Washuta writes that it took her eight years to finish “White Magic” because she was still living in the “long face-off with what my mind has resisted resolving because it feels safe in the pain.” One of the longer essays, “The Spirit Cabinet,” uses the time-jump portals in “ Twin Peaks” to unpack the demise of a relationship. Though “White Magic” is a book of essays, it reads like a single piece, as circuitous and ambiguous as special agent Dale Cooper’s journey through the Black Lodge. Though Washuta might pass as white, the toxin of racism and colonialism penetrates the ground she walks on, the water that runs through town, and the alcohol she drinks to medicate herself for physical and psychic pain.īooks Murder on the rez: A phenomenal thriller invents Native noir - and then transcends itĭavid Heska Wanbli Weiden talks about the motivations and the deeply embedded social and legal problems behind his potboiler “Winter Counts.” “The mortgage lender and the cops don’t treat me as a menace, they think I’m white so they let me live,” she writes. Washuta is a member of the Cowlitz Indian Tribe, a federally recognized tribe in the Pacific Northwest. But this book is not about despair it’s about sifting through the broken shards of culture, looking for messages to restore one’s spirit. “I just want a version of the occult that isn’t built on plunder, but I suspect that if we could excise the stolen pieces, there would be nothing left,” she reflects. Even magic has been colonized by settlers, in the form of Twitter horoscopes, Instagram witches and the wellness industry. Nothing is comfortable in these essays, which labor through the muddy waters of intergenerational trauma, imperialism, capitalism and misogyny, using popular culture (“ Twin Peaks,” Tarot cards, the video game “ Red Dead Redemption 2”) as navigational tools. “Do you think this is a good book? How do you know?” Elissa Washuta asks in one of the footnotes of the essays collected in “ White Magic.” “Is it because you compared it to other books? I do want to make you uncomfortable if you’re accustomed to being the ideal audience, your wants prioritized.” Later she asks, “what is your tolerance for ambiguity?” If you buy books linked on our site, The Times may earn a commission from, whose fees support independent bookstores.

White magic by elissa washuta