Grand Avenue: A Novel in Stories (Volume 65) (American Indian Literature and Critical Studies Series) - Softcover

Sarris, Greg

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0806148349 ISBN 13: 9780806148342

Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press, 2015

Synopsis

Grand Avenue runs through the center of the Northern California town of Santa Rosa. One stretch of it is home not only to Pomo Indians making a life outside the reservation but also to Mexicans, blacks, and some Portuguese, all trying to find their way among the many obstacles in their turbulent world.

Bound together by a lone ancestor, the lives of the American Indians form the core of these stories—tales of healing cures, poison, family rituals, and a humor that allows the inhabitants of Grand Avenue to see their own foibles with a saving grace.

A teenage girl falls in love with a crippled horse marked for slaughter. An aging healer summons her strength for one final song. A father seeks a bond with his illegitimate son. A mother searches for the power to care for her cancer-stricken daughter’s spirit. Here is a tapestry of lives rendered with the color, wisdom, and a quest for meaning that are characteristic of the traditional storytelling in which they are rooted, a tradition Sarris grew up hearing and learning. Vibrant with the emotions and realities of a changing world, these narratives—the basis of an HBO miniseries—are all equally stunning and from the heart.

About this title

About the Author:

Greg Sarris is author of the anthology Keeping Slug Woman Alive: A Holistic Approach to American Indian Texts, the novel Watermelon Nights, and scripts for screen and stage. He is Chairman of the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria and holds the Endowed Chair in Native American Studies at Sonoma State University.

Reginal Dyck is Professor of English at Capital University. His research and writing focus on the work of Native American authors, including Greg Sarris.

From Kirkus Reviews:

A touching, often poignant, debut collection of fiction by a Native American writer. Sarris (English/UCLA; Keeping Slug Woman Alive, not reviewed) offers 10 linked short stories describing the milieu of the Pomo Indians (from whom he is descended) in the small coastal California town of Santa Rosa (Sarris himself is chairman of the Coastal Miwok tribe). Though the people described no longer live on the reservation, they still live together, congregated in a collection of old WW IIera barracks in an Indian ghetto around the street of the title. All of the nine narrators (two stories are told by the same teller) are related, part of the family of Juana Maria. Some are young; others are old and near death. All experience poverty and dislocation. The majority are strong-voiced women. A girl tells the story of how her unbalanced cousin Ruby struggled valiantly but hopelessly to save a crippled pony from the slaughterhouse. A mother watches her daughter wither away under the onslaught of leukemia. A daughter reminisces about her mother, who worked as a maid for a well-to-do white family and longed for acceptance by her own family. The importance of family and acceptance lie at the heart of many of the stories. A father writes secret letters to the son he never knew he had. An old woman clings to a newfound relationship with the granddaughter of a family member she thinks she let down, and as she does, the innocence of youth chips away at the jadedness of age. The story cycle as a whole follows a subtle trajectory: It begins with hatred, rejection, and despair and ends with hope and belonging. Often, however, there is one step backward for every two steps forward. Sarris sets himself a difficult task and accomplishes it well. Without being mawkish or sentimental, he creates a variety of voices--male and female--who tell the struggles of a people and their determination to survive. (Film rights to HBO; author tour) -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

About this edition

• Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 0806148349
• ISBN 13: 9780806148342
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 248