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4.0 AVERAGE
4.0 AVERAGE
challenging
funny
hopeful
The stories are very loosely connected. While the blurb on the back puts a lot of emphasis on the effects of the protagonist's experiences in Vietnam on his post-service life, I found that only the first third of the book dealt with the war at all. After that, the stories had more to do with Rez life generally. Not that that's a bad thing at all, and I did enjoy the expanding of Luke Warmwater's identity - especially since we only catch glimpses of him across decades.
The stories themselves are short anecdotes, taken seemingly at random from a whole lifetime of experiences. They cover everything from being a soldier to playing Bingo with his wife to harvesting wild rice. They are "slice of life" stories, mostly without a specific point (at least at a surface reading) other than to simply exist in that moment. I enjoyed the writing style, which has a strong narrative voice, as well as the sense of humour.
I was really impressed by a few of the poems, too. Several of them packed quite an evocative punch.
The edition I read also had a number of non-fiction articles by the author, which helped to provide some of the context and subtext for the preceding stories.
Overall, this is a fairly short read, but an interesting one. Northrup's individual perspective on Rez life is a valuable one.
The stories themselves are short anecdotes, taken seemingly at random from a whole lifetime of experiences. They cover everything from being a soldier to playing Bingo with his wife to harvesting wild rice. They are "slice of life" stories, mostly without a specific point (at least at a surface reading) other than to simply exist in that moment. I enjoyed the writing style, which has a strong narrative voice, as well as the sense of humour.
I was really impressed by a few of the poems, too. Several of them packed quite an evocative punch.
The edition I read also had a number of non-fiction articles by the author, which helped to provide some of the context and subtext for the preceding stories.
Overall, this is a fairly short read, but an interesting one. Northrup's individual perspective on Rez life is a valuable one.