Capturing the essence of the Southwest in 1915, Oliver La Farge's Pulitzer Prize-winning first novel is an enduring American classic. At a ceremonial dance, the young, earnest silversmith Laughing Boy falls in love with Slim Girl, a beautiful but elusive "American"-educated Navajo. As they experience all of the joys and uncertainties of first love, the couple must face a changing way of life and its tragic consequences.
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About the Author
OLIVER LA FARGE (1901-1963) first traveled to Navajo territory on a Harvard archaeological dig. Laughing Boy was his first novel.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
I
He was riding the hundred miles from T’o Tlakai to Tsé Lani to attend a dance, or rather, for the horse-racing that would come afterwards. The sun was hot and his belly was empty, but life moved in rhythm with his pony loping steadily as an engine down the miles. He was lax in the saddle, leaning back, arm swinging the rope’s end in time to the horse’s lope. His new red headband was a bright colour among the embers of the sun-struck desert, undulating like a moving graph of the pony’s lope, or the music of his song —
‘Nashdui bik’é dinni, eya-a, eyo-o . . . Wildcat’s feet hurt, eya-a, eyo-o . . .’
Rope’s end, shoulders, song, all moved together, and life flowed in one stream. He threw his head back to sing louder, and listened to the echo from the cliffs on his right. He was thinking about a bracelet he should make, with four smooth bars running together, and a turquoise in the middle — if he could get the silver. He wished he could work while riding; everything was so perfect then, like the prayers, hozoji nashad, travelling in beauty. His hands, his feet, his head, his insides all were hozoji, all were very much alive. He whooped and struck up the Magpie Song till the empty desert resounded —
‘A-a-a-iné, a-a-a-iné, Ya-a-iné-ainé, ko-ya-ainé . . .’
He was lean, slender, tall, and handsome, Laughing Boy, with a new cheap headband and a borrowed silver belt to make ragged clothes look fine. At noon, having no money, he begged coffee from a trader at Chinlee and went on, treasuring his hunger because of the feasting to come. Now he began to meet Navajos of all ages, riding to the dance. The young men bunched together — a line of jingling bridles, dark, excited faces, flashing silver, turquoise, velveteen shirts, dirty, ragged overalls, a pair of plaid calico leggins, a pair of turkey-red ones. Some of them were heavy with jewelry; Horse Giver’s Son wore over four hundred dollars in silver alone; most of them had more than Laughing Boy. They stopped to look at his bow-guard, which he himself had made. ‘I am a good jeweller,’ he said, elated; ‘I make silver run like a song.’ ‘You should make a song about yourself,’ they told him, ‘and teach the burros to sing it.’ ‘Have you had any rain up by T’o Tlakai?’ ‘No, it is just like last year. It is the devil. The grass is all dried up and the sheep are dying.’ ‘They had a cloudburst over by T’isya Lani. It washed out the dam.’ ‘It washed out the missionary’s house, they say. His wife ran out in something thin and got wet, they say.’ ‘Ei-yei!’ Tall Hunter and his wife drove past in a brand-new buckboard behind two fast-trotting, grey mules. He owned over five hundred head of horses, and his wife had thick strings of turquoise and coral around her neck. ‘His brother is in jail for stealing cattle, they say.’ ‘What is jail?’ asked Laughing Boy. Slender Hair explained: ‘It is something the American Chief does to you. He puts you in a room of stone, like a Moqui house, only it is dark and you can’t get out. People die there, they say. They haven’t any room; they can’t see anything, they say. I do not like to talk about it.’ Laughing Boy thought, I should rather die. He wanted to ask more, but was ashamed to show his ignorance before these southern Navajos, many of whom wore hats like Americans, and who knew so much of Americans’ ways. They raced. His horse was tired, but it won by a nose, which was just as well, since he had bet his bow-guard. Now he had six dollars. He hoped there would be gambling. Tsé Lani showed a distant bonfire in the dusk, with mounted Indians moving in on it like spokes of a wheel. About two hundred young men came together half a mile away, making their ponies prance, exchanging greetings. Crooked Ear carried the ceremonial wand. Now they all lined up, with the dull, red sunset behind their black figures. They started going like getting off to a race, right into a gallop, yelling. Over by the fire was shouting, and another line tearing towards them. The world was full of a roar of hooves and two walls of noise rushing together, the men leaning forward over their horses’ necks, mouths wide. ‘E-e-e-e-e!’ They met in a great swirl of plunging, dodging horses, and swept on all together, whooping for dear life, with the staff in front of them, almost onto the fire, then dissolved with jingling of bits, laughter, and casual jokes as they unsaddled by the pool. The steady motion of excitement was slowed then, in the last of the day, by the rocks and the pinons, by the reflection of the sky in the pool where flat, vague silhouettes of horses stooped to drink. The voices of many people, the twinkling of fires continuued the motif, joining the time of quiet with elation past and to come; a little feeling of expectation in Laughing Boy’s chest, a joyful emptiness, part hungeeeeer and part excitement. He tended his pony minutely. The little mare had had two days of loping; shortly he wanted to race her; three days of rest would not be too much. She was his only horse; he had traded two others for her. She was tough, as a horse had to be to live at all in the North country. He ran his hands down her withers, feeling the lean, decisive muscles. In all that section, from Dennihuitso to Biltabito, from T’o Tlikahn to T’o Baka, where he knew every horse by sight, she was the best, but she would meet some competition here. He felt as if she were his own creation, like the bowguard; at least he had selected her, as he had chosen the soft blue turquoise in the ornament. Little, compact, all black save for the tiny white spot on her forehead, she had the ugly Roman nose of character. She was like an arrow notched to a taut bowstring — a movement of the hand would release level flight swiftly to a mark. He was thinking some of these things, half hearing the noises of the people. Just like the prayer, ‘travelling in beauty.’ It would be good to be a singer as well, to express all these things through the prayers. He would like to know many of them, to learn to conduct the Mountain Chant, and know all the beautiful stories behind the songs and ceremonies inside the Dark Circle of Branches. That would be really on the trail of beauty; to work in silver and turquoise, own soft-moving ponies, and lead the Mountain Chant. Just thinking about it was good. It made him feel cool inside.
‘Hozho hogahn ladin nasha woyen . . . In the house of happiness there I wander . . .’
All the time he was passing his hand along the pony’s neck, along her back, feeling the lines of tough muscles. ‘E-ya, Grandfather, are you going to dance with the horse?’ Jesting Squaw’s Son called over to him, ‘food is ready.’ ‘Hakone!’ He returned abruptly to the quick-moving life of the dance. ‘I can eat it. I did not know you were coming.’ ‘I came when I heard you were to race your mare. I think there is money to be made, then, and I want to see her race.’ They went up arm in arm into the crowd, pushing their way into the circle around one of the fires. Busy housewives gave them coffee, the big pot of meat was passed over, and a flat, round loaf of rubbery, filling bread. The meat was the backbone of a yearling calf, boiled with corn. It was good. He munched joyfully, feeling his empty stomach fill, wadding himself with bread, washing it down with bitter coffee. A couple of Americans carrying their own plates dipped in gingerly. A Hopi, having collected everything he could possibly eat, sat down officiously beside them to air his school English and his bourgeois superiority.
II
A small drum beating rapidly concentrated the mixed noises into a staccato unison. Young men gathered about the drummer. Laughing Boy might have eaten more, but he left the fire immediately with Jesting Squaw’s Son. Some one led off high-pitched at full voice,
‘Yo-o galeana, yo-o galeana, yo-o galeana . . .’
By the end of the second word the crowd was with him; more young men hurried up to join the diapason,
‘Galeana ena, galeana eno, yo-o ay-e hena ena . . .’
They put their arms over each other’s shoulders, swaying in time to the one drum that ran like a dull, glowing thread through the singing, four hundred young men turning loose everything they had. A bonfire twenty feet long flared to the left of them. Opposite, and to the right, the older people sat wrapped in their blankets., Behind them, men crouched in their saddles, heads and shoulders against the night sky, nodding time to the rhythm, silent, with here and there a reflection of firelight on a bit of silver, a dark face, or a horse’s eye. Twelve girls in single file stole into the open space, moving quietly and aloof as though the uproar of singing were petrified into a protective wall before it reached them. Only the pulse of the drum showed in their steps. They prowled back and forth before the line of young men, considering them with predatory judgment. Laughing Boy at the back of the crowd looked at them with mild interest; he liked to watch their suave movements and the rich display of blankets and jewelry. One caught his attention; he thought she had on more silver, coral, turquoise, and white shell than he had ever seen on any one person. He speculated on its value — horses — she must have a very rich mother, or uncles. She was too slender, seeming frail to dance in all that rich, heavy ornamentation. He wished she would move more into the firelight. She was well dressed to s...
