Introduction

Louise Erdrich meets Karen Russell in this deliciously strange and daringly original novel from Pulitzer Prize finalist Margaret Verble: set in 1926 Nashville, it follows a death-defying young Cherokee horse-diver who, with her companions from the Glendale Park Zoo, must get to the bottom of a mystery that spans centuries.

Two Feathers, a young Cherokee horse-diver on loan to Glendale Park Zoo from a Wild West show, is determined to find her own way in the world. Two’s closest friend at Glendale is Hank Crawford, who loves horses almost as much as she does. He is part of a high-achieving, land-owning Black family. Neither Two nor Hank fit easily into the highly segregated society of 1920s Nashville.

When disaster strikes during one of Two’s shows, strange things start to happen at the park. Vestiges of the ancient past begin to surface, apparitions appear, and then the hippo falls mysteriously ill. At the same time, Two dodges her unsettling, lurking admirer and bonds with Clive, Glendale’s zookeeper and a World War I veteran, who is haunted—literally—by horrific memories of war. To get to the bottom of it, an eclectic cast of park performers, employees, and even the wealthy stakeholders must come together, making When Two Feathers Fell from the Sky an unforgettable and irresistible tale of exotic animals, lingering spirits, and unexpected friendship.

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Excerpt

When It Was

It was long after the buffalo thundered toward a great salt lick in lines, bellowing, snorting, and flicking flies. Long after their path, beaten like a drum, had grown four feet wide and two feet deep and had been there for eons. It was after a civilization of tens of thousands of people settled in a large, fertile basin, built a city near the old buffalo trace, and thrived there for over three hundred years. After they laid their dead in stone box containers stacked in mounds thinly covered by dirt, tucked in clusters in caves or, occasionally, hidden alone in groves. After that entire culture was decimated by a change in the climate. After the rains came again, and seeds scattered by wind grew into oaks, hickories, walnuts, chestnuts, sourwoods, maples, pines, catalpas, and cedars; a forest, thick, wide, and high.

It was after the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Shawnee, and Muscogee agreed to share the forest, the creeks, and the salt lick as a common hunting ground for the good of their families. After the braves stalked game every fall and winter, won an occasional scalp in a fray, brought home meat, and enjoyed the fires of their women, played with their children, danced, smoked, and prayed.

It was after the white people came, saw the land was better than what they’d previously stolen, and proclaimed it was theirs. Said no Indians lived there, so nobody would, or should, object to their staking it. Said their big God-in-the-Sky in His goodness had reserved it especially for them. After they reinforced that God’s goodness with guns and dogs, and spread out all over the basin in fortified stations — French Lick, Freeland’s, Barton’s, Buchanan’s, and Robertson’s. It was after John Rains camped on that very spot and, in a single winter, slaughtered thirty-two bears in the knobs eventually named the Overton Hills. After the few bears that managed to survive had scattered.

It was after the allied tribes passed through on their way to the stations. After they explained to the whites (again) that this land was held in com- mon and shared. After those Indians were bribed, humored, and shot. After other Indians hid in the trees and cane, killed who they could, and tried starving out the rest. After they stormed the big stockade and the smaller fortifications. After they were attacked by smallpox, canines, better weapons, and a cannon. After the stream of whites became never ending. After the Indians retreated, were cheated, and removed. After the few remaining buffalo were shot for meat, oil, and sport. After their path filled in with weeds and soil.

It was after Tennessee became a state, and a great Indian fighter be- came its first governor. After one of his grandsons-in-law built a lovely home for the governor’s granddaughter and started a plantation. After the Northern invaders arrived, the plantation owners fled, and an occupying army took over Nashville. After the Federals freed the slaves and worked hundreds of them to death. It was after General Hood’s army retreated from Atlanta, was decimated at Franklin, and, regrouping in and around that lovely home, wrecked it and all of its surrounds. It was after the Battle of Nashville snaked back and forth over that ground. After soldiers of both sides hid in the giant trees, in the cane, and among the mounds of that ancient civilization.

