Customer Reviews

Roofwalker

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2 star:		(1)
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Susan Power's second book more than fulfills the promise suggested by her earlier novel, The Grass Dancer. In a collection of fictional stories and nonfiction histories, she shows an incredible facility, even majesty, with the English language even as she shares with the reader both Lakota/Dakota faith and practice and the pains and pleasures of being principally an urban Indian with sometimes only a genetic memory of the Great Plains. Her characters are original and quirky--and therefore ring true, even as she causes readers to rethink not only the place and plight of American Indians but of all caring people who are destined to live, love, understand, misunderstand, forgive, become ill, and die then to reach not an exclusive Christian heaven denied to most but to an "Indian heaven [that] is democratic, it is home, it is the place where we shall all meet again to join in the Great Powwow which goes on well into the night."

As an English professor, I await with great expectation the opportunity to teach a Contemporary Literature course this summer when I will share this special text with undergraduate students.

This work may be too generous for the general reading public. Susan Power is not indulging the dominant culture's taste for stereotype and ownership of native american identity. This book challenges romantic assumptions that native women "celebrate life" or any other mantra that limits us to a single dimension. Roofwalker is a compliation of short stories which allows for multiple perspectives, ultimatly subverting the stereotypes the reader may be craving.

Susan Power masterfully blends fantasy, myth, and "Real Life" in this collection of "Urban Indians," frequently centered around the Chicago Native American Center. Guided by many Native voices, the reader is drawn along from pregnancy and birth to wasicum Nursing Home and death and back again in the circle of lives. Historical stops along the way to Here and Now include White Stone Hill, Little Big Horn, the "Indian ReOrganization" of the 1930's, and "relocation" of the 1950's.

Of particular poignancy is the tale of St. Jude and the "Angry Fish" and the visitation of grandma's dress in the Field Museum of Natural History. Published by Milkweed, Reviewed by TundraVision

This is by the same lady who wrote The Grass Dancer. Roofwalker is a book of short stories and while several are wonderful, better than her first book, collectively they don't fit together well -- nothing unifies them beyond the broadest subject (Dakota Sioux living around Chicago) and that's not quite good enough a theme to link such different character voices.

It is a credit to Power's craft that each she can take so many separate characters and present them in such a way that an outsider like myself (I'm not of Native American heritage and I've never seen so much as a picture of Chicago) can relate to them, but this would have been a stronger collection had the author given us something more to connect them. Perhaps if each of the stories had included a response or reference to the Chicago Native Amerian Center or Power had included stories that take place away from Chicago as a contrast -- something to remind us of what these stories have in common.

In that sense, this is another great beach book -- it's best read in pieces so you can let a story roll around on your tongue for a while like a piece of hard candy before picking up the book again to read the next.

Very powerful short stories about the interplay and tension for Native Americans between traditional life and life in the city. My favorite stories were "Angry Fish" and "Museum Indians".

This book is a collection of fictional and autobiographical stories. The book is small and each chapter is too. I don't know if it's because it's printed by a smaller press or what. Regardless, unfortunately, the reader sometimes gets impressions of stories and characters rather than something more in-depth. I was much more excited about the autobiographical section, yet it too turned out to be short and scant. The best chapter was one in which a Native woman talks about her first days at an Ivy League college. Noticeably, it's located at the end of the fictional section and just before the factual section: could this have been shifted? There are four positive things here. First, Power's respect for elders shines through. This is quite an anti-ageist text. Second, she celebrates biraciality. From her own story to a story about an Anglo-Latina to one about a Native with red hair, Power loves seeing the races come together in bodies and children. Biracial rights activists will love this book. Third, the author is uneasy about Christianity. Clergy members and saints are not viewed highly here. I think her point is to challenge assumptions that all Americans must be Christian. She is trying to maintain a space where Native spirituality can remain intact. Fourth, she mentions Chicago often. Though I've never met any Natives in my hometown, I think she makes Chicago look good and she is accepting of it as a decent place for urban Indians. Still, this book mentions so much death (murders, death by childbirth, stillborn babies, suicide, etc.). Unlike Native feminist scholar Paula Gunn Allen who said Native female work celebrates life, this book definitely repeats so many of the tragic Native tropes of death, abuse, and alcoholism. I wish the author the most success, but I'm not quite sure what to think about the book overall.

While the author does have a lyrical way with words I found that in the end I didn't remember much. As another reviewer also stated the book ( Grass Dancer ) seemed to cruise across the surface and I didn't get a deep feeling from the book. I will read the new book the first chance I get however.
Her writing does seem an awful lot like Louise Erdrich even thought Louise Erdrich gave her a glowing review. The lay out of the story and charchter developememt all seem simalar to Erdich's style.