Drew Hayden Taylor's Motorcycles and Sweetgrass is a novel that largely follows Virgil Second, a thirteen-year-old boy who realizes that the mysterious stranger his mother is dating is Nanabush, a legendary Trickster god with suspicious motivations (and a long-running feud with the world's raccoons).
The novel follows multiple characters - human, animal, and others - in third-person narration. The story spans multiple generations and decades, as Nanabush also interacts with Virgil's grandmother, Lillian Benojee, as a teenager before she is sent to a residential school. Lillian's death 60 years later brings Nanabush to the Anishnawbe community of Otter Lake, where Nanabush - calling himself John, with a variety of last names - decides to help the community in general, and Virgil's mom, Maggie, in particular. Virgil is skeptical of John's motives, so he teams up with his oddball Uncle Wayne to get John to leave town. Though the novel is playful and funny, Virgil and his family confront many serious topics, from death to religious/political conflict to abuse at residential schools. Nanabush's attempts to help Otter Lake backfire, but they result in the community and the Benojee/Second family growing closer and Virgil coming of age (a bit, anyway).
The book was positively reviewed, with many praising its blend of humor and heart, as well as Taylor's unique voice and "serious iconoclasm." Motorcycles and Sweetgrass was a finalist for the Governor General's Literary Award for Fiction.
