'And now it was done.' The perfectly imperfect ending of Kristen Millares Young's novel 'Subduction'

This is KUOW's book club, and we’re wrapping up Kristen Millares Young's novel "Subduction." I'm your club guide, Katie Campbell.

I

want to share the note I wrote as I finished the last few pages of "Subduction": Peter dances. He gets his song. It’s beautiful. Claudia does not ruin the moment, and it’s frustrating because, for once, I want to know what’s on her mind. What will become of her, her child, and its father?

Let's review: Peter has returned to the Makah Nation in Neah Bay after two decades away from home. He left after discovering his father's dead body in his home, and comes back when his mother, Maggie, is in the throes of dementia, living amongst a moldering hoard of what Peter believes is just junk.

Claudia, the cagey anthropologist and soon-to-be mother of Peter's child, discovers that the elderly woman's hoarding is not merely a trauma response. She is hoarding the materials she needs for a potlach to give Peter his Makah name and pass down his father's ancestral song. He resists but, finally, gives in to his mother's wishes.

With this ending, Young has tied up the story in a not-quite-perfect bow. It's fitting really. Life so infrequently delivers perfection. Happy endings are for fairy tales. Even tidy tragedies are more often found in the pages of books than in reality.

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Peter is so painfully flawed, to say the least. But I could not help but feel joy for him and Maggie as he threw himself into preparations for his celebration. He embraces his heritage at long last and seems to find some measure of peace:

To be clear, Peter is not exactly a good guy. He strikes up a relationship with Claudia even though he sees how she is manipulating his mother — and him — and, technically, rapes her the first time they have sex. It gets complicated as Claudia herself changes the narrative of that night in her mind, blaming herself, and continues to have a sexual relationship with Peter. But that doesn't really change what happened — nor does it change the ultimate result.

Claudia discovers she is pregnant with Peter's child toward the end of the novel. This knowledge seems to be a final affirmation, in Claudia's mind, of what she is doing in Neah Bay, collecting another people's culture for her academic benefit. Soon after she learns she is pregnant, she begins thinking of the Makah people as "her new kin" and that she is carrying Maggie's "future" in her womb.

Of course, we'll never know what emotion Maggie or Peter would have felt.

The book ends without Claudia ever telling them, planning to leave Neah Bay with her unborn child to raise it on her own. She takes agency in a way she hasn't throughout the book. I don't agree with her decision, but I am glad to see her take ownership of her circumstances after letting others — her father, her sister, her husband, Peter — determine her path for so long.

RELATED: We need to talk about Claudia from 'Subduction'

So much is left unresolved, intentionally so.

There is the mystery of Peter's father's death, solved for Claudia and the reader but not for him. We learn from Maggie that her neighbor and friend Dave was the killer, striking a deadly blow against the other man as he abused Maggie, blaming her for a sexual assault she'd suffered at the hands of a violent stranger.

I kept waiting for Claudia to break this to Peter, to tell him that the man who was now an integral part of reconnecting him to his culture was the reason his father wasn't there to do it himself. I can't imagine Peter would've handled that knowledge well, and doubt even more that Claudia would have delivered it with the appropriate delicacy. For goodness sake, she saw Maggie sharing this with her as a way in for her research!

Ultimately, this is what makes "Subduction" so effective and gut-wrenching: The characters are human, capable of great kindness and great corruption. The story feels lived in, like an old house with secrets in every corner. It's a bold piece that crosses lines and doubles down — much like the process of subduction itself.

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One note before you go: I will be interviewing Kristen Millares Young in front of a small live audience on Tuesday, July 30. We'll share the audio recording here on Friday.

And remember newsletter subscribers, you can still vote for our September pick for one more week. Sign up here!

Your choices are:

• "Fledgling" by Octavia Butler
• "The Laughter" by Sonora Jha
• "Wizard of the Pigeons" by Megan Lindholm