It was after the peace brought general poverty, hunger, and humiliation. After some former plantation owners sent their darker children north for educations, and started universities for them right there in Nashville. After one former owner bequeathed his dusky children their fair portion of his land, trying to give them a head start in the new order.

It was after a few enterprising entrepreneurs took advantage of the overall destruction, and created new wealth from honest hard work, and from scheming and double-dealing. After they promoted high standards for themselves and, especially, for others. After they developed a new hierarchy, almost identical to the one they replaced. After they invested in railways and electricity, and wanted to make more money by selling rides and wattage by transporting people to places other than work. After trolley parks became that business-problem solution and the new recreational rage in progressive cities all over the country. After the next owner of that formerly lovely home revived and expanded it, and donated two hundred acres of his land to build such a park for Nashville and christened it Glendale. After the laying of the tracks to Glendale was blocked by running into that ancient, pre- historic burial ground, which, aside from being in the way, contained pots, effigies, ear spoons, and whatnots, all worth a lot. After four thousand of the graves were destroyed and robbed, the bones broken and tossed. After the loot enriched several universities, museums, and private collections.

It was after Nashville Railway and Light ran electric lines out to Glendale. After lights were strung all over the place and amusement rides were erected. After both children and adults rode horses, zebras, a red goat, and a unicorn around and around and up and down to a calliope’s sound. After they spun in the Roulette Wheel’s screechy seats and dipped on a wobbly roller coaster that threw their hearts into their throats. After those delights were torn down and replaced with cages even taller than the surviving old trees and used to house a collection of exotic fowl.

It was also after a school for young ladies of higher culture was built abutting the park zoo, and provided instruction in Greek, Shakespeare, math, and archery. After it declined due to the death of its patron. After the Great War was fought, killed millions of people, and destroyed the old world order. After the global influenza pandemic killed millions more.

It was while buffalo, carrier pigeons, and other species were on their way to worldwide extinction, and a few forward-looking people became convinced that locking animals up was better than slaughtering them by the millions. After new pens for monkeys, bears, alligators, sea lions, tortoises, and buffalo were added at Glendale, to exhibit the animals and preserve them from total extermination.

It was in a time of a deep national disagreement over whether people were descended from monkeys. And a time when it’d been decided that even the children of Adam and Eve couldn’t be trusted to drink spirits, beer, and wine in public (or in private, if caught). It was also an era of dangerous racial and social divide. When men in white hoods expanded their tradition of terrorizing Negros to include Catholics, Jews, adulterers, and anybody else they didn’t particularly like.

But it was also when people were trying to shed their grief and get some relief. When the Shriners built a golf club next to Glendale, and hundreds came to the park zoo every warm weekday, and thousands came on the weekends. When people picnicked in droves, enjoyed concerts and shows, swung tennis rackets and croquet mallets, and ran separate races for fat folks and skinny ones. When they chased tickets dropped from aeroplanes, hunted Easter eggs for pony prizes, and joined civic clubs to socialize, fulfill their duties, and erect monuments to the past as they cared to recall it.

It was also a time of real work for those at Glendale who managed the animals, the people, and the living arrangements. For those who maintained the grounds, handled the horses, mucked the cages, and performed in the shows. When motion pictures were rumored soon to get sound, but vaudeville acts and Wild West shows were hanging around, and diving horses and their riders were still quite thrilling.

It was also when one of the star attractions at Glendale took a terrible fall. When an heir to part of an old plantation embarked on a difficult romance. When the zoo’s manager struggled with demons brought home from the Great War. When the patron of the place was trying to outwit his wayward children. And when strange, inexplicable occurrences began intruding upon daily living. It was also when the hippopotamus fell sick. Specifically, it was the summer of 1926. view abbreviated excerpt only...

Discussion Questions

1. Why do you think the author made the decision to begin the story of Two Feathers and the Glendale Park and Zoo with “When It Was”? What does this introduction reveal about the story’s setting and historical context? What major themes and motifs of the novel does this preface introduce? How do you think your view of the book would have been different if the author had not included it?

