Customer Reviews

Left Handed, Son of Old Man Hat: A Navaho Autobiography

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

 

 

This book remains solidly in my memory though I read it over 30 years ago. As a child I spent some years on the Navajo Nation - my parents were teachers. This book brought back all my memories of the cadence of the language, of the passing of the seasons, of the herding of sheep, of sustaining a quintessentially "American" way of life.

This book is certainly a quick read, but I found it to be quite entertaining. If you want to get some sense of the Navajo lifestyle from the time in history after the Long Walk, this book would be for you. There were similarities for me to the The Good Earth by Pearl Buck. The instructions Left Hand's father gave him prior to his death were practical to any society. The struggles that this wealthy (by living standards of the time) family endured due to crop failures and grazing really gave me a sense of how they lived. Left Hand talks about it however in a very matter of fact way. The culture and family is not explained, but one does learn about it as you read the book. I would love to read more first hand accounts like this.

Somewhat repetitive, but that must have been the lifestyle. A great insight into Navajo culture of the day.

This book of a man's life has a rhythm that is set to a sheep's cadence. I had to read it twice to get the chronological aspect of it. The clues to how a nomad's life was led are sometimes plain and sometimes hidden. I found the ending to be abrupt.

Very good autobiography about the daily life and culture of the Navaho people. Provides good insight into the seemly simplistic life of these native people. However, upon detailed reading and examination it becomes clear that certain customs and tribal values existed and that a rigid hierarchy prevailed.
RLM

I had to read this book for my intro to Anthropology class in college. I thought that was ok for additional anthropology reading, but I would never read this book for fun. It's the story of a Navajo from his childhood to adulthood and all of the experience and things you must go through when living in a culture that moves around a lot. It was interesting in the fact that while studying various cultures, it was an autobiography of what another culture was actually like and how in Left Handed's culture, everyone is related. It a good book for understanding other cultures, especially for a class like anthropology.