Survivor's medicine : short stories / by E. Donald Two-Rivers.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Two-Rivers, E. Donald, 1945-2008.

Series:

American Indian literature and critical studies series ; v. 29.

American Indian literature and critical studies series ; v. 29

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Indians of North America--Social life and customs--Fiction.

Indians of North America.

Indians of North America--Social life and customs.

United States--Ethnic relations--Fiction.

United States.

Ethnic relations.

Genre:

Fiction.

Physical Description:

258 pages ; 23 cm.

Place of Publication:

Norman : University of Oklahoma Press, [1998]

Summary:

In Survivor's Medicine, E. Donald Two-Rivers turns the stereotype of the stoic Indian on its head, then shakes it until it laughs and cries. In detail sometimes raw and violent these short stories show how racism and poverty plague the lives of many American Indians. Yet even as they look these realities straight in the eye, the stories affirm the healing power of laughter and celebrate the human capacity for survival.

The characters dwell in small towns or big cities, or are simply on the road, whether along the highways that crisscross America from Ontario to Texas or in the network of the psyche. For some, such as Joe Walks-Bear (who straggles to build a new life after being jailed for a crime he did not commit) and the adolescent Russell (who wrestles with a paralyzing fear), their passages are life-transforming. For others, such as Chicago bus driver Harold Ball and the slow-walking child Muffin, their journeys involve the mundane stumbling blocks of everyday life.

A new and original voice in American literature, Two-Rivers presents in Survivor's Medicine an alternative vision of contemporary American Indian experience.

ISBN:

080613092X

OCLC:

38862551