Talking Leaves: Contemporary Native American Short Stories [Paperback]

Craig Lesley (Editor, Introduction), Katheryn Stavrakis (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 10, 1991

Short story collection written by Native American authors.

Product Details

• Paperback: 385 pages
• Publisher: Dell Publishing; 3d ptg. edition (September 10, 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385312725
• ISBN-13: 978-0385312721
• Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 1.3 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #91,238 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Generally good reading, April 9, 2001

By 

Edward Bosnar - See all my reviews

This review is from: Talking Leaves: Contemporary Native American Short Stories (Paperback)

Most anthologies are inconsistent, as the quality of the various contributions varies from author to author. "Talking Leaves" is, unfortunately, no exception. While editor Craig Lesley's decision to introduce several new (sometimes unpublished) writers is commendable, there are a few rather mediocre stories or vignettes. Also, I noticed a tendency on the part of Oregon-resident Lesley to slightly favor writers from Pacific Northwest nations. Nonetheless, I would say the vast majority of the contributions are very good, if not excellent, and the variety of styles and apects of Native American life/history it contains is very impressive. The excerpts taken out of novels, something I usually dislike, are fairly good and function well as short stories (i.e. from N. Scott Momaday's "Ancient Child" and James Welch's "Fools Crow"), even though it's still obvious that they are taken from larger works. By far the best contribution is "Aunt Moon's Young Man" by Linda Hogan. The longest story in the book, it is beautifully written and absorbing - I had the impression I had just finished a novel after reading it. Thomas King's "A Seat in the Garden" is also one of the better contributions, and absolutely hilarious. In fact, a nice aspect that comes out of many of the stories is the dry humor or humorous themes, from a white revival preacher's attempt to get a very relectant Indian family to pray with him to an elderly woman's dilemmas with a cheap, noisy new refrigerator. "Talking Leaves" is a good introduction to Native American literature, although it was published almost a decade ago, so it does not include some of the younger writers who emerged in the past few years (most notably Sherman Alexie).

5.0 out of 5 stars A classic, August 3, 2011

By 

Screenwriter - See all my reviews

This review is from: Talking Leaves: Contemporary Native American Short Stories (Paperback)

I recommend that English teachers include Talking Leaves in your curriculum, especially if required to include Native American and female authors.

6 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Awesome depiction of the Native American Ways, October 29, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Talking Leaves: Contemporary Native American Short Stories (Paperback)

This book was awesome! It was the most enchanting short stories I have ever read. It was marvelous.