2. How is Two treated in comparison to the other women at Glendale? Why didn’t Helen Hampton “feel like she could get as familiar with Two as she could with the other residents” (10)? How does Two cope with this? After she is injured, why doesn’t Two want her parents to have to travel on the train to get to her? Although Two acknowledges that she is treated differently because of her race, does she ever challenge this? Why or why not?

3. Discuss how the book creates a dialogue about racism and segregation in America. Two admits that she has been treated with prejudice both on the road and on the ranch. Where do we also find instances of this during her time at Glendale? How does racism influence the way that Two interacts with other people, such as her friend Hank Crawford? How is Crawford impacted by the segregation of 1920s Nashville? How does his status as a member of a landowning Black family affect this? When Crawford shares the news that his cousin has been beaten, how does Two respond to the news? How does she relate to Crawford’s experiences with racism and segregation, and where do their experiences diverge?

4. What does Clive observe about Mr. Shackleford’s views on race? Why does he say that Shackleford’s views were “more peculiar than most” (117)? How does Shackleford consider his own views on race? Do you think that he is aware or unaware of his own racism? Discuss.

5. Two eventually learns that Glendale is built upon a cemetery. How does she feel about this? Who was involved in the desecration of Noel Cemetery? What do they remove from the graves and what do they do with the items they find? How did Mr. Shackleford view his own involvement with this, and how did this change “as he’d approached the twilight of his life” (102)? When did he realize this alteration in his thinking? What questions does the novel suggest about archaeology, ownership, and the history of museums and collections?

6. Who is Jack Older, and why is he convinced that he is Native American, even though he is white? As a child, what does he misunderstand about his parents’ farm that further reinforces this notion? Why does he think that Two Feathers “seemed like his destiny” (46), and how does this influence his actions? Discuss how his character serves as a catalyst for the exploration of the larger themes of appropriation and entitlement.

7. How is Clive Lovett affected by PTSD? How do the other characters, including his boss, Mr. Shackleford, seem to respond to this? When Clive begins to form a relationship with Helen, what doesn’t he want her to know or to see about him? Is he ever able to overcome this? How does his experience in the cave with Two ultimately change Clive and “[shift] earthquake-like his entire view of existence” (105)?

8. How does Helen respond when Clive inquires about Native Americans being prior inhabitants of the land they are on? What does her response reveal about the dominant narratives surrounding American settlement? What makes these narratives so problematic? Do you think that this has improved today? Why or why not?

9. What was the Scopes trial and why was it both popular and contentious? What “two large underlying and conflicting ideas” (141) did it bring into public view? Where did Clive stand on this issue, and what does Helen think about this? What did Clive mean when he said to Helen that “if William Jennings Bryan could’ve seen my monkeys, he might’ve rethought his position” (141)? Where does Two Feathers stand on these same issues? How does the novel ultimately reconcile the two “large underlying and conflicting ideas” brought to the surface by this trial?

10. Who is Little Elk and what was his life like? Why is he interested in keeping watch over Two Feathers? Why does he believe that he has been sent back to this area? What makes him decide that he should kill Pale Jump?

11. After Two Feathers is forced to become more sedentary as a result of her injury, how does her outlook on life change? What does she say that being inactive makes her see? How does it help her to better understand the stillness of her family members? What impact does this have on her relationships with the animals and nature, and how does it reshape her view of death?

12. Why does Two say that she doesn’t have any formal religion? Despite this, what are some of Two’s spiritual beliefs and why does she choose not to speak about them at Glendale? What did her Papaw mean when he said that “the whites’ religion is one of their greatest evils” (338)? How does Two think that this religion changed people’s outlook on the natural world?

13. Discuss the conclusion of the book. Who was ultimately responsible for the death of the animals at Glendale and what becomes of them? Why do Two, Clive, and Crawford make the choice to hide the evidence of murder at Glendale? Were you surprised by their choice? Why or why not? Who or what do they feel that they are protecting by doing this?

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