Laughing Boy

Laughing Boy, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1930, is Oliver La Farge’s tender and tragic novel about a young Navajo man torn between tradition and modern influence. Set in the American Southwest, the novel follows Laughing Boy’s courtship of Slim Girl, a Navajo woman educated in white boarding schools. La Farge’s respectful and nuanced portrayal of Navajo culture contrasts with the pressures of assimilation and loss. With lyrical prose and cultural sensitivity, Laughing Boy is a powerful meditation on identity, love, and resilience.