Customer Reviews

Dark River (American Indian Literature & Critical Studies)

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In DARK RIVER, Owens creates memorable characters (one of his strenths, I think) and tells a compelling story with laugh-out-loud humor. Consider one of the minor characters: the resident anthropologist Avrum Goldberg, who wears a traditonal breechcloth and Apache leggings and moccasins. He shares traditonal lore with tourists, who mistake him for an Apache and call him Chief Gold Bird, a title he denies without success. Goldberg's dream is for the Apaches to turn the reservation into a tribal theme park to attract more tourists and generate income, a scheme that does not gain favor with the Apaches, who are reluctant to give up their cars, televisions, and other twentieth-century technologies. This is by no means the central focus of the novel, but Owens skillfully weaves his imaginative subplots and characters into the central story, his concern about what is happening on a river in the reservation where he goes to flyfish.

I think this is Owens's best novel yet. Furthermore, it is accessible to any reader--one doesn't need to be familiar with his other work or knowlegable about American Indian literature to read it. Actually this is true for THE SHARPEST SIGHT (1992), which my then 85-year-old mother compared to Norman McLean's "A River Runs Through It." She would read and reread passages from each.

I understand DARK RIVER is a finalist for the Best Novel of the West from the Western Writers of America, and I wouldn't be surprised if he wins. He has received several awards for his earlier works.

Perhaps one of Oklahoma's better-kept secrets is the work done by the University of Oklahoma Press. To be sure there are some readers that know about the quality works published by the Press such as Lige Langston: Sweet Iron; The Dismissal of Miss Ruth Brown; and The Western Range Revisited, to name but a few. However, I am frequently surprised at the number of readers that are not aware of the caliber of the offerings by OU Press. Thus, I was anxious to read this just released paperback novel, which is volume 30 in the highly acclaimed American Indian Literature and Critical Studies Series. I was not disappointed. The novel, written by a Professor of English Language and Literature at the University of New Mexico who is of Choctaw-Cherokee-Irish descent, will draw you in from the first page and keep you reading to the very end of the 296 pages. It is about Jacob Nashoba who was born in Mississippi, came of age in Vietnam, and settled in an Apache village on a reservation in the Black Mountains of eastern Arizona. He finds a job as a game and fish ranger for the Tribe and tries to adjust to a life of semi-isolation and "adjustment." It's not easy. The cast of characters he must deal with include his estranged wife, corrupt tribal officials, a resident anthropologist that is, well, different, and various and sundry sellers of "vision quests" to tourists and former Hollywood extras that I swear I have seen in old John Wayne movies. Add to this mix a right-wing militia group secretly, to some, training on Indian land and you have the makings for a first rate story. Dark River has it's light side but be aware that this is a complex, subtle, sometimes violent story that deals with the aftermath of Vietnam on certain individuals(not just Nashoba!) and the contemporary problems associated with Native Americans and their identity. It is not a novel to be taken lightly. I had to go back and re-read parts of some chapters and think about the message of this book a number of times. I would do it again. It's that good. OU Press is to be commended for making this book available to a wide audience at a reasonable price. They do good work.

_Dark River_ by Louis Owens is as sophisticated a piece of literature, American Indian or otherwise, as readers are going to find. His work is comparable to that of Gerald Vizenor, Louise Erdrich, and Gordon Henry, Jr. when it comes to representation of cultural ideas, spirituality, and masterful storytelling. It isn't limited to American Indian comparisons, however, because his work also bears a strong kinship to John Steinbeck, Ron Hansen, and Cormac McCarthy in its representation of place and for mature subject matter. But Owens, of Choctaw, Cherokee, and Irish descent, would be the first to resist comparisons, as readers of his autobiographical work _Mixedblood Messages_ should know. Owens's writing speaks only for Owens, not to "show what makes American Indians tick." That kind of facile comparison comes under the heading of unsophisticated or damning with faint praise. American Indians don't just come from reservations; they come from families and cultures and stories and places throughout the Americas. Read Louis Owens's wonderful stories and powerful critical essays if you want to know what Louis Owens thinks.

