Category: 7. Literature and creative writing - By and/or
about Lumbee people

ANDE003. Anderson, Forrest. "Coupons." The South Carolina Review 40.2 (April 2008):19-27.

Publication type: Magazine article; short story.

This story once again features Lucius Soundingsides, the character from "The Night Power Came to the Reservation," and his now nine-year-old son, Thomas. Lucius is Cherokee and his wife is Lumbee. It is told from the point of view of his coworker on a painting crew, whose wife recently left him. Lucius is selling coupon books for discounts at local businesses for his son Thomas's church basketball league. If Thomas sells the most coupon books, the church will pay for his attendance at Pembroke's basketball camp.

Through his description of Lucius and his son Thomas visiting a gym and using their discount coupons to play basketball, Anderson evokes these themes: Indian identity, duty, friendship, lost dreams, hope for the future, decision points in life, and father-son relationships. Anderson is especially adept in depicting the on-court basketball maneuvers of the characters.

Anderson's sparse, subtle writing style is especially powerful in the story's final paragraph, in which basketball imagery elides into imagery of Native American dancing.

Additional subjects: Short stories | Basketball | Dancing | Construction workers | Indian identity

This page was updated on September 19, 2008 3:20 PM