| Title | : | Green Grass, Running Water |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 0553373684 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780553373684 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 469 |
| Publication | : | First published March 1, 1993 |
| Awards | : | Canadian Authors Association Award Fiction |
Green Grass, Running Water Reviews
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Green Grass, Running Water is a tale of cosmogony and genesis in Indian style.
First Woman’s garden. That good woman makes a garden and she lives there with Ahdamn. I don’t know where he comes from. Things like that happen, you know.
So there is that garden. And there is First Woman and Ahdamn. And everything is perfect. And everything is beautiful. And everything is boring.
So First Woman goes walking around with her head in the clouds, looking in the sky for things that are bent and need fixing. So she doesn’t see that tree. So that tree doesn’t see her. So they bump into each other.
Pardon me, says that Tree, maybe you would like something to eat.
Everything begins in different places and in the end everything converges and culminates in a single point. If anything, the novel is very original.“In a democracy, everyone gets a turn.”
“Nonsense, in a democracy, only people who can afford it get a turn.”
This is the briefest and most acid summary of democracy I’ve ever seen.
There was no democracy in Eden… -
July 5, 2022, midnight-thirty ~~ A night and a half of sleeplessness allowed me to zip through this book.
Did I understand it better this time around?
Yep.
But I still plan to do this all over again Someday.
Because it is always a good idea to keep at least one eye on that Coyote.
Never know what will happen when he starts to sing and dance.
Heeheehee.
July 2, 2022 ~~ Thomas King is the author for a little project I have going for July through September of this year. Although this is already the third title so I think I might get to the end of the pile long before September. Of course, the first two books were pretty short. This one should take longer, and besides I am hoping to more completely understand it all this time around so I will be paying very close attention during this reread. Especially to that Coyote. heeheehee
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
March 28, 2017 ~~ In the beginning there was Ishmael, Hawkeye, Robinson Crusoe, and the Lone Ranger.
No, wait. Let's get this right. It's not good to make mistakes with stories.
So in the beginning there was Lionel and his auntie Norma, whose good advice is that it is okay to make mistakes in life but never make one with carpet, you must choose wisely.
Sigh.
In the beginning there was nothing but water. Water, water everywhere. And Coyote. Heeheehee.
Oh, dear.
In the beginning there was a wonderfully confusing but brilliant story that eventually made more sense than many serious stories, because there are many serious topics hidden in its pages. Homecoming, learning who you are supposed to be, dealing with the White Man Versus Native American issue, recognizing the value of life, fixing things from the past. [Except you have to be careful with that, especially if you are four cleverly named men (or women?) much older than you used to be and your powers are fading.]
Okay, I'm on a roll now.
You will laugh, you will say 'what is he talking about'? You will say 'oh, now I understand....I think'. You will want to read the whole thing all over again right away. And probably will need to in order to 'get' all the imagery ~~ unless you are much more clever than I am and catch it all the first time through. Actually, it is very easy to be much more clever than I am.....just watch out for the poop!
In the end, there was the Nissan, the Pinto, and the Kharmann-Ghia. And Coyote. He is a tricky dude, that one. As long as the grass is green and the waters run!
Heeheehee. -
Here's a book I wish I had never read again.
I walked away from my first reading with overwhelming feelings for
Thomas King's story. I thought it one of the best books I'd ever read. It leapt to the top of my unofficial favourite books list, and I couldn't wait to read it again.
The playful subversiveness of Coyote, King's post-colonial exploding of the Lone Ranger, Ishmael, Hawkeye, and Robinson Crusoe (popular culture's great "friends" to indigenous peoples) as their true "Native" selves, lame salesman Lionel Red Cloud and his sell out Hollywood father, big dams, big floods and big trouble, all made me gush my love for
Green Grass Running Water.
I did wait to read it again, though. Life and lots of books got in the way, and I read it five years later. The experience was nothing like the first time. I still enjoyed bits of King's story, and I found his post-colonialism as attractive as ever, but the shine was completely gone. It was like the crush one develops on an actor, only to discover that they are wrinkled and blemished and pasty without their make-up; the shift in perception doesn't change their skill, but the joy of the crush dissipates in a steam burst of reality.
