Kiss of the Fur Queen

The second half of Part 4 covers the central crisis of the novel, which is the rift between Jeremiah and Gabriel. Apart from the literal separation, the rift symbolically represents both the fracturing of Jeremiah’s particular psyche and the fracturing psyche of a person subjected to the trauma of colonization. Since the novel depicts Gabriel and Jeremiah as twin souls in their idyllic early childhood, Jeremiah’s separation from Gabriel is akin to a sundering of his own spirit. Notably, this manifests in Jeremiah’s loss of his beloved music. Once Jeremiah realizes his Cree identity is central to his being, he cannot figure out how to reconcile his love for Western classical music or the English and Italian languages with his love for Cree language and culture. Only when he acknowledges that he must creatively express both his Cree and English-speaking influences can he begin to reintegrate his psyche.

Chapter 28 widens the chasm between Gabriel and Jeremiah, with each brother mocking the other’s masculinity. While Gabriel ridicules Jeremiah for his avoidance of manual work, Jeremiah mocks Gabriel for his love of ballet. That both scenes occur in their home setting of Eemanapiteepitat shows that both Jeremiah and Gabriel are trying to prove themselves the better, more proper son before their parents. The burden is greater on Gabriel because of his guilt regarding his sexuality and his seduction of Father Connolly. In Chapter 27, Gabriel cringes in shame when he imagines his father ever learning about “the hundred other men with whom his last born had shared…what?” (190). The use of “what” here is interesting; it shows both that Gabriel cannot even articulate being sexual in the same context as his father and that Gabriel’s relationships are meaningless, shorn of love.

While the return to Eemanapiteepitat and its comforting landscape of spruce and fireweed provides a welcome interlude from the grimy environs of the city, the brothers realize that colonialism and postcolonial development have forever tainted their paradise. What’s more, the Okimasis brothers cannot recover that paradise even in their familial home because they and their parents do not speak the same language anymore. As Mariesis sits repairing Gabriel’s ballet slippers, Jeremiah asks, “Nee, balle sleeper chee anima?” (194), or, “[G]ood grief, isn’t that a ballet slipper?” Jeremiah’s use of “ballet slipper” is deliberate: “For how else, in this language of reindeer moss and fireweed and humor so blasphemous it terrified white people, could one express a concept as nebulous as ‘ballet slipper’” (194). This inability to express an English or Western idea in Cree crops up in the text repeatedly, such as when Jeremiah wonders how to explain his ambition to his parents: “How, for God’s sake, does one say ‘concert pianist’ in Cree?” (189).

Jeremiah’s discomfort with reconciling different realities grows when he sees Gabriel in Gregory’s baroque apartment. Discovering Gabriel kissing Gregory fills the puritanical Jeremiah with a revulsion so great that he feels all sexual desire in himself die. Gabriel shrewdly catches onto the fact that ideas of sin and guilt inform Jeremiah’s accusations, which makes him ask his brother, “How can you still listen to all their sick propaganda? After what they did to us?” (208). However, Jeremiah’s suspicion of Gabriel’s relationship with Gregory is not entirely unwarranted. Gregory is much older than the teenage Gabriel and, with his apartment full of icons of Western high culture, represents an imperialistic excess. In Chapter 32, Gregory also displays a controlling streak when he refuses to change the date of Gabriel’s tickets so he can attend Jeremiah’s concert. As much as Jeremiah is bereft without Gabriel, so is Gabriel without Jeremiah.

Chapter 33 moves like the crescendo and crash of a wave of music, emphasizing the centrality of music in the novel. One of the novel’s most important themes is the healing power of creative expression, including music and dance. Part of the reason the Okimasis brothers are able to find joy in their lives despite their trauma is their love for the arts. Although Jeremiah’s fascination with and expertise in Western classical music is a recurrent motif in the novel, what makes his performance in Chapter 33 unique is its Cree soul. The separation from Gabriel reminds Jeremiah of the fact that his first experiences of music and dance were Abraham’s old accordion, Abraham’s rhythmic hunting cries, the songs and dances of his childhood, and the music made by Arctic terns and wolves. In describing Jeremiah’s inspired performance, the text makes rich use of synesthesia, such as when Jeremiah plays the “aurora borealis in Mistik Lake […] the purple of sunsets” (213).