Customer Reviews

The Trickster of Liberty: Tribal Heirs to a Wild Baronage (Emergent Literatures)

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This is a rather odd novel, broken down into a series of stories, vignettes and (mis)adventures involving various members of the Browne family, `mixedbloods' from an Indian reservation in northern Minnesota. As the title suggests, Vizenor is deeply interested in trickster themes, here borrowed from Native American and (to a lesser extent) Chinese oral traditions. Also, the concept of mixedbloods is the overriding leitmotiv of the entire book - often symobolized by mongrels. The style varies, and this is a very postmodern literary experience, but that shouldn't stop anyone from reading it. Generally this is a rewarding book: the narrative, if difficult to follow at times, is often humerous, yet behind this light-hearted veneer there is quite a bit of scathing commentary.