But I still held King's book in high esteem, so when I was teaching Aboriginal students I chose
Green Grass Running Water for our novel. I felt sure that a Native perspective would rekindle my love for Coyote's great adventure, but I was disappointed again, and I have remained so ever since.
Part of this might have to do with the fact that most of my students found King's narrative hard to follow -- so hard that most never finished the story and the ones who did were bitter that they read it at all. Part of this might have to do with the fact that I had to read their essays, a torturous debacle of little commitment and many misinterpretations ( and I think I might have tortured my students as much as myself by making them write about
Green Grass Running Water). And part of this might be that my first experience with
Green Grass Running Water came at the perfect moment for myself and the book to meet, and that moment could never, ever be recaptured.
I wish I'd never reread this book. I would still love it, and I could recommend it to everyone. Now, the best I can muster is appreciation. It's a sad loss.
Don't reread everything you love...you may live to regret it. -
This was a bookclub read and one that I didn't get into until maybe 100 pages in. In the end I quite liked it. I don't really read too much Canadian fiction, something I'm trying to remedy, and it's nice to be able to read a book which discusses places I'm familiar with. And with the
Idle No More movement that is taking place in North America right now, it was definitely a good time to read this book. Native Canadian and American awareness is definitely needed.
This book introduces truly memorable characters and satirizes how non-Natives perceive Natives.Of course the obligatory Native trickster is included, as well as Native mythology of the creation of the world.
I have to admit that I only gave the book 4-stars after my bookclub friends explained some of the Native and literature symbolism to me. When I realized what King was trying to do the book became more interesting to me. I will probably have to re-read this one in the future. -
This is book candy: totally fun to read.
The novel has four movements, each of which begin with a "creation story" of sorts. King is mocking the grandiosity and fixities of the storied biblical tradition, fusing these dominant/dominating narratives with characters from the western literary canon, old hollywood and Indian pop culture. The story begins with Old Coyote: the mythic force in charge of it all. Coyote has a dream, and the dream starts to believe that it's in charge of the world. The dream says , "I want to be Coyote" and Coyote says, "no, sorry, that identity's taken. You can be dog." But, of course, in all his consequent confusion, dog gets confused and starts calling himself god. The rest, of course, is (biblical)history. These creation stories diverge wildly from the canonical versions. All circulate around a central female figure who encounters other mythical characters (There's First Woman who meets the Lone Ranger, there's Thought Woman who meets Robinson Crusoe, there's Changing Woman who meets Ishmael).
The mythical, creation-like stories, are inserted in between the flashes of narrative culled from a group of characters on/near/related to a reservation in Alberta. They're all connected in a strange web of relations that only becomes coherent the more we read. They're interrupted by myth (and some of mythic characters, including a new talking coyote, the Lone Ranger, Robinson Crusoe, Ishmael, and Hawkeye) actually become characters in the story. The patterns in the narrative, the little fractured tidbits of story, actually, remind me of that film "Shortcuts". The book was published in 1993, so maybe there are some late 1990s stylistic decisions being made here.
At any rate,it sounds complex, but I think the approach is actually deceptively simple. King presents a well-executed illustration of a cosmology in which myth and daily life are improvisationally, circularly, fused. Haunting, gothic figural truths or sacralities have no place here. Rather, what we have to work with (to read, to understand) is a net of people who (whether they like it or not) are somehow bound together in a complicated enterprise which serves no real teleological purpose but, instead, generates story on top of story, on top of story. -
The format of this novel and the cyclical oral tradition/literary mashup that King presents us with is fantastic, interesting, and satirical of canon, as well as Western & Native cultures. The three levels of narration are intriguing and although they may complicate the story at times, they provide a certain amusement and insight that would not otherwise be possible. The characters are believable and lovable and when the novel is finished you will feel as if you have lost a close friend. The part that I most enjoyed, however, was King's humour. Witty and satirical and just out-right funny, it was a great. I highly recommend this book to all adult readers!
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On a certain level, this book is a difficult read, but on the surface it's a lively satire that's kind of fun. The author goes back and forth between a contemporary storyline focusing on a reserve community, the adventures of four Native elders, and sections resembling Native oral tradition, with an unknown narrator telling Coyote a story. There are so many layers and nuances in this book, but regardless of your depth of understanding, it's not hard to see that the author is critiquing the exploitation of Native people and their lands.