He was riding the hundred miles from T’o Tlakai to Tsé Lani to attend a dance, or rather, for the horse-racing that would come afterwards. The sun was hot and his belly was empty, but life moved in rhythm with his pony loping steadily as an engine down the miles. He was lax in the saddle, leaning back, arm swinging the rope’s end in time to the horse’s lope. His new red headband was a bright colour among the embers of the sun-struck desert, undulating like a moving graph of the pony’s lope, or the music of his song —
‘Nashdui bik’é dinni, eya-a, eyo-o . . . Wildcat’s feet hurt, eya-a, eyo-o . . .’
Rope’s end, shoulders, song, all moved together, and life flowed in one stream. He threw his head back to sing louder, and listened to the echo from the cliffs on his right. He was thinking about a bracelet he should make, with four smooth bars running together, and a turquoise in the middle — if he could get the silver. He wished he could work while riding; everything was so perfect then, like the prayers, hozoji nashad, travelling in beauty. His hands, his feet, his head, his insides all were hozoji, all were very much alive. He whooped and struck up the Magpie Song till the empty desert resounded —
‘A-a-a-iné, a-a-a-iné, Ya-a-iné-ainé, ko-ya-ainé . . .’
He was lean, slender, tall, and handsome, Laughing Boy, with a new cheap headband and a borrowed silver belt to make ragged clothes look fine. At noon, having no money, he begged coffee from a trader at Chinlee and went on, treasuring his hunger because of the feasting to come. Now he began to meet Navajos of all ages, riding to the dance. The young men bunched together — a line of jingling bridles, dark, excited faces, flashing silver, turquoise, velveteen shirts, dirty, ragged overalls, a pair of plaid calico leggins, a pair of turkey-red ones. Some of them were heavy with jewelry; Horse Giver’s Son wore over four hundred dollars in silver alone; most of them had more than Laughing Boy. They stopped to look at his bow-guard, which he himself had made. ‘I am a good jeweller,’ he said, elated; ‘I make silver run like a song.’ ‘You should make a song about yourself,’ they told him, ‘and teach the burros to sing it.’ ‘Have you had any rain up by T’o Tlakai?’ ‘No, it is just like last year. It is the devil. The grass is all dried up and the sheep are dying.’ ‘They had a cloudburst over by T’isya Lani. It washed out the dam.’ ‘It washed out the missionary’s house, they say. His wife ran out in something thin and got wet, they say.’ ‘Ei-yei!’ Tall Hunter and his wife drove past in a brand-new buckboard behind two fast-trotting, grey mules. He owned over five hundred head of horses, and his wife had thick strings of turquoise and coral around her neck. ‘His brother is in jail for stealing cattle, they say.’ ‘What is jail?’ asked Laughing Boy. Slender Hair explained: ‘It is something the American Chief does to you. He puts you in a room of stone, like a Moqui house, only it is dark and you can’t get out. People die there, they say. They haven’t any room; they can’t see anything, they say. I do not like to talk about it.’ Laughing Boy thought, I should rather die. He wanted to ask more, but was ashamed to show his ignorance before these southern Navajos, many of whom wore hats like Americans, and who knew so much of Americans’ ways. They raced. His horse was tired, but it won by a nose, which was just as well, since he had bet his bow-guard. Now he had six dollars. He hoped there would be gambling. Tsé Lani showed a distant bonfire in the dusk, with mounted Indians moving in on it like spokes of a wheel. About two hundred young men came together half a mile away, making their ponies prance, exchanging greetings. Crooked Ear carried the ceremonial wand. Now they all lined up, with the dull, red sunset behind their black figures. They started going like getting off to a race, right into a gallop, yelling. Over by the fire was shouting, and another line tearing towards them. The world was full of a roar of hooves and two walls of noise rushing together, the men leaning forward over their horses’ necks, mouths wide. ‘E-e-e-e-e!’ They met in a great swirl of plunging, dodging horses, and swept on all together, whooping for dear life, with the staff in front of them, almost onto the fire, then dissolved with jingling of bits, laughter, and casual jokes as they unsaddled by the pool. The steady motion of excitement was slowed then, in the last of the day, by the rocks and the pinons, by the reflection of the sky in the pool where flat, vague silhouettes of horses stooped to drink. The voices of many people, the twinkling of fires continuued the motif, joining the time of quiet with elation past and to come; a little feeling of expectation in Laughing Boy’s chest, a joyful emptiness, part hungeeeeer and part excitement. He tended his pony minutely. The little mare had had two days of loping; shortly he wanted to race her; three days of rest would not be too much. She was his only horse; he had traded two others for her. She was tough, as a horse had to be to live at all in the North country. He ran his hands down her withers, feeling the lean, decisive muscles. In all that section, from Dennihuitso to Biltabito, from T’o Tlikahn to T’o Baka, where he knew every horse by sight, she was the best, but she would meet some competition here. He felt as if she were his own creation, like the bowguard; at least he had selected her, as he had chosen the soft blue turquoise in the ornament. Little, compact, all black save for the tiny white spot on her forehead, she had the ugly Roman nose of character. She was like an arrow notched to a taut bowstring — a movement of the hand would release level flight swiftly to a mark. He was thinking some of these things, half hearing the noises of the people. Just like the prayer, ‘travelling in beauty.’ It would be good to be a singer as well, to express all these things through the prayers. He would like to know many of them, to learn to conduct the Mountain Chant, and know all the beautiful stories behind the songs and ceremonies inside the Dark Circle of Branches. That would be really on the trail of beauty; to work in silver and turquoise, own soft-moving ponies, and lead the Mountain Chant. Just thinking about it was good. It made him feel cool inside.
‘Hozho hogahn ladin nasha woyen . . . In the house of happiness there I wander . . .’
All the time he was passing his hand along the pony’s neck, along her back, feeling the lines of tough muscles. ‘E-ya, Grandfather, are you going to dance with the horse?’ Jesting Squaw’s Son called over to him, ‘food is ready.’ ‘Hakone!’ He returned abruptly to the quick-moving life of the dance. ‘I can eat it. I did not know you were coming.’ ‘I came when I heard you were to race your mare. I think there is money to be made, then, and I want to see her race.’ They went up arm in arm into the crowd, pushing their way into the circle around one of the fires. Busy housewives gave them coffee, the big pot of meat was passed over, and a flat, round loaf of rubbery, filling bread. The meat was the backbone of a yearling calf, boiled with corn. It was good. He munched joyfully, feeling his empty stomach fill, wadding himself with bread, washing it down with bitter coffee. A couple of Americans carrying their own plates dipped in gingerly. A Hopi, having collected everything he could possibly eat, sat down officiously beside them to air his school English and his bourgeois superiority.
II
A small drum beating rapidly concentrated the mixed noises into a staccato unison. Young men gathered about the drummer. Laughing Boy might have eaten more, but he left the fire immediately with Jesting Squaw’s Son. Some one led off high-pitched at full voice,
‘Yo-o galeana, yo-o galeana, yo-o galeana . . .’
By the end of the second word the crowd was with him; more young men hurried up to join the diapason,
‘Galeana ena, galeana eno, yo-o ay-e hena ena . . .’
They put their arms over each other’s shoulders, swaying in time to the one drum that ran like a dull, glowing thread through the singing, four hundred young men turning loose everything they had. A bonfire twenty feet long flared to the left of them. Opposite, and to the right, the older people sat wrapped in their blankets., Behind them, men crouched in their saddles, heads and shoulders against the night sky, nodding time to the rhythm, silent, with here and there a reflection of firelight on a bit of silver, a dark face, or a horse’s eye. Twelve girls in single file stole into the open space, moving quietly and aloof as though the uproar of singing were petrified into a protective wall before it reached them. Only the pulse of the drum showed in their steps. They prowled back and forth before the line of young men, considering them with predatory judgment. Laughing Boy at the back of the crowd looked at them with mild interest; he liked to watch their suave movements and the rich display of blankets and jewelry. One caught his attention; he thought she had on more silver, coral, turquoise, and white shell than he had ever seen on any one person. He speculated on its value — horses — she must have a very rich mother, or uncles. She was too slender, seeming frail to dance in all that rich, heavy ornamentation. He wished she would move more into the firelight. She was well dressed to s...
