The Best Read Ever
I am a huge fan of Charles Dickens--how he integrates social justice with powerful epic narratives populated with superb characters, drawn with uncanny details in behavior suggesting volumes in unwritten subtext.
Enter Winona LaDuke stage left (from Ashland, OR to White Earth, MN) with her first novel. I'd say she embodies the Dickensian spirit, except that would be a lie to the sublimity of her articulation of her Ojibwe heritage. I mean Dickens' heritage is English, and to suggest Winona is his heir would be blasphemous. Racist even.
This first novel is, in my opinion, the best novel from a writer in the United States in the 20th Century. Unflinching, riveting, sly, sexy, epic. She captures the Native American experience that reveals not only the struggles of her tribe, but sheds light on the struggle of all oppressed people. I am so happy she wrote it, and so happy I discovered it. Miigwech.