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Definitely a book worth reading as well as rereading.
It reminded me, oddly enough, of Joseph Heller's Catch 22. The dialogue among characters is rambunctious and satirical, the narrative revisits an important story throughout the novel (i.e., Catch-22's Snowden scene), and it's duplicitously fantastical and real. Arguably, both novels also are anti-imperial, though, that's a stretch with one being anti-war and the other being anti-establishment (my opinion, of course).
The major point I carried away from Green Grass, Running Water was how unacceptable western-white culture can be of any other, different culture. But, even more striking, is how it shows that all cultures struggle to accept change whether the culture is black, white, red, etc. This is a book full of characters who must mask themselves in order to escape the figurative prison that their own uniqueness creates, which is to say that in order to live among the masses one must act and/or become part of the dominant culture mass. In the context of Green Grass, Running Water, Native Canadian Americans use the device of masking their culture in order to escape the stigmas applied to them by a majority. Once they are absolved of the stigma, they drop the disguise and run free for a bit until they are eventually pursued and recaptured then the cycle repeats: imprisonment, breakout, freedom, imprisonment, breakout, freedom, etc.
The unique thing about Green Grass, Running Water is that it is actually applicable to anyone who feels imprisoned within their, to steal from Terence McKeena, cultural operating system. As a reader, I got the sense that even the white characters of the novel were not so much portrayed as dumb as they were trapped. Stereotypes were not only applied to Native people but applied to all people. However, it’s very important to understand that it is only the Native people in this novel who are able to break free from the trap, which is what makes Green Grass, Running Water quintessentially Native American.
Green Grass, Running Water is a reference to the seventh president of the United States, Andrew Jackson’s, directive to Choctaw, Chickasaw, Cherokee, and Creek people regarding their needing to essentially move out of the way of white settlement in Mississippi and other surrounding territories. Howard Zinn eloquently describes this in his article, “As Long as the Grass Grows or Water Runs” which I also believe is in his book A People’s History of the United States. I have provided Zinn’s quotation from Jackson here:
“The proper tactic had now been found. The Indians would not be ‘forced’ to go West. But if they chose to stay they would have to abide by state laws, which destroyed their tribal and personal rights and made them subject to endless harassment and invasion by white settlers coveting their land. If they left, however, the federal government would give them financial support and promise them lands beyond the Mississippi. Jackson's instructions to an army major sent to talk to the Choctaws and Cherokees put it this way:
‘Say to my reel Choctaw children, and my Chickasaw children to listen-my white children of Mississippi have extended their law over their country. .. . Where they now are, say to them, their father cannot prevent them from being subject to the laws of the state of Mississippi. . .. The general government will be obliged to sustain the States in the exercise of their right. Say to the chiefs and warriors that I am their friend, that I wish to act as their friend but they must, by removing from the limits of the States of Mississippi and Alabama and by being settled on the lands I offer them, put it in my power to be such-There, beyond the limits of any State, in possession of land of their own, which they shall possess as long as Grass grows or water runs. I am and will protect them and be their friend and father.’
That phrase ‘as long as Grass grows or water runs’ was to be recalled with bitterness by generations of Indians.”(Zinn, As Long as the Grass Grows or Water Runs,
http://www.historyisaweapon.com/defco...)
In the end, this book is absolutely thought provoking and sad. It’s satirical and shameful.
I loved it. -
Without doubt Thomas King is the secret and wickedly clever twin of Salman Rushdie. Green Grass, Running Water is my introduction to this master of magic realism, and what an introduction it has been.
In the first third of the novel I realized bedtime reading this novel should not be (echoes of Yoda there), because the narrative, weighted heavily toward sharp, incisive dialogue, required a reader fully awake, engaged and firing on all cylinders. (Warp 9, Number One!)
By the second third I realized I needed to rein in the rapid-fire narrative and set about reading as though I were a beginner, pausing on each word, each phrase, because without that sort of careful consideration I would be sure to lose the avalanche of nuance Thomas King wields with careless, effortless abandon.
Dear god I wish I could write like that!
