The Names (Sun Tracks) [Paperback]

N. Scott Momaday (Author)

Book Description

Series: Sun Tracks | Publication Date: November 1, 1987

Of all of the works of N. Scott Momaday, The Names may be the most personal. A memoir of his boyhood in Oklahoma and the Southwest, it is also described by Momaday as "an act of the imagination. When I turn my mind to my early life, it is the imaginative part of it that comes first and irresistibly into reach, and of that part I take hold." Complete with family photos, The Names is a book that will captivate readers who wish to experience the Native American way of life.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"It is a search and a celebration, a book of identities and sources....Out of ordinary materials—genealogy, tribal tales, memories of a boyhood spent in Oklahoma, at Ship Rock in the Navajo country and at the Jemez pueblo, where his parents taught school—he has built a mystical, provocative book." —Wallace Stegner, New York Times "A Native American version of 'Roots' . . . full of the sense of wonder that characterizes classic American literature." —Choice "Graceful, lucid prose...[Momaday] is forever an Indian and the reader understands why." —Atlantic Monthly "With the eye of a painter and the voice of a poet, Momaday vividly recreates a childhood world of color, sound, and experience played out against the backdrop of tribal tales and in the shadow of revered forebears. . . . An eloquent statement of this distinguished Native American author's search for identity." —Journal of Arizona History

From the Inside Flap

Of all of the works of N. Scott Momaday, The Names may be the most personal. A memoir of his boyhood in Oklahoma and the Southwest, it is also described by Momaday as "an act of the imagination. When I turn my mind to my early life, it is the imaginative part of it that comes first and irresistibly into reach, and of that part I take hold." Complete with family photos, The Names is a book that will captivate readers who wish to experience the Native American way of life. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 170 pages
• Publisher: University of Arizona Press (November 1, 1987)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0816510466
• ISBN-13: 978-0816510467
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.7 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #242,670 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautifully written account of a childhood on Jemez Pueblo., May 7, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: The Names (Sun Tracks) (Paperback)

N. Scott Momaday's beautifully written memoir of childhood in Jemez Pueblo, NM is geographically as well as chronologically defined, incorporating "the empty spaces of time in the morning and afternoon," the wide blue New Mexico sky, and the undeveloped high desert into the narrative as Momaday searches the landscape of his memory for the key word or image, _the name_ for things, that will retrieve the entirety of his history. Retrieval of this complex history, of emotion and memory, "the vibrant ecstasy of so much being," is almost possible. "Again and again, I have come to that awful edge, that one word, perhaps, that I cannot bring from my mouth."

_The Names_ is moving in its description of the ceremonies of Jemez Pueblo and the stories of Momaday's family. The author writes sometimes in a child's voice and sometimes in his grandfather's or the voices of others around him. It is clearly a child's story, saturated with a child's sense of wonder. But Momaday also provides an account of the process of attempted recovery, the descent into storytelling: "The first word gives origin to the second, the first and second to the third, . . . and so on. You cannot begin with the second word and tell the story, for the telling of the story is a cumulative process, a chain of becoming, at last of being."

Momaday's exploration of language's structure and limitations makes much of the book beautiful to me, but gets weighted down in intellectualization from time to time. Scott Momaday is a scholar -- he went to Stanford -- and the analytical aspect of _The Names_ can be a bit dry at times. It is, on the whole though, a sensitive and moving exploration of a Native American childhood and one of my favorite male autobiographies.

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Photo album and long letter..., January 18, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: The Names (Sun Tracks) (Paperback)

That's how I think of this book - a photo album of old family photos with one long letter (or, perhaps it would be better described as a series of short notes written by someone trying to remember what they'd seen, heard, imagines, or discovered). It's a fun book to read straight through, or to flip around in, going back and forth through the photos and reading about the person whose face or photo catches your eye <g>. For info on articles & stuff written about this book visit: http://users.mwci.net/~lapoz/Momaday.html

5.0 out of 5 stars If you love the Southwest......, March 21, 2011

By 

Barbara W. Apoian "Barbara A." (Denver, New York) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Names (Momaday Collection/N. Scott Momaday) (Hardcover)

If you love the Southwest, you will love this book. Momaday writes about the landscape like no other writer. He captures the immensity and color of that vast area. His other books "House made of Dawn" and "Rainy Mountain" are equally moving. I keep them handy at all times, just to read certain passages of transcendant imagery.