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Introduction: Thomas King's Green Grass, Running Water
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10698 |
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BOOK WORLD
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6 / 1993 |
329 Words |
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Fresh, funny, and irreverent, Green grass, Running Water, Thomas King's latest novel, explores the meeting of Native American and white cultures from the native point of view. It addresses the fact that North America's original inhabitants have, for the most part, remained outside the dominant history, literature, and popular culture produced today. King is a master storyteller: His gift lies in his ability to entertain, educate, and ridicule without being resentful or caustic.
Green Grass, Running Water is set on a Blackfoot reserve in Alberta, Canada. The title refers to a phrase found in old treaties in which the U.S. government promised the Indians right to their land "as long as the grass is green and the water runs." Woven in three strands, the intricate plot revolves around four mysterious Indians named Hawkeye, Ishmael, Robinson Crusoe, and the Lone Ranger, tricksters who periodically escape a mental asylum to try to "fix" the world. These characters choose to help five contemporary Native Americans-Lionel, Charlie, Eli, Alberta, and Latisha--in their search for love, education, work, and roots. All the while Coyote and other trickster figures pop out of these stories, teasing or skewering native and Judeo-Christian myths, Western literature, and mainstream history.
King is critical of the fact that the native worldview has taken a backseat to Judeo-Christian perspectives and of stereotypes perpetuated by Hollywood and Western literature, which still often portray noble savages uninterested in or incapable of assimilating in white society. Besides straightening out or "fixing" these misconceptions, King is trying to help Native Americans recover their cultural identity.
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