The novel abounds with metaphor, both subtle and sledge-hammer: the four elders who are escapees from a home for the mentally challenged, who assume the identities of Ishmael, Robinson Crusoe, The Lone Ranger and Hawkeye. There are the derelict cars Nissan and Pinto, one red, one blue; the puddle become lake that follows both vehicles; the lone cabin at the bottom of a dam which is known to be flawed and has yet to work; a woman seeking motherhood but not a husband; an appliance salesman seeking freedom; Coyote and Old Coyote attempting to narrate the genesis story.... I could go on. But the mind stutters and pauses and seeks breath. And even with all these seemingly disparate stories, King weaves the threads together into a lustrous cloth.
This is a rich, lavish, humorous and irreverent novel that will change the way you think about story-telling and the world in general.
Highly recommended. But read when you're completely awake! -
A very unique approach. At times funny. At times confusing. One can never say mundane.
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Nope, I didn't get it.
Very "MFA" in its avant-garde use of folksy speech, myth, and intimate portrayals of people all attached in various ways to an Indian reservation in Canada.
CONTENT WARNING:
I don't know what I liked or didn't because I didn't get how it all went together. It intersperses tellings of how the world started with multiple POVs from folks in the 80s. If I had to guess, I would guess that this is about the inevitable, circular nature of how colonialism works and who gets hurt, told in a way that's meant to feel somewhat funny and somewhat daring, but for me, felt mostly obtuse. -
One reading of Green Grass, Running Water is the knock at the door of a lodge filled with possibility. Let me say this, after my first scan of the book (a first full read is really only a scan) I have formulated many more questions than opinions. This is because voice, style, motive and method present so many innovative as well as questionable textual issues.
King uses the metaphor of four age-old ancient Indians (four directions, four worlds, etc.) to deconstruct contemporary colonial imagery. In addition, he disobeys the boundaries of gender and just about every other hegemonic given in the way modern society views nativism. Bravo. He also capitalizes on trickster as the way into this discussion. This is truly a creation story with clever Coyote serving as the perfect necessary comic relief for the novel.
"I thought the book was a Coyote creation story," says Coyote.
"That's unlikely," says Tom.
"No, no," says Coyote. "It's the truth."
"There are no truths, Coyote," Tom says. "Only stories."
"Okay," says Coyote. "Tell me a story" (326).
There’s no other way he could successfully debunk John Wayne.
These transformative characters: Thought Woman as Robinson Crusoe, Moby Dick as Moby Jane are all metaphors with miles of symbolic suggestion. His subversion of what I think I’ll refer to as dominion discourse requires the reader to question the reality of western thinking. But here is where I see a problem. The question of who, then, is the audience is important. Is the native (mixed-blood, other nation) writer creating this work for the native reader or the non-native postcolonial audience? One might say for both, since it is a story that explores the cosmically intermingled lives of five people who are first nations as well as deconstructing the hegemonic use of canonical texts and popular/racist culture imagery. So then, in my nascent understanding of this first read, I have to further ask, for whom does it benefit?
It is very much written in an oral arrangement. It weaves, inverts and plays heyoka (a coyote trait) in the directions it moves. But, I wonder if it is truly literature for native communities to read and embrace as a reflection of their particular experiences or if it is a trick in itself to be read by non-natives for the purpose of deconstructing postcolonial imagery. In either case, or both, I have to applaud King’s placement of both native and non-native actors on a stage of shared cultural landscape to tell a divisive history. -
Made my way up to page 78. It has been sitting on my shelf with the bookmark sticking out for several months. Let's face it, I will not pick it up again. It feels like a great book, it just did not work for me at the time.
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Whimsical, humourous, clever structure, a connected set of well-wrought characters fleeing and returning to (being pulled back to) their "home on Native land." A First Nations creation myth colliding with other myths, stories, fictions (Native and non-), told and retold from the perspective of four archetypical [fictional] characters: the Lone Ranger, Robinson Crusoe, Ishmael and Hawkeye.
Nicely underscores the essential collective cultural conflict as lived by individuals, and the endless struggle to retain and express one's unique cultural identity amidst the forces - some benign, some antagonistic, some downright hostile - that seek to swamp it. A surprisingly fun and lighthearted read, with an undercurrent of gentle irony, anger and sadness that rarely breaks the surface, but is there nonetheless. -
I feel like a number of the books I've read in the last month have been hard slogs in one way or another. Not bad books, necessarily, but heavy and difficult, and not the kind I've been eager to get back to. My reward for finishing them feels like it was this book, which was amusing, wonderful, difficult, and enjoyable from first to last.
