Cindy Dyson, And She Was

And She Was

Cindy Dyson

Morrow, Feb 2006, $24.95

ISBN: 0060597704

In 1986, now thirty-one, Brandy has always been a drifter following whatever man she is with at that moment, but never becoming emotionally entangled with anyone. Perhaps it is in her DNA as "the daughter of a bum".

Currently she is staying with kind fisherman Thad on isolated Aleutian island, Dutch Harbor, Alaska. She obtains work as a bar girl at the Elbow Room bar. The place is known locally as much for its nightly fights that include some women, as much as for the number of drunks. Brandy, in between sex, alcohol, and drugs is fascinated by enigmatic writing on the bathroom walls, which leads her to learn more about the history of the area. She soon learns how the Russians conducted ethnic cleansing in the early eighteenth century, followed in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries by the Good Samaritans, who in bringing civilization, further destroyed a culture that is kept somewhat alive by the "secret powers" of two drunken regulars, Aleuts Bessie and Little Liz.

AND SHE WAS is a haunting deep tale that grips readers on two levels. First the personal story of Brandy, whom the audience hopes will find a better way; second, and perhaps even more memorable is the history of the Aleuts whose way of life is brutally devastated by initially the Russians, and ultimately destroyed even more so by the "kindness" of do-gooders like nineteenth century missionaries and twentieth social workers. The storyline moves deftly back and forth between 1986 and the past, as Cindy Dyson provides a powerful indictment of cultural intrusion disguised as civilization.