Mary Anderson Parks' debut novel, The Circle Leads Home, tells the story of Katherine, a 32-year-old American Indian whose husband died from a drug overdose two years earlier. Now she finds herself working as a legal secretary to support herself and their sons, ages 9 and 13. She invariably falls for the wrong men, but this time, when she finds herself in an abusive relationship, she feels the need to run. She takes her family to the reservation she fled some fourteen years prior, only to find that her people's traditional tribal values are being challenged by the money-making lure of selling off old-growth timber and operating casinos. The Circle Leads Home is the third title in the Colorado University Press' Women West series. The series includes both fiction and non-fiction titles dedicated to the exciting contributions of women in the American West.
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Editorial Reviews
From Library Journal
A Native American woman goes back to her tribal home for security and solace in this enlightening first novel. When one of her sons spends the night in a crack house, two years after her husband died from an overdose, Katherine packs up Victor, 13, and Tony, 9, and leaves Seattle for "the rez." But returning to her roots also means returning to her repressed mother, from whom Katherine has been estranged since she married an African American man. And Katherine, only 32 herself, has to deal with her own sexuality, drinking, and troubled past. Her instincts are good when she finds work on the rez and brings her beloved mother-in-law for a visit; however, she slips when she carouses with handsome Mark, who has a troubled past of his own and a shady future. Ultimately, she plays a positive role in tribal politics, loosens a long-held family secret, and finds her own center. With her lucid prose, Parks creates compelling characters and provides a revealing view of contemporary Native American life.?Michele Leber, Fairfax Cty. P.L., Arlington, VA
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Circle Leads Home,
By Anne M Meyer (Langley, WA United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Circle Leads Home (Women's West Series) (Hardcover)
A wonderfully distressful novel! Mary takes you to many complex levels that are part of the experience of being human. This book will not only force you to look at the complex prejudice and discrimination issues in our culture, but will expose parts of your own heart you may not want to see. The characters become vivid and alive and you will miss them for days after the last page has been turned. Kudos! to Mary Anderson Parks. Please don't make us wait to long for your next book. Yes, please do write a sequel and let us know about Sky and Katherine.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A deeply realistic portrait of a Native American women.,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Circle Leads Home (Women's West Series) (Hardcover)
Mary Parks has created a character who is believable and real. She makes choices by intuition to preserve her family and herself by returning to her home on the reservation. After making the choice to be there, she makes the best of her difficult relationship with her mother and the man she gets too involved with. This character stayed with me for days as I read her search for herself and her ability to make wrong choice yet not be devastated by these mistakes. I liked her courage and her inner solidity as she makes her way into a new life. The themes of interracial marriage and raising children in a sometimes hostile world are intriguing and touch us as the sturggles of many women in the 90s.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Dignified, Flawed Heroine Comes of Age,
By
This review is from: The Circle Leads Home (Women's West Series) (Hardcover)
Mary Anderson Parks' flawless debut novel "The Circle Leads Home" (1998) was the third title in the University Press of Colorado's Women's West Series.
Parks' novel reads like a first person memoir. She drives the plot forward with burning intensity. I only put this book down when my schedule tore it out of my hands. We meet 32-year old Katherine as a sensual femme fatale working out memories and finding her way as a pure blood Indian in an Anglo metropolitan culture. Katherine thinks with her body; men flock to her as if drawn to a honey pot. Her primal urges do not dull a keen intelligence that devours the classics. Katherine insightfully searches for a meaning in her troubled life history, and scrambles towards an escape into the future, as she returns to her home reservation. Yet, it will take work and time before this childhood home becomes a place she belongs. Parks loves her heroine and treats her with dignity. Despite Katherine's drinking, smoking, promiscuity, thorny relationship to her mother, and marginal parenting, Katherine wants to be good. "The Circle Leads Home" lives up to its title. Layers of fear and denial gradually strip away during a packed summer. Katherine takes a stand for the good of her reservation and comes of age before it's too late.
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