Note: The rest of this review has been withheld due to the changes in Goodreads policy and enforcement. You can read why I came to this decision
here.
In the meantime, you can read the entire review at
Smorgasboook -
This was sooo amazing. I’ve never read such a complex and confusing book as this one. I read this for my class: Indigenous and Canadian Literature. It is all about creation stories, Indigenous tradition, the differences between cultures, interwoven stories, mystical vs contemporary ideas, past vs present, ways of storytelling, racism, the Western, deconstructing Eurocentrism, and so much more. I love the Elders’ story and how it connected into all the other stories. Every detail just felt so important. It was also so cool how all the stories came together at the end, and how we got to know how each character felt about different things ie, the Western, Indigenous stereotypes, inter-cultural relationships, etc. I definitely want to read this book again because I know I’ve missed a lot with my first run through. So good!!!
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July 2023 Gratitude For the Wry and Thoughtful Storytelling of Thomas King
https://lplks.org/blogs/post/gratitud...
Wholeheartedly humorous, character rich, Indigenous-centered, magical, and tricksterish read! Thomas King's heritage includes Cherokee, Greek, and Swiss German.
If you enjoyed The Sentence by Louise Erdrich (a member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa) then you will love this too!
Kudos to Lora Jost (skilled and creative Lawrence, Kansas based artist) for this recommendation!
Register for access to an audio reading via Internet Archive and consider contributing financial support.
https://archive.org/details/greengras... -
Picked it up in a reading challenge and it was truly challenge worthy. Wish I had done some pre-read to fully appreciate the brilliance of the book.
Thomas King's Green Grass Running water is witty showmanship writing that you are expected to hold in awe (Like in a carnatic concert). My retrospective wikipedia reading told me that the genre is actually called Trickster! To say the least the first 25% is an almost futile exercise to make out what was happening till you figure out the pattern.
The book has many parallel tracks coming together at the Native American reserve. The narrator and Coyote (the fun trickster) are telling the story in an oral tradition - correcting each other, retelling the story where it wasn't making sense and letting the story develop. It starts with 'In the beginning there was water'. And for the question of where did the water come from - we get to view the other plods with a running joke of forklore meets Christianity.
4 ageless old Indians - The Lone Ranger, Ishmael, Robinson Crusoe and Hawkeye disappear from a mental hospital to fix the world. Their fixing the world involves things like setting right lives, saving the reservation from an intrusive dam or altering movie endings to make sure Indians win over John Wayne. They also narrate the stories of creation of the world which end up meeting book characters with Coyote playing the fool.
The other plots are in search of middle ground between Native American tradition and finding a place in the modern world. The classic struggle, except the exploitation and marginalization of the Native Americans is passed off under humor. Alberta wants to have a baby without involving the two men in her life. Lionel is still trying to figure out his place in life at 40. His sister Latisha is holding her own running the tourist restaurant with her children reflecting back on her marriage. We also have Eli who has come back to the reserve, Charlie the son of a failed star and Dr.Hovaugh and Babo trying to find the Indians and solve the mystery of their disappearance (and subsequent reappearance).
Had I understood the Coyote angle and the Old Woman, Thought Woman folklore etc it would have been a 4 star book. Unfortunately I walked through this in a state of confusion. -
This is storytelling at its best -- a delightful, comical magical realism read about four native canadians who escape from a mental institution, a tv salesman turning 40 who contemplates the point of his life, his girlfriend Alberta who is trying to figure out how to conceive without bothering with a husband, the trickster Coyote who explains the creation of the world, and Uncle Eli who singlehandedly stops the canadian gov't from putting up a dam. Excellent dialogue and characters -- King's style is purely his own and unpredictable.
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This book was great. Funny, smart, and totally readable. King weaves multiple character story lines into a sharp satire about colonial history, pop culture and racism. Recommended.
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Green grass running water is unlike any book I’ve ever read - not because the plot is complex or the prose is unique but because it’s written in little snapshots of different characters that ultimately converge together. I really enjoyed seeing how these random little plots and people ended up all being related to each other and I think that King blended the styles of oral storytelling in well to written storytelling.