Louis Owens' latest book is a tightly woven mystery, the story of Black Mountain Apache tribal game warden Jacob Nashoba's fast, difficult trip into the Dark River canyon to retrieve his granddaughter, left there to fast during a four day vision quest by a well-meaning entrepreneurial Apache whose occupation is to sell vision quests to Anglos. Nashoba's unresolved post-traumatic stress from his days in Vietnam on long-range reconnaissance patrols has alienated him from his Apache wife and most of the residents of the Black Mountain community, and over the years Jake has routinely sought peace in the wild and deserted river canyon, fishing and hiking its length. The usually deserted steep river canyon is particularly busy this trip, and the cultural, narrative, and mythic intersections are complex. Nashoba's Choctaw roots bring new facets to the Apache creation stories brought to life in this sophisticated novel, dovetailed with popular culture Vietnam-era legends and backed by a chorus that lends anthropological and Hollywood moviemaking insights to the mix. Brothers and brotherhood, and stories and how they are told (and who should tell them) are recurring Owens themes also interrogated in this powerful and lucid story.

Like a hologram, Louis Owens' novel Dark River shimmers in the light and shadow. For newcomers to Owens' work, this mystery is an adventure that defies the common adventure stereotypes. For readers of American Indian literature, this novel is studded with subtle but hilarious references to other works in the field, and reveals Owens' versatility within the canon. For fans of Owens' other novels, this one is a tour de force, revealing again his talented verbal play and ability to charm and surprise the reader with his wry humor.

This is one very nice novel, and Owens has a sharp eye for character development. I heard him read from this book a couple of years ago--and must say the laughter of the audience was echoed as I read it for myself. Let's hope this talented author keep producing these gems.

Dark River, with its main character Jake Nashoba, starts off like the other excellent novels of Louis Owens. The story has great quirky characters, encounters and conflict between native and Anglo culture, different native cultures, and traditional and modern native culture, plus a little Native American magic and mysticism. But with the turn of every page, Dark River turns increasingly surreal. The excitement of the novel grows as the characters all head for the dark river of the title. Dreams and reality mix until it's hard to know where one ends and the other begins. This is one of Louis Owens' best novels and I enjoyed reading it immensely, ranking it up with my personal favorite, Bone Game. My one regret is that Louis Owens' life ended too early and he isn't around to give us any other stories to read.

This book is witty and funny and exciting and merits a lot of attention. Filled with avatars of Apache culture heros and the creative/destructive Vulva Woman, the text is rich with wry humor. Where else will you find a sexy elder woman spiritual leader whose long dead or absent husband was a preacher named John Edwards. And the brothers, each a "surviving twin," babies she brilliantly gave different surnames to trick the gods. Where else but in a Louis Owens novel will you find the hilarious discussion of the establishment of an American Indian theme park, or a wise-cracking ghost stuck in an acrylic wolf suit? And the ending of this one is sublime, impressive in its incredible appropriateness, but a real surprise, nonetheless.

Louis Owens's latest novel starts out typically enough; a depressed, lonely guy, Jake Nashoba is a Vietnam vet who has never come to terms with his post-traumatic stress. We follow him through his adopted world at the Black Mountain Apache reservation where he is a game warden, and we take note of Nashoba's opportunities to interrogate modern American life through fiction, popular culture, and film, as we meet the storytelling inhabitants of this community. A beer sign on the wall of his office with the man in the canoe becomes a metaphor for Nashoba's life; working or not, it looks good but is perpetually going nowhere.

This is Owens's best novel yet. In literary circles it might best be compared to Ellison's Invisible Man for the examination and deconstruction of the culture through which this protagonist travels. By novels' end, readers will know whether they are modernists or postmodern in their outlook. The postmodernists will sit back in amazement and delight, the modernists will put it down with a puzzled look on their faces.

Tongue firmly embedded in cheek, Owens seems to take on everything in this novel, including his own previous novels. And nothing is as it would appear. Absolutely nothing. It's wonderful!

Owens is a true original, yet his stories are as old as time. His characters come to life and take charge of the story. For the academically minded, this would be an interesting novel to use when discussing the Foucault/Barthes debate concerning role of the author in the text.

The warp and woof of this book are rich, the texture fully three-dimensional, and the actions are nothing like what the reader has come to expect in modern adventure stories. Owens sets up a classic adventure scenario, then tinkers masterfully with the formula, resulting in a riveting, unpredictable, and often very funny story. Five stars aren't enough for this one!