I see from comments that Erdrich's Birchbark House series has been recced, so I shall simply second it. ^_^
If you like magical stuff, then it definitely has to be Tracks. It is narrated by Nanapush, an elder of the Ojibwe tribe, and by another woman, Pauline, but it's focused on Fleur, who is rumoured to have magical powers and is feared by the tribe. Parts of it is painful to read, especially about how they lost their land, and other parts are wonderful because there's so much richness about their lives.
Another one of Erdrich's that I read recently is The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse, which I thought fantastic. It's in the same timeline as Tracks and works through some of the same events, but it's from the viewpoint of a white woman (I guess this isn't a spoiler?...) who crossdresses as a missionary priest and goes to work with/on the Ojibwe. Quite a bit of magical realism in this one.
Oh, and if you'd prefer to dip your feet into Erdrich's books first, Love Medicine is composed mostly of (linked) short stories, also mostly about the Ojibwe.
Erdrich writes a lot from a female perspective and tends to have a lot of female protagonists, and she works First Nations myths into her narratives. Not to turn them into fantasies, per se, but to show the worldview of her characters.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
branchandroot
no subject
Date: 2009-05-11 04:30 am (UTC)If you like magical stuff, then it definitely has to be Tracks. It is narrated by Nanapush, an elder of the Ojibwe tribe, and by another woman, Pauline, but it's focused on Fleur, who is rumoured to have magical powers and is feared by the tribe. Parts of it is painful to read, especially about how they lost their land, and other parts are wonderful because there's so much richness about their lives.
Another one of Erdrich's that I read recently is The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse, which I thought fantastic. It's in the same timeline as Tracks and works through some of the same events, but it's from the viewpoint of a white woman (I guess this isn't a spoiler?...) who crossdresses as a missionary priest and goes to work with/on the Ojibwe. Quite a bit of magical realism in this one.
Oh, and if you'd prefer to dip your feet into Erdrich's books first, Love Medicine is composed mostly of (linked) short stories, also mostly about the Ojibwe.
Erdrich writes a lot from a female perspective and tends to have a lot of female protagonists, and she works First Nations myths into her narratives. Not to turn them into fantasies, per se, but to show the worldview of her characters.