While I enjoyed all of the plots, my absolute favourite moments were when the Creator was telling genesis and biblical myths to Coyote. I think that’s when King’s witticism and satire really hits the best and I found myself laughing out loud at the absurdity (yet truthfulness) frequently throughout these passages.
My only complaint - and it really isn’t a complaint more of me being out to lunch - is that I did find the book deeply confusing for the first 50-75 pages until I understood what was actually going on. After that, the book was a super quick and fast read but the first little bit was a struggle.
Overall, thoroughly enjoyed and Thomas king is one of my favourite authors now thanks to this book (-: -
Rating is really 3.5.
This novel examines the clash between Christianity( more accurate would be American ideology where Christianity is used as a means of domination) and Native Americans. Or even patriarchy versus matriarchy. It is a darkly humorous look at popular culture which relegated Indians to the role of savage primarily in books and movies or as a token character. In this book we follow the love triangle of Lionel, Alberta and Charlie which interplays with the more fantastical story of Lone Ranger, Robinson Crusoe, Ishmael and Hawkeye. The fantastical elements presents the oral tradition of the indigenous people in Canada and America whose life has now been reduced to living on a reservation. And whilst the humor softens the effect of colonialism on successive generations, one walks away rethinking the romantic visions of Indians ingrained from youth. And it makes you rethink who the true heroes and villains are.
Edit:
I struggle with the flat narrative in the contemporary Native American stories. Apparently it is a style of writing called associative literature which focuses more on the community and its relation to its members and nature. There tends to be a cyclical aspect with no definitive endings. It looks more at the attractive and ugly portions of character. I guess then I will have to learn to filter these stories through that lenses instead. But I’m not a fan at present. -
Thomas King.
Goodness me, what a writer and thinker.
Although I will be honest, at times the multiple different narratives get confusing the ideas still seems to flow together and when I slowed down I understood better was taking place.
This may be one of the most important novels a young person in Canada who cares about Indigenous history and settlers past actions could read.
What a fantastic book, Thomas King never fails to amaze me -
The easy explanation is that it's a whimsical look at an extended family of Canadian Blackfoot indians juxtaposed with bits and pieces of traditional storytelling. But that's just the easy explanation.
The prevailing theme of the novel seems to be the cyclical nature of history and everyday life. There is very much a sense of "this has all happened before and it will all happen again." This is most accessably illustrated by the First Woman/Changing Woman/Talking Woman/Old Woman stories written largely as parodies of classic stories, both literary and biblical, as narrated by "I" and Coyote, but also echoed in the subtleties of the main text.
Each of the main characters of the present-day story line seems to echo the plight of one of the traditional characters. Noah seems to correspond roughly to Lionel; doing what he's told by higher ups and pretty much surrounded by shit. Eli is reminiscent of Ahab - taking a stand against the dam, repeating the confrontation with Sifton day and day again, only to be dragged down with it in the end. Alberta is without question a Mary figure, actively seeking her immaculate conception (no dogmatic arguments here on the validity of the use of this term please, dad). Latisha hints at Eve; seemingly all-knowing and willing to share that knowledge. Offering the fruit of the tree of good and evil labeled "Old Agency Puppy Stew."
It goes on, but more than the allusions, the repetition is everywhere. From the number 26 as a chapter heading to the number 26 as a channel on the TV. From a yellow dog peeing on the tires of Babo's red Pinto, to Charlie renting a red Pinto, to a yellow dog dancing outside the rain in a television store. The details were clearly well executed. The foreshadowing was also superb. It all leaves you with the impression that this is a book you will have to read again if only to pick up on all the subtle references and delicate set ups.
I also enjoyed the playful interaction of the narrated portions to the reader, such as the tongue-in-cheek treatment of the imagery that the book itself uses:
"Not again," says Coyote.
"You bet," I says.
"Hmmmmmm," says Coyote. "All this floating imagery must mean something."
"That's the way it happens in oral stories," I says.
"Hmmmmm," says Coyote. "All this water imagery must mean something."
