Review by Choice Review
Two observations should be made about James Welch's new novel: the novel is competent, engaging, and readable; and Welch departs from the contemporary settings he used to great advantage in Winter in the Blood (1974) and The Death of Jim Loney (1979) and ventures into the historical past (the 19th century), a setting that Native writers have assiduously avoided-and for good reason. Literarily speaking, the 19th century is a white century, and the expectation of authenticity (anthropological detail) and accuracy (historical detail) have simply not allowed Native writers the potential or scope for the creation of characters and world that they enjoy by setting their novels in the present. Fools Crow, then, is both a novel and an expedition; for part of Welch's plan is quite clearly to try to reclaim a piece of this period and make it his own. In this he both succeeds and fails. On the one hand, Welch creates characters such as Crow, Wolverine, and the woman in the white doeskin dress, who have their origins in Native oral literature; alongside the historical world, Welch creates a Native world, a world of myth and vision where his main character, Fools Crow, finds strength and knowledge. On the other hand, Welch does not make so much use of these characters or the world he creates as he might. Recommended for undergraduate, graduate, and public libraries.-T. King, University of Lethbridge
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Booklist Review
At age 18, White Man's Dog, long the butt of his tribe, wins the name Fools Crow and the respect of his people in a compelling novel that evokes the Northern Plains Indian world of the nineteenth century. (Ag 86 Upfront)
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Suspenseful and moving, written with an authenticity and integrity that give it sweeping power, Welch's third novel (The Death of Jim Loney is a masterful evocation of a Native American culture and its passing. From their lodges on the endless Montana plains, the members of the Lone Eaters band of the Pikuni (Blackfeet) Indians live in harmony with nature, hunting the ``blackhorns'' (buffalo), observing a complex system of political administration based on mutual respect and handing down legends that explain the natural world and govern daily conduct. The young protagonist is first called White Man's Dog, but earns the respected name Fools Crow for meritorious conduct in battle. Through his eyes we watch the escalating tensions between the Pikunis and the white men (``the Napikwans''), who deliberately violate treaties and initiate hostilities with the hard-pressed red men. At the same time, the feared ``white scabs plague'' (smallpox) decimates the Lone Eaters communities, and they realize that their days are numbered. There is much to savor in this remarkable book: the ease with which Fools Crow and his brethren converse with animals and spirits, the importance of dreams in their daily lives, the customs and ceremonies that measure the natural seasons and a person's lifespan. Without violating the patterns of Native American speech, Welsh writes in prose that surges and sings. This bittersweet story is an outstanding work. Illustrated. 25,000 first printing; major ad/promo. (November) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
A portentous dream seems to overshadow the Lone Eaters clan of the Blackfeet Indians in the post-Civil War years. The slow invasion of the Napikwans, or whites, is inevitable and coincidental, however. As we follow White Man's Dog (later renamed Fools Crow), we see how some of his people try to follow the Napikwan ways, others rebel against them, and many ignore them. This alien force has both subtle and obvious methods of eliminating the tribal ways, and we watch individuals, families, and traditions crumbling. Welch's third novel ( Winter in the Blood, The Death of Jim Loney) is like finding a lifestyle preserved for a century and reanimated for our benefit and education. Recommended for anyone who wants to see what we have lost, and read a fine novel in the process. W. Keith McCoy, Dowdell Lib., South Amboy, N.J. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Like Larry McMurtry with Lonesome Dove, Welch has gone back into history to suggest the foundations of his previous fiction (The Death of Jim Loney, Winter in the Blood) and its world of the modern deracinated American Indian. He focuses here on a tribe of Blackfeet Indians in Montana after the Civil War--the Lone Eaters--and how misunderstanding, venality, internal dissension, and, ultimately, physical plague wipe them out utterly. The central character is a young, at first hardly-brave brave named White Man's Dog--who, after taking part in a daring horse-robbery raid against a rival tribe, is given the honor of a new, stronger name: Fools Crow. And with the name come the rights and responsibilities of an important member of the tribe. He marries into a family whose patriarch, Yellow Kidney, has survived a terrible ordeal at the instigating hands of a few rogue Napikwans--whites; and it is to revenge this that some of the Lone Eaters (not Fools Crow) turn rogue themselves. This unsanctioned violence quickly, of course, becomes a complete war between the whites and the Lone Eaters--certainly an unwilling one on the part of the Indians. Yet it isn't bloodshed that seems the ultimate act of fate in Welch's reading of this baleful scenario but disease: the ""white-scab"" plague that finally decimates the tribe. The powerlessness against the plague but also the successes and poetries of Indian spirit medicine play as a subtext here--allowing Welch to write not only a depressing destiny-chronicle but also to embody how natural and fluid the Indian was with the supernatural, the visionary, the shaman-power; scene after scene finds the Lone Eaters in more command of the world than would be expected (though, of course, also less). Rich and dense--very sad yet without stock villainy or orthodox pleading: a satisfying historical novel by a writer who, if anything, now goes beyond the portraits of desolation he's been so good at before, into the larger picture. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
