It’s a trickster universe. Sarah Gailey’s River of Teeth popped into my life, first when I was checking in new books at the library, but thought I was too busy, then when I saw something about the 1910 American Hippo Bill on Facebook the day before a copy of it came in through book drop. Tezcatlipoca must have wanted me to read that book.
So I checked it out and read it and was I ever impressed!
A rip-snorting action adventure in a very different alternate universe. Gailey pushed the importing of hippos to the Mississippi back to 1857 to put it more in the time period of the traditional “western” genre and if that wasn't enough, it’s packed with badass characters that are more diverse and gender fluid than Zane Grey or Louis L’Amour would have even tried. This is what I mean when I grumble about taking back the western (and the West) from its white supremacist/colonial practitioners.
(Check out “Lupita’s Hand” and “Pancho Villa’s Flying Circus” in my collection Guerrilla Mural of a Siren’s Song.)
Yeah, the domestication of (some) hippos would take a lot longer, if it is possible at all. In Africa, they are seen as dangerous predators rather than cute, cuddly cartoon critters. But it does make for a good story and the hippos come out as characters rather than props.
There were some things that I’m surprised weren’t explored in the book.
Like the whole reason that the hippos are imported is for meat. They're supposed to be good eatin’. I once saw a video where one was “accidentally” killed and people gathered around talking about how sad it was while breaking out butcher knives and setting up barbecues. How would this affect Louisiana cooking traditions? Hippo steaks, burgers, and even tacos—remember, Texas/Mexico is right next door.
And speaking of culture, would bringing in hunters who were experienced with hippos further Africanize the South? What would the Texas beef industry think about the competition? Think of the interstate range wars!
I was thinking that it would make a great movie when I ran across a new movie called Hungry—about killer hippos in Louisiana! Looks more like a horror/thriller than an alternate universe western and the hippos look like plastic, but is this becoming a thing?
But wait! Gailey has more of these hippo books. It’s a series. A franchise.
Maybe we’ll see a miniseries . . .
Maybe Trump will think it’s a good idea and send troops to Africa for a hippo roundup/war?
Then what? McDonald’s Hippoburgers? Southern Fried hippo nuggets? I-Can’t-Believe-It’s-Not-Hippo?
As a certain badass hermaphrodite once said, “A tasty world.”
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