Latisha was the character with whom I identified the most (and admittedly I'm a reader who tries to see herself in things), but I thought this exchange was one of the most apropos of all time:
Jeanette paused at the door. "This is fine, dear. I can make it the rest of the way myself." She let go of Latisha's arm and leaned on the door handle. "How long were you married?"
"Nine years."
"Children?"
"Three."
Jeanette shook her head. "Did you kill the bastard?"
Latisha laughed. "No, he's still alive. I threw him away."
"Splendid," said Jeanette, opening the door. "I love stories with happy endings!"
And really, it was a happy ending. Because it was a new beginning. And that was rather the point. -
This book has been in my orbit for a while; it was one book on "Canada Reads" the year Blue Rodeo co-frontman Jim Cuddy was championing Guy Vanderhaeghe's The Last Crossing, and a friend of mine from trivia sang its praises after having read it in her World Lit class. I read it myself, then discovered to my delight that *my* iteration of the World Lit class would be studying it as well.
For you see, this book is an excellent one to study in an English class. It is about a group of Blackfoot Native people who live in or around the Native reserve in Blossom, Alberta. Their stories are intersected by the exploits of four old Native women and Coyote, the trickster god, who are trying to tell the story of Creation. However, this story is nothing like any creation story you've seen before -- a view of Christian traditions from the Aboriginal perspective, with all sorts of modern references thrown into the jumble. Everything flows together nicely, and the levels of symbolism and references that Thomas King uses can keep the English majors satisfied for ages.
The book is excellent, with well-rounded characters, wonderfully written Creation-story scenes, and laugh-out-loud humour. If you're a CanLit fan, you should pick this up. And if you're not a CanLit fan, well, perhaps this book will change your mind. -
Well....I've gotta tell ya, this is just about as much fun as a person could
ever have between the covers of a book. This book is simply hilarious. I'm
so glad I bought it, because I have so many corners turned down on so many
favourite passages. The story follows half a dozen or so First Nations
folks as they make their way to the annual Sun Dance festival in Blossom,
Alberta. We get to know them quite intimately, their pasts, their
motivations, their hopes for their futures, how their lives are curiously
intertwined. The best part though is the four mysterious Indian elders --
Robinson Crusoe, Ishmael, the Lone Ranger, and Hawkeye -- who are on a
mission to "fix" the world. In addition to all this, the whole thing is
mixed in with Indian legends, many strangely and enjoyably blended with
legendary literary masterpieces, including the Bible. Highly recommended;
had me laughing out loud with sheer delight. :-)
This quote probably won't mean much out of context, but it sent me into
gales of giggles....
" 'A Nissan, a Pinto, and a Karmann-Ghia?' said Sifton. 'What the hell are
cars doing on my lake?' " (p. 407)
Suffice it to say ya just had ta be there....LOLOL! :-) -
"There are no truths, Coyote...only stories" says a character in Thomas King's novel about how stories define others and define ourselves. Juxtaposing myth with the mundane, King details several subplots, many of which deal with Blackfoot Indians making their way in 20th century America with the help (or hinderance) of traditional Native American figures (or their proxies) watching over them. As much a comment on the nature of storytelling and the power of narrative as the historicity of the Native American story in the modern age, King casts a fast-paced narrative in the gold of post-modern philosophy and theory. Wry, brilliantly humorous as well as self-effacing and creating, this novel will reward fans of Sherman Alexie and other authors critiquing the Native American "story" as told by white historians, filmmakers and others.
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I enjoyed some of the subversive uses of iconic characters. At first I enjoyed the mingling of Native and Christian creation mythology, but ultimately felt that there was a certain amount of willful misunderstanding to create a silly, shallow version of Christian mythos, a straw man to build up and knock down. I understand why this is desirable for some, but always hope for something more substantial than the usual complaints. That said, I read this in 2011 and think it deserves a reread now after I've read many more stories by Indigenous writers.
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It had some interesting things to say, but ultimately, I think this book tried to take on too many ideas. Racism, sexism, heteronormativity, cultural appropriation, Western culture, Native culture, the Bible and its religious figures, various novels and figures, colonization. It was just too much and personally, I would've preferred a more restrained and specific focus rather than a muddled mix of, like, everything.
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I loved the narrative in this book. Told from different points of view, the story blended together beautifully and the storytelling style allowed me to almost listen more than read the book. Excellent.
