In a World Created by a Drunken God

by Drew Hayden Taylor

Book Overview

Jason Pierce, a 31 year old Canadian half-Native man, is packing up his urban apartment to leave it all behind for his romanticized vision of a return to life on the reserve where he grew up. As he's leaving, he is paid an unexpected visit by a 34 year old American man, Harry Deiter, who awkwardly introduces himself as Jason's half-brother. What Harry wants from Jason is bizarre: to be compatibility-tested for a possible kidney donation to their dying...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0889225370
• ISBN13: 9780889225374
• Release Date: April 2006
• Publisher: Talonbooks
• Length: 128 Pages
• Weight: 0.43 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 7.0" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

"Any white American can show up claiming anything."

On the eve of his return to the reserve where he grew up, thirty-one-year old half-Indian Jason Pierce is confronted by a man purporting to be his half-brother. Harry Deiter, thirty-four, has traveled to Canada from Rhode Island to make an odd request of a person he has never met before, in fact, has never known existed. Harry has come to plead with his brother for a kidney, their father hospitalized in critical condition, with no compatible donors available within the immediate family. Jason is his last hope. Unfortunately, Jason has grown up without a father, Deiter abandoning his son soon after his birth to return to a wife and family in America. Before identifying himself, Harry is anxious, but almost missionary-like in his zeal; but as he attempts to cajole Jason, using the reasoned arguments befitting his education and background, Harry is increasingly frustrated with the younger man's stubbornness. Jason understandably recoils at the effrontery of the request; although it is Harry's mission to convince him otherwise, after all these years the shock provokes an impassioned response from the Canadian-Indian. The request seems logical to Harry, who cannot fathom Jason's unwillingness to even consider the blood test that would establish compatibility. This is a clash of culture and class in which the two men can find little common ground, save a mutual failure in relationships with women, Harry trying in vain to reconcile Jason's lack of empathy or curiosity about the man Deiter calls father. Jason's life experience, on the other hand, has given him an entirely different perspective on the world he inhabits, tinged with rage and disappointment, his Indian heritage both a badge of honor and a wound, c child rejected, along with his mother, by the man who now needs his kidney to survive. Rich with emotional complexity and the frustrations of opposing positions, it is unclear what Jason will do until the final scene; even then, there is no easy solution, nothing predictable, as the two brothers argue the merits and obstacles inherent in such a decision. In the end, each is a product of his environment, one the father's dutiful child, the other a fatherless son. Luan Gaines/2006.

What makes a parent?

What makes a parent? That is the central question in Drew Hayden Taylor's drama In a World Created by a Drunken God. Jason Pierce is in the middle of packing up his apartment. His latest girlfriend has just left him and he is moving back in with his mother. His mother is a Native (First Nation) woman living on a reservation at Otter Creek. As Jason eats raw macaroni from his Kraft box dinner and contemplates his piles of clothes left to pack, his work is disturbed by a visitor. The well dressed American claims to be Jason's half brother, the son of the man who fathered Jason but who has never been in touch. Harry brings a request from their father- the donation of a kidney. Without it he will die. Is Jason obligated to try to save this man, this man who abandoned him and his mother, who never admitted to Jason's existence until his own life depended on it? It is on this pivotal point that Jason and Harry violently disagree. This seemingly simple play examines the complex issues of family, culture and choices. This Canadian author and playwright has brought us face to face with the spirit of ourselves. It is impossible for the reader not to become a part of the basic story- what would we do in Jason's place. With a blend of humor and pathos Taylor looks at what makes us human.