Goderich & Bourret.

In alternate chapters, Eric Gansworth and Brittany LeBorgne narrate from the perspectives of two teens living on the Tuscarora reservation. Carson is a confident high school senior who wants to win Battle of the Bands and live out his dreams in the city. The author delivers his chapters in a gravelly voice with a lot of heart. LeBorgne's clear and emphatic narration makes us feel young Maggi's longing to be taken seriously as an artist and a young woman, as well as her need to find her place on the reservation after seven years away. Neither narrator provides a great deal of differentiation between the characters, but listeners will quickly be drawn into a realistic story of music, identity, and trust. E.E.C. � AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine