Sara Littlecrow-Russell’s style emerges from the ancient and sacred tradition of storytelling, where legends were told not just to entertain, but to teach and, if necessary, to discipline. The power of the storyteller is the power of naming, to establish a relationship, a connection, and a sense of meaning. A name is both a bequest and a burden. Each of the poems in this collection is, in essence, a naming ritual. Sharply, energetically, and always provocatively, these poems name uncomfortable moments, complex emotions, and sudden, often wryly humorous realizations. As she explores how names imposed by outsiders both collide and merge with the identities that Natives create for themselves, these poems decisively counter the images of Indians as colorful dancers, stoic saints, and defeated warriors. These verses are not constructed of beautiful images, nor are they stories of redemption. Instead, Littlecrow-Russell offers stark and honest witness to urban and reservation life at the beginning of the twenty-first century. In short snaps of honed lyric and voice, she tackles topics ranging from family, love, and spirituality, to welfare, addiction, and the thorny politics of tribal identity. Her work displays tremendous bitterness and anger, but there is also dignity, humor, and plenty of irony. Candid and compelling, this collection brings fluent verse and human face to the commonly misrepresented experiences of Native Americans.
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Editorial Reviews
From Booklist
In Littlecrow-Russell's debut collection, she confronts the issues affecting contemporary Indians head-on, eschewing the more mellow territory of powwows and traditional dancers. A friend wanted to see Indian ruins, "So I drove him past HUD houses and boarded trailers, / Beer bottles and blood drops, / And a three year old girl huffing glue / From a brown paper bag." A grandfather shares "ancient words, delicate as antique deerskin" with his granddaughter; when she stamps her feet and demands he speak English, "his sudden silence wraps around them like a diseased trade blanket." Littlecrow--Russell writes of the shame of welfare and years of low-wage jobs with nothing to show for it, and describes an AIM member "found crumpled in the Dakota snow like the body of a reservation dog." In "Russian Roulette, Indian Style," the bullets are named alcohol, disease, poverty, violence, and assimilation, and "survival is finding the name of the empty chamber." Intense and evocative, Littlecrow-Russell's poems offer much food for thought. Deborah Donovan
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Review
"Intense and evocative, Littlecrow-Russell’s poems offer much food for thought." —Booklist
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
It belongs on the top shelf, if you must keep it on a shelf...,
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This review is from: The Secret Powers of Naming (Sun Tracks) (Paperback)
...it would be more appropriate in the backpack, car, bedside table, work place, public library, etc. Sara's poems are awesome - like swallowing little razors and every cut gets you closer to the truth. Kind of like Sharon Olds only more dazzling and gutsy. I don't read too many poets but I bought seven of these and gave them all to people I care about. Buy two - one for you and one to leave at a bus stop somewhere.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Destined to be a Classic,
By Magdalena Gomez "www.myspace.com/magdalenagomez" (Western Massachusetts, USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)
This review is from: The Secret Powers of Naming (Sun Tracks) (Paperback)
Sara Littlecrow Russell's debut book dishes out the horrors of bigotry with humor and a matter of fact tone that can only arrive in the company of truth. If you're looking for the feather and the flute, you've come to the wrong place. This is the fire and the blade. Nothing rings false. The poems feel as if they could have been written on paper bags while shopping yet with the surgical precision of finely honed craft. Honest, real and fleshy. So what are you waiting for? It belongs on the shelf of anyone who likes the direct gaze, the strong handshake, the wild dance. These poems do not waste your time, they ignite it.
Magdalena Gomez, Poet www.myspace.com/magdalenagomez
5.0 out of 5 stars
Beautiful, inventive poetry.,
By
This review is from: The Secret Powers of Naming (Sun Tracks) (Paperback)
A unique and thought-provoking book. Littlecrow writes with the voice of a strong survivor weaving the threads of tradition, belief and harsh reality in modern day America. Her writing is sharply clever and savagely witty yet shines with integrity. The images are vivid and accessible and will resonate with the reader struggling to hold their sanity in a world gone mad. A book to be savoured.
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