Marianne Wiggins has written several interesting books, among them "John Dollar." This book which is not new, is stylistically very interesting. Wiggins has made an oleo of a biography, and a memoir in a fictionalized form. Essentially her facts are real, as she weaves the strange life of photographer Edward S. Curtis with the story of her own family, inserting herself into the book as narrator.
The story of Edward Curtis is told from the viewpoint of his wife Clara, whom he left (along with four children) for long stretches of time, and finally forever. Curtis's disappearing act, leaving his family to fend for itself, was pathological in its consistency. Clara's story is a tragic one, all the more so as she was clearly an intelligent woman who could have had a career of her own. Curtis, at one time famous for his posed and stylized photography of Native Americans, came to a sad end also. At the height of his fame, he photographed the wedding of Alice Roosevelt Longworth, she who has coincidentally played a role in three recent books I have read. Curtis, a man of great promise, was exposed for dressing up and posing his native subjects in situations that never happened, even in clothing that belonged to other tribes and passing his photos off as the real deal. After his 15 minutes of fame, he faded into poverty and obscurity.
The parallel story Wiggins tells is about her own father who left his family to follow whatever vision quest spoke to him. Marianne, the narrator, becomes involved in a wild goose chase in Las Vegas, tracking down a man who had appropriated her father's identity and was now dying in hospital. Along the way, she meets a number of colorful characters. Sounds complicated? It isn't; it somehow works itself into an interesting narrative that is mostly real and impossible to tell what is not. "The Shadow Catcher" is well-written; it has to be with such an well-woven plot. The end of the book fell a little flat for me, but it is still worth-while read.
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