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A review by christytidwell
Bearheart: The Heirship Chronicles by Gerald Vizenor
1.0
This book is seriously fucked up. For me, Bearheart belongs in the same category as Bret Easton Ellis's American Psycho: I can see why it's interesting intellectually, but it made me feel sick while reading it and I never want to read it again.
Vizenor thoroughly challenges conceptions of gender, sexuality, humanity, Indian-ness, and lots more in this novel. In the afterword to the book, Louis Owens writes about his experiences teaching the book, saying, "Since being hauled on the carpet for teaching Bearheart, I have been sure to include the novel in every Native American literature course I teach. It is a brilliant, evocative, essential corrective to all false and externally imposed definitions of 'Indian.' It challenges all of us, and, like all trickster tales, it wakes us up" (248). Despite my disgust while reading Bearheart, it certainly is valuable in this way.
Having acknowledged that, though, if you are disturbed by violence, rape, frequent explicit sexual acts (many of which of a . . . shall we say . . . nonstandard persuasion, and just general weirdness, this is not the book for you.
Vizenor thoroughly challenges conceptions of gender, sexuality, humanity, Indian-ness, and lots more in this novel. In the afterword to the book, Louis Owens writes about his experiences teaching the book, saying, "Since being hauled on the carpet for teaching Bearheart, I have been sure to include the novel in every Native American literature course I teach. It is a brilliant, evocative, essential corrective to all false and externally imposed definitions of 'Indian.' It challenges all of us, and, like all trickster tales, it wakes us up" (248). Despite my disgust while reading Bearheart, it certainly is valuable in this way.
Having acknowledged that, though, if you are disturbed by violence, rape, frequent explicit sexual acts (many of which of a . . . shall we say . . . nonstandard persuasion, and just general weirdness, this is not the book for you.