Ledfeather
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3.8 • 5 Ratings
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- $17.99
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- $17.99
Publisher Description
A story of life, death, love, and the ties that bind us not only to what has been, but what will be
After burning up the blacktop in New Mexico with The Fast Red Road and rewriting Indian history on the Great Plains with The Bird is Gone, Stephen Graham Jones now takes us to Montana. Set on a Blackfeet Indian reservation, Ledfeather lays bare the life of one Indian boy, Doby Saxon: his near-death experience, his suicide attempts, his brief glimpse of victory, and the unnecessary death of one of his best friends.
But through Doby emerges a connection to the past, to an Indian Agent who served the United States government over a century before. This revelation leads to another and another until it becomes clear that the decisions of this single Indian agent have impacted the lives of generations of Blackfeet Indians—and the life of Doby Saxon, a boy standing in the middle of the road at night, his hands balled into fists, the reservation wheeling all around him like the whole of Blackfeet history collapsing in on him.
Jones’s beautifully complex novel is a story of life, death, love, and the ties that bind us not only to what has been, but what will be: the power of one moment, the weight of one decision, the inevitability of one outcome, and the price of one life.
Customer Reviews
An engrossing, fast moving read in an uncommon narration style.
This is an engrossing, fast moving read in an uncommon narration style, seemingly disjointed, that is at times maddening, shocking, and revealing, with a touch of tenderness. The surface reader will likely miss a good deal, even possibly give up in not seeing the thread of the story. On the other hand, the thoughtful reader, keeping the characters and time shifts straight in their mind, will gain much as the story sorts itself out.
One specific aspect, relative to my familiarity with the general setting, is that I found that the author captured the voices and thought trains of the characters fittingly. Another aspect, hand in hand, that I appreciated, is the characters are not paper cutouts.
I especially liked how honest the portrayal is, including, but not limited to, the ample cultural depictions that will infuriate the horse-blinkered among us. An example being our hypocritical Western (Christian) culture's perspective of many Native Americans:
“... the Piegan (Blackfoot: Piikáni) have no real sense of personal property, are not possessed of the proper amount of greed necessary to cultivate civilization.”
which reminds me of:
“Success, like war and like charity in religion, covers a multitude of sins.” ~ Sir Charles Napier
Granted, I'm not a champion of our culture that in its pleonexia is leading us to an abyss.
“The skill of writing is to create a context in which other people can think. ” [Edwin Schlossberg]; which this book delivers.
Once or Twice and Again
Stephen Graham Jones breaks your heart then punches you in the gut. He makes the pavement sizzle during a blizzard. He doesn’t “turn a phrase” but he does shove history down your throat until you beg for more. Ledfeather is golden verse and iron prose. If you don’t feel both, you need to read it twice and again. Understand the letters to understand the heart of the story. If you don’t get to the heart of the story, you will miss out on the tripping beauty at the end. Love this book so much!