Customer Reviews

Solar Storms

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

_Solar Storms_ is a powerful novel that should appeal to anyone concerned with issues relating to the environment, Indians, community activism, abuse, feminism, or cultural politics. Its fine writing offers even stronger drawing power.

The story is set 1972-1974 within a Native community threatened with destruction by the kind of economic development that marginalizes and exploits the north country to benefit other communities in the south. It is told from the point of view of one of the central characters. Angel is 17 when she returns home, trying to get a sense of her past and the origin of the scars that disfigure her face. Her quest for identity and information quickly broadens into larger, and more substantial concerns for the people of Adam's Rib. As she finds her place there, she gains perspective leading to commitments that reveal her developing inner strength. She learns that her individual identity finds its best expression in terms of her relationships within a community that encompasses other people, land and water, and all life.

Through the development of Angel's perspective, and the ideas and actions of the women who become her mentors, author Linda Hogan puts forth an astoundingly powerful vision of the relationships among humans and the natural world that sustain life. She does this with a richly detailed text that even readers who may not share Hogan's perspective will find the book enjoyable and provocative.

Hogan's _Solar Storms_ offers a reminder that the best stories are critical to human life not only for the pleasure of the text, but because they motivate ethical life. _Solar Storms_ merits recognition as a modern classic of American literature.

One thing I like about book clubs is that they force people to read books they might not have otherwise read. When my book club chose Solar Storms, I was not overly enthusiastic. However, Hogan's writing captured me from the first page. I could feel the cold of the frozen Great Lakes, smell the stuffiness of hut, taste the native dishes, agonize with the family's loss. Then, when Angel returns to her grandmothers' home and begins her healing process, I could feel the story line start to vibrate in me like violin strings.

Like some of America's greatest prose, the content of this book was not as important to me as the style, although I thought the storyline was thought-provoking. No one memorizes Lincoln's Gettysburg Address because of the message. They memorize it because it is such a beautiful example of what our language can sound like in the hands of a master. Hogan is a master.

I marvel at the intricate and deeply authentic way in which Linda Hogan exposes the emotional center of her characters... as well as the manner in which she reveals how they experience their external environment... with its vast riches of light and life and shifting storms... of turning seasons, of companies of birds and fish... of forests and water... all as an aspect of what is occurring in their inner lives. They seem to breathe in the land, to drink of the rich wellspring of fullness and diversity present in 'all their relations...' and to sense with clear awareness and slow contemplative abosrption the re-rooting of the natural world within their own souls. The "potlatch" which served as the story's prologue is one of the most poignant pieces of literary excellence I have ever read.

I thought I could not read anything as beautiful by a Native American woman than Luci Tapahonso's works, or Joy Harjo's works. Until now. Linda Hogan's words evoke powerful images of female beauty. She overturns European myths and traditions by making all her major characters women. These are no "shrinking violets" but women who make it on their own; they are not simply biding their time until some man comes along, but they are active in the business of living life. This is no man-hating treatise either, for men are welcome, if they fit in. Some do, some don't, and some learn that loving a woman means being everything she needs you to be, not just what you think she needs. Hogan also turns physical scarring into beauty, as Angel learns to love herself despite her inner and outward scars. Hogan even takes the most commonplace of anti-feminine insults, "That's just like a woman," and turns it into an expression of strength. Yes, it IS just like a woman, and that's what makes her powerful, beautiful and desirable to all. Read SOLAR STORMS and learn a lot, about yourself as a woman or a man, about yourself as a Western "improver" of nature, and about yourself as a human being. Love for everything and everyone is the secret joy in this novel, and you will finish it with a sense that you have achieved something of this

This is the first book I have read by Hogan. I was very impressed by her writing. She uses lovely words and creates wonderful images for the reader. This is a very important book and having read it has increased by awareness of Native Americans' plight. The damage to their culture, their personhood and to the earth (the land)with all the animals and plants is painful and horrid. This is a deeply felt book and the writing will speak to your heart.

I read this book about 8 years ago and it stuck with me ever since. But for some reason when I wanted to recommend it to other people I couldn't ever remember the title or the author. Finally I looked it up here using various key words. Now I can recommend it to others and read it again!

It's a book about odysseys--in some way comparable to the book "Cold Mountain" in the sense that people are traveling and finding out who they are in an amazing landscape. This book also represents well the politics and experience of Native American life. It's more than that, though--it's a beautiful story.

I consider it one of the best books on my lifetime list.

This book is about the journey which each person must take in life, the journey to knowing oneself. Incredibly written with beautiful insights, this book is a must for anyone who needs to be inspired in life. Practically every line is pregnant with wisdom and eloquence, yet not encumbered by being overly philosophical. It contains truths which can be simply understood by the reader. It has helped teach me (the reviewer) the value of inner quiet as well as outer quiet. In a world where all we do has instant reactions and ramifications, we could all use a dose of the kind of loving enlightenment this book has to offer.

A beautifully written book that to me spoke loudly about how most things recent generations strive for don't matter to the soul, and how one very badly beaten soul found meaning to life through a rite of passage among women. I am touched by the book, and recommend it to any female who reads fiction regularly. My only hesitation to truly recommending the book is its occasionally heavy hand with the politics of dam building. The book is so heavily centered on transformation and personal change however, that the anger the character/author feels toward environmental destruction aids the reader in understanding the depth of the character's self knowledge

I found this book to be an insight to the enormous trials that have been faced by the First Nation people of northern Manitoba. What we have done and continue to do to these people has no excuse. More of the same is continuing to this day in the destruction of their lives and the environment. I know some of these people and my daughter has done a documentary movie "Green Green Water" [..] on aspects of this tragedy. Little is known or understood of this situation as it is government backed and they spend huge amounts of money to keep it quiet. The bottom line for Manitoba is electricity sold to the USA.

It is a well written but dark book as the situations are dark. Although it is a novel, to my experience with these people and this situation it rings true.

Mike

I bought Solar Storms almost by accident; by that I mean I really liked the title and the blue cover illustration and I just bought it. I have re-read this book twice in the two years that I've owned it.

This story really moves me. I don't want to ruin the story for you by offering a synopsis, but it appeals to me because the story is written in gorgeous prose, because it is a story of reconnection with one's heritage, because it leaves me with a feeling of hope in humanity, and because it is a story of community - not only with people - but with all life. It's just a darned good story and entertaining, but I also found a lot of personal meaning in it.