Customer Reviews

Claiming Breath (North American Indian Prose Award)

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Diane Glancy composed a college of snippets, written over the course of a year in her life. She reflects on her marriage, her divorce, her mother's death - and most interesting, she confronts her own conflicts between her Cherokee heritage and her Christian training. Much of her material bubbled to the surface during the long hours on the road driving to schools to teach poetry. Glancy makes us feel we're accompanying her on her journeys, peeking over her shoulder - no, peeking into her mind as she explores memories and their relevance to the present.
Here's a telling line: "Aren't all of us made up of paradox and diversity, anger, hurt, hope, guilt, endurance?"
This is not an easy book. No real plot holds you to the structure. But it's an infinitely thought-provoking book, one to be savored in small doses and pondered upon in leisure.