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The multiple paradoxes of his situation--a Native American acting out pseudo-Native American pageants for European audiences--are alternately comical and cruel, pathetic and poignant. "Of course," muses Charging Elk, "he knew that it was all fake and that some of the elders back home disapproved of the young men going off to participate in the white man's sham, but he no longer felt guilty about singing scalping songs or participating in scalp dances or sneak-up dances." Halfway through the tour, however, he finds himself laid up in Marseilles with broken ribs and a bout of influenza. In his delirium, he worries that the Wild West troupe may have left him behind to die--and since they are the only family he has left, Charging Elk flees the white man's "healing house" in a panic, hoping to catch up with his companions.
It's here that the novel actually begins. Welch has latched onto a fantastically rich premise: a Native American loose in a French city, delirious, hungry, and surrounded by ghosts. Charging Elk's odyssey through Marseilles is intercut with flashbacks, and his memories of the Black Hills--of life before his America was lost--generate the novel's most powerful prose. There are weak spots, too, particularly when the hero engages in some Wild Western violence. Passionate and unsteady, The Heartsong of Charging Elk tends to move in and out of focus. But during its intervals of clarity, it's hard to resist. --Emily White
-- William Kittredge
"James Welch's Winter in the Blood is one of the masterpieces of American literature. His newest book, The Heartsong of Charging Elk, will take its place beside it--a wonderful, compelling novel about a Native American stranded in Europe, whose story is both a vividly imagined account of the strange events in France as well as a striking metaphor for the tragic journey of the Sioux in South Dakota. Like all of James Welch's books, it is a cause for celebration."
-- Kent Haruf
"There are books you read once and put away. There are books you read once and never forget. And then there are those very special books you keep returning to, reading them once or twice a year for the rest of your life. James Welch's Heartsong is one of those very special books. I have read it three times already and plan to carry it around like a
traveling salesman, like a zealous evangelist, forcing the book into the hands of strangers and friends, preaching, 'Hey, this may not save your life, but it's certainly going to give you a fighting chance.'"
-- Sherman Alexie
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