Customer Reviews

Indian Tales (California Legacy)

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

 

 

Jaime de Angulo was a truly Californian character -- wanderer, poet, wastrel, anthropologist, linguist, and wild man; and near the end of his life he started retelling to his children the stories he'd learned from years of field work (and just hanging around) with the Pit River Indians of northern California. Out of those stories came this enchanting book, a semi-novel for children and wise adults, a series of stories both hilarious and profound told and experienced during a family's journey to visit relatives by the ocean. De Angulo's luminous vision gives us as intimate a picture of a Native American vision of life as any book I can think of. That this classic is not better known is a mystery....

This book has been one of my all time favourites for many years. One of the copies in my possession featured a cover blurb by William Carlos Williams, extolling its virtues. Having read it aloud to two generations of children, I can vouch for its beauty as an oral experience - brilliant, clear and transforming in its tale of a prototypical human-animal family traveling through a mythical California, encountering many amazing figures (Loon, Coyote, the Flint People) on their way. Kids (and adults) readily identify with the family dynamics among the characters. Really can't recommend too highly.

I thought this was only a mediocre collection of tales, not especially well told, and that it properly belongs in the Children's books category