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
43 of 44 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
My Favorite Book,
By A Customer
This review is from: Laughing Boy (Library Binding)
My husband and I lived with the Navajos for 12 years. From 1950 to 1962. We lived in the most isolated parts of the reservation and got to know the Navajos well. I am a cultural anthropologist. This book describes the old time Navajos' way of life and how it was being destroyed by the superimposing Anglo culture, slowly, insidiously. It is also a love story. The Navajo landscape is realistic, every time the dialogue changes, it is written so I can hear a Navajo or a Hopi or an Anglo speaking. It is a powerful book and one that I have read many times. LaFarge is a poet and he spoke Navajo so he knew their pattern of thinking, their "world view" so to speak. I can't recommend it too highly.
25 of 26 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Authentic Navajo Love Story,
By Lavon Hardy (Flagstaff, AZ) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Laughing Boy (Signet Classics) (Mass Market Paperback)
I thoroughly enjoyed Oliver LaFarge's book, LAUGHING BOY, because the Navajos were portrayed authentically. There are not many books written that do justice to writing about Native American culture so I was pleasantly surprised to find out a non-Native American had written a novel about the Navajos.The novel presents the story of a young Navajo couple as they start their lives together. They are in a time when things are changing for their people and their way of life. The Navajos are no longer isolated and free from Anglo influences. The "civilizing" of the Navajos has started and Slim Girl has experienced it already when she meets Laughing Boy. The couple begin their life amidst this change and encounter other obstacles on their road to total happiness. Laughing Boy is a traditional Navajo and has yet to realize the world outside the reservation and this "innocence" could be Slim Girl's salvation. Slim Girl is out of harmony with herself and with her people. The novel does an excellent job conveying that harmony is the ultimate goal for Laughing Boy and especially, Slim Girl. The novel is similar to Willa Cather's, MY ANTONIA, in that, the readers may have preferred a different outcome for the characters, but what was written is more profound. I completely enjoyed reading LAUGHING BOY and recommend it to readers who may want to experience true Navajo culture and true love combined.
16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
a great book to past on to todays young people,
By A Customer
This review is from: Laughing Boy (Library Binding)
Once you read Laughin Boy you'll remember it forever. I've read it in high school many years ago, my teenage daughter read it, now I planned on reading it to my 4 year old. The landscape that La Farge describes in the book is genuine. Every time we pass through Tee Nos Pos,AZ I can image where Laughing Boy may have ran. My teenagers today know little of their own people, through this book their eyes have open, they've learned a little about them and the old traditions. Even though Laughing Boy is fictitious some parts are authentic!
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First Sentence:
He was riding the hundred miles from T'o Tlakai to Tse Lani to attend a dance, or rather, for the horse-racing that would come afterwards. Read the first page Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Laughing Boy, Slim Girl, T'o Tlakai, Red Man, Yellow Singer, Wounded Face, Slayer of Enemy Gods, Came With War, Los Palos, Narrow Nose, Hunger People, The Doer, Two Bows, American Chief, Mountain Singer, Night Chant, Blunt Nose, Divine Ones, Sings Before Spears, Tall Brave, Big Tall Man, Bow's Son, Mountain Chant, Slender Hair, Spotted Horse New!
Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
He was riding the hundred miles from T'o Tlakai to Tse Lani to attend a dance, or rather, for the horse-racing that would come afterwards. Read the first page Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Laughing Boy, Slim Girl, T'o Tlakai, Red Man, Yellow Singer, Wounded Face, Slayer of Enemy Gods, Came With War, Los Palos, Narrow Nose, Hunger People, The Doer, Two Bows, American Chief, Mountain Singer, Night Chant, Blunt Nose, Divine Ones, Sings Before Spears, Tall Brave, Big Tall Man, Bow's Son, Mountain Chant, Slender Hair, Spotted Horse New!
Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
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- Laughing Boy by Oliver La Farge on page 3, and page 175
- Our America: Nativism, Modernism, and Pluralism (Post-Contemporary Interventions) by Walter Benn Michaels on 6 pages
- Literature and Anthropology (Studies in Comparative Literature) by Philip A. Dennis on 6 pages
- Individuality Incorporated: Indians and the Multicultural Modern (New Americanists) by Joel Pfister on 6 pages
- Shaman or Sherlock?: The Native American Detective (Contributions to the Study of Popular Culture) by Gina Macdonald on 6 pages
- Shadows of the Indian: Stereotypes in American Culture by Raymond William Stedman on 5 pages
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