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A review by matildazq
House Made of Dawn by N. Scott Momaday
4.0
I feel like my brain was too run-down to really absorb this. It has the relentless stream-of-consciousness feel of Joyce or Camus (both of whom I love), and when I wasn't too exhausted to lower myself into the stream of images and emotions, it had that same power to place me in a completely altered state. But when my brain would not brain hard enough, I found myself having to fip back pages or chapters to re-read.
The setting is beautiful. The plot—in so far as it has one—is devastating, yet the last two major sections of it are, if not hopeful (because, how could they be), suffused with warmth and abiding love for humans. The celebration of connections, even painful, difficult ones that serially challenge and disappoint have left me thinking in a way that "devastation porn" novels in the mainstream never could. It's a pathetically obvious thing to say, but even though Momaday speaks often about his dual cultural identity, this is so not a "white" novel.
The setting is beautiful. The plot—in so far as it has one—is devastating, yet the last two major sections of it are, if not hopeful (because, how could they be), suffused with warmth and abiding love for humans. The celebration of connections, even painful, difficult ones that serially challenge and disappoint have left me thinking in a way that "devastation porn" novels in the mainstream never could. It's a pathetically obvious thing to say, but even though Momaday speaks often about his dual cultural identity, this is so not a "white" novel.