Customer Reviews

Bird Girl and the Man Who Followed the Sun

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a wonderful book - I read it in two days because it is so engrossing, I could scarcely put it down. Written by an Athabaskan woman, raised to hate the Inupiat (eskimos), it is a very honest rendering of Athabaskan culture from the last century - honest because it tells life like it was (miscarriages, women treated as propery, intertribal hatred, harshness of life, etc.), and honest because Wallis (an Athabaskan) is also honest about her own anti-eskimo upbringing in that the main characters in this story are Athabaskan, and the "villians" of the story are eskimo. However, this story goes so far beyond any kind of mere race-based narrative. The story is, truly, about what it means to be a person with dreams and a distinct calling in a society that does not honor difference: Bird Girl is a girl who prefers to hunt and run and be active (not a sewer and cook like women are "supposed" to be), and the Man Who Followed the Sun is a boy who has an intense wanderlust and need to explore new areas and learn new thing (and not interested in taking a wife, having a family, or living by the strict community-based rules of his tribe). I am a person who has long followed my own path, and although my path does not include having to hunt carribou or face death from spear impalation, Wallis's writing, and the story, is such that anyone who is a wanderer/explorer/creative will identify with the characters, and feel refreshed and thankful that someone understands them. I feel much better after having read this - not just because I am fascinated with Athabaskan, eskimo, and Tlingit culture, and wish I could live in that fashion for a year, but I feel better having someone write about what it means to be a wanderer/explorer; to whit, that one must leave one's family, leave's one home, and basically give up a very comfortable (but to me very stagnant and unwholesome) social setting, and carve out one's own niche - but to be a wanderer/explorer means, of course, that one's life will be mostly lonely and often filled with the scorn of others who do not understand, who do not comprehend that some people are called to be more than mere worker-bees for the sake of the "stability" of a society.

You, as a reader, will also benefit from the maps, pictures, and historical background that is also included in this book, which will hopefully also help people to realize that cultures like the native Alaskans (and any other culture that doesn't have TV, flush toilets, aluminum siding, strip malls, microwavable food, press-on-nails, or other "civilized" accoutrements) are, in fact, human, and human on a scale that few people who own a housefull of mass-produced paraphernalia that they don't need.

Mostly, though, as I stated before, Wallis has a tremendous sense of prose. Her wtriting is very immediate and unadorned. Many would call it "simplistic", but it is the kind of "simplistic" that is almost impossible to do well - very much like Asimov's writing in that regard. Few authors can manage to write so tightly and without excess and still write damn well, and Wallis is absolutely one of them.

Wallis, I thank you from the bottom of my heart for your book, for your sharing, for the culture that raised you, and for your honesty.

Velma Wallis, an Athabaskan Indian woman from Alaska, was set on codifying some of the legends that her mother had told her about their people. Her first endeavor, Two Old Women, became a bestseller. Her second project was the mingling of two legends she had heard throughout her childhood. Each of the stories were similar because they focused on "loners" or people who do not fit into the norm of society.

Bird Girl and Daagoo are from different bands of the Gwich'in tribe and have one chance meeting when they are young. The story follows as each go separate ways, Daagoo to the "Land of the Sun", and Bird Girl as she is kidnapped and enslaved by an enemy tribe. Their stories mirror each others through their struggles for independence, and the great tragedies they endure.

A wonderful story from which I learned a great deal about the Native Alaskan people... Beautifully written story.

We follow the life's of Bird Girl and Daagoo. Both try to break with tradition and do what they want, on their own, without being controlled by their family or tribes. They try to run away from the roles that their people try to force onto them. In the end they find out that individualism and being their own person is just wrong.
Women should marry who their parents want them to, have babies and work about the camp till they die from old age. And Men should become hunters, working day and night, to keep the people in food and furs, then die an early death. Unless they are tossed out because nobody needs them anymore.
In other words, everything has a price, even being your own person.

I loved this book. It gave me a whole new sense of well being. Thank you Velma Wallis.

Excellent reading. Anyone from the lower 48 who has dreams about Alaska should read this book, it will give you a small insight about the Athabaskan's. Who are a giving people once they know and trust you.

I liked this book. It brought together several interesting things. It's tribal lore and history from long before first contact with Europeans. It's about 2 kids (1 boy, 1 girl) who don't fit in to their society and what that costs them. Do you ever get tired of stories about "just follow your heart and everything will be ok?" I surely do. i'm very bored with "follow your heart and find true romance." This book is different: it's a coming of age story about responsibility, freedom, community, survival. There are themes of slavery and murder. There are also themes of accepting responsibililty forming community, and friendship. It's definitely not a children's book, but I would recommend it for older, mature teens. The violence isn't gratuitous, but it is sometimes graphic. It's not a happy little story. It's about survival in the Arctic and what it takes to survive. It was interesting and well-written. It brings up a lot of topics that would be great for a book group to discuss.

I was very satisfied with this book. I had read the other on, Old Women, and enjoyed that, too.

I almost passed by this book when I read that it was not a true story but rather an Indian legend.

I decided to buy it anyway. Glad I did.

It was well written and one can "hear" this story being passed down from one generation to another.

This would be a good story for children at school to read for it has real teaching in the message.

This is the retelling of a Native Athabaskan Gwitch'in legend. It is easy to read, and the brutal parts are told with enough detail to be horrible, but not gruesome. I find legends to be a very enjoyable way to learn about a culture. I have lived in Alaska for two years, and plan to be here for the rest of my life, so I want to learn all I can about the people who lived here first. This is my enjoyable way of doing so. I read all I can.

The book was sent shortly after it was ordered. The book was in great condition which was the condition of the advertisement. Good work.