Will is unsuspectingly and pleasantly caught up in local events after he returns to Medicine River, a town just outside a Blackfoot reservation, to bury his mother. ``Gentle, deliberate and ultimately engaging,'' said PW . `` King's deceptively simple comedy is an intriguing portrait of Native American life today.'' (Sept.)

Situated on the vast prairie of western Canada, the small town of Medicine River and the nearby Blackfoot Indian reservation are the focal points of this joyfully offbeat tale. Narrated with compassion and humor by 40-year-old Blackfoot bachelor and wedding photographer Will, the basic story line captures the pleasure and pain of daily life in this remote community. Will's best friend, local do-gooder Harlen Bigbear, for instance, hopes to marry him to prosperous accountant and unwed mother Louise Heavyman. As with most of Harlen's schemes, things do turn out for the best. A mosaic of sharply etched vignettes that, in the end, form a mesmerizing whole, this is an astonishingly good first novel.-- James B. Hemesath, Adams State Coll. Lib., Alamosa, Col.

YA-- Medicine River is a small town near an Indian reserve in Western Canada. Narrated by the town's only Native American photographer, the loosely woven episodes revolve around Harlen Bigbear, whose specialty is providing ``general maintenance'' to his friends and acquaintances. There is humor and warmth, whether Harlen is persuading Will--who is over 40--to play on the all-Native basketball team or to court Louise Heavyhands, or whether he is arranging the lives of his neighbors and friends. Interwoven into the story are the narrator's bittersweet experiences of growing up with his brother, James; enduring the eccentricities of his Native American mother; and wondering about the white father he doesn't remember. These characters all fall within the mainstream of American cultural experience, yet they should expand YAs' multicultural awareness.-- Ruth Melvin, R. E. Lee High School, Springfield, VA