“His work may be classified as magical realism.—Wiki”
“Magical Realism”? Seriously, who makes this crap up?
Magical realism is a style of fiction most typified by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Maybe you knew that. I don’t mean to condescend. Needless to say, not everyone can pull it off and even when they do, it’s not every reader’s cup if tea. I haven’t read any of Penn’s writing. But not every minimalist is Hemingway or Raymond Carver. And so on.
Sounds like this guy might be like Ward Churchill in more ways than one. Fake Indian Alert! I’m not accusing him of being a fake, but Pretend Indians are practically a cottage industry.