Paper Trail: Essays [Paperback]

Michael Dorris (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1995

An engaging and masterful collection of essays that vividly captures the author's diverse work as award-winning writer, activist, parent, scholar, professor, anthropologist, critic, and traveler".By turns charming, provocative, impassioned [and] deeply moving. A complex portrait of Mr. Dorris as writer, reader, thinker, scholar, and parent". "--New York Times Book Review"

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Bestselling novelist, anthropologist and expert on Native American culture Michael Dorris writes about a surprisingly diverse array of topics in Paper Trail. He offers evocative reminiscences of being raised by his mother and grandmother, skillfully illuminates important issues dealing with modern Native Americans, and in the centerpiece of the collection, writes movingly about his own adopted son's struggle with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. And he movingly reflects on how he was able to write about his son's life in The Broken Cord.

From Publishers Weekly

In essays previously published during the 1980s and '90s in newspapers and such magazines as Family Circle and Booklist , Dorris thoughtfully considers matters both lighthearted and serious. Many of the pieces reflect his long involvement with such social issues as the rights of Native Americans and the affects of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS), a condition limiting brain development that afflicts children born of mothers who drank heavily while pregnant. Dorris's late adopted son was a victim of FAS; the author movingly describes the despair and frustration he faced in researching this condition, which is the subject of his book, The Broken Cord. In a lighter vein are Dorris's reminiscences about his childhood, including tributes to his mother and aunts and a humorous commentary on math anxiety. First serial to Scholastic Literary Cavalcade Magazine.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Perennial (April 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060925930
• ISBN-13: 978-0060925932
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,632,242 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars ESSAYS ARE BOTH PERCEPTIVE AND PERSUASIVE, April 13, 2004

By 

Gail Cooke (TX, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Paper Trail: Essays (Paperback)

Thoughtfully charismatic, Michael Dorris touches upon subjects that can curve a smile or bring a tear. In this, a collection of essays published during the 1980s and 1990s in periodicals throughout America, Dorris brings his chronicler's eye and compassionate heart to the thoughts he shares.

Beginning with selections titled "Family Occasions," the author takes us back to his youth as he lovingly reminisces about the mother and grandmother who raised him after his father's death.

The plight of contemporary Native Americans is dramatically documented in another section titled "Learning From Mistakes."

This variegated collection is both perceptive and persuasive.

2 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Discover a wonderful writer through these essays, as I did., May 15, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Paper Trail: Essays (Paperback)

I want to tell you that heaven is richer by one wonderful communicator. I have devoured everything Louise Erdrich ever wrote and always wondered what kind of wonderful husband supported that writer. I treated myself to Paper Trail to celebrate getting through grad school midterms. The book is a baum to the soul of anyone who cares about relationships between people, children, the disadvantaged, the state of Indian Affairs in this country. My prayers to you all. Us "half-breed-Irish" will go on; we always do, but without our Michael. Tanis Good Gloe