Customer Reviews

Winona's Web: A Novel of Discovery

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4 star:		(3)
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1 star:		(2)

 

 

I heard about Winona's Web from my neighbor Gail Korhonen whose book club thoroughly enjoyed it and so I thank Gail for lending me her copy. Suttons Bay,Michigan is a beautiful & familiar place, so I felt right at home with the characters. The story is about a psychologist who has an elderly patient by the name of Winona Pathfinder who is Lakota. Winona is not very interested in being psychoanalyzed and she becomes the therapist & no matter how much the psychologist tries to be scientific & business-like, Winona always has the patience to be both teacher & guide. The story is about death & life. The plot thoughtfully & successfully pits American Indian spirituality & tradition against science. Everything about this story is respectful to the American Indian people & our culture. It is the first book of fiction I have ever read by an Anglo that did not romanticize or dramatize or trivialize Indian people & our heritage and traditions. I was pleasantly surprised by the clever ways that Phyllis Cogan addressed important social & political issues that American Indian people deal with & frequently found myself rereading specific passages with appreciation for the sensitivity and knowledge. I like the people in this book & recognize them among my own friends. These characters are well developed. When I reached the last sentence in the book I was both satisfied & sad because I wanted to continue to travel with them on their journeys. All I could think about was a sequal.

This was a sweet book and I encourage women of all ages to read it. Our protagonist, Dr. Meggie O'Connor moves back to the family farm from New York City after her many year-old marriage fails and she is fast approaching her fortieth birthday. She is a psychologist and restarts her practice in northern Michigan. One of her early clients/patients is Winona Pathfinder, a Native American "healer" whose daughter has pushed her to therapy because she insists she will be dying soon, thank you very much. As this relationship grows it becomes more quickly evident to the reader than to Meggie that it is she who is being healed. Meggie learns a good deal about Winona's life, her decisions, and her reasons for the calm prediction of death and is drawn into the validity of the pipe-smoking, and the Native American `medicine' ways. In a very subtle way, Winona draws Meggie into a real change of view about who she is and what her value is. Finally, there is a love interest that, in a surprise in the end, makes the story wonderfully complete.

I was given this book with the apologies that it opened with a bang but lacked alot in between. What I found though was quite the opposite. I drank in Winona's teachings, recognizing immediately how Priscilla Cogan has taken from her own practice and given to readers a glimpse into those special relationships that exist between therapist and client. All too often, persons in the helping profession believe that they have the ultimate knowledge. It is their loss when they fail to recognize the wisdom that their clients bring with them. What a mutual journey these settings provide and Pricilla Cogan has revealed that she is open to this exchange. Eloquently written with sensitive and appropriate quotations, this novel remains vivid in my mind, much like a good piece of chocolate. I have passed this title on to other helping individuals.

Having just finished this book, I feel compelled to urge others to pick it up. Through a psychotherapist's sessions with Winona, an aging Lakota woman, the author shares the rebirth of Meggie O'Connor, the therapist, and gives us hope that there can be a better life for those who want it. The writing is funny and light-hearted at times, never forcing ideas, just placing them gently for the taking. The author presents ideas of the Lakota, through Winona, then by allowing Meggie to stuggle with their meaning and interpretation, allows the reader to make these ideas her own. I've already recommended this to many people, and plan to reread it myself as the need arises - anytime the rush of the modern world overtakes the beauty and awe of the Grandmother

Excellent Reading!!! I laughed, I cried , - I read the book in 48 hours. I couldn't put it down. This book opened my mind to ideas I already knew existed but had never felt in my heart. The emotion was to real - and very fulfiling.

In American Indian mythos the Spider Woman radiates the labyrinth of her thoughts. At the hub of this web resides the mind of Winona, an aged Lakota tribeswoman. The story finds its center in her, though the narrative comes through her therapist, Meggie. Meggie is hired by Winona's daughter when the old woman announces her own death will come in two moons.

Meggie's goal is to "figure out" why Winona believes she will die in a matter of months, but instead she finds herself wondering, right from the get-go, just who is helping whom.

During therapy sessions, Winona portrays not only her personal history, but the history of her people. For someone who doesn't quite grasp the concept of "my people", the closest account I can muster is the experience of going home. (I remember scanning the luggage reclaim area at LAX, thinking as I looked around at faces--so many different faces--"These are my people"--as if "my people" could include just about anyone.)

Let's cut to the essentials: readability, captured interest, other components of a good story... all are certainly present in this book. But some stories have a scope beyond the written page. Take, as a rough example, The Never Ending Story. The boy, Bastien, sits curled up in a library attic reading. As Bastien reads the novel, lines between fantasy and reality become increasingly blurred until, right up at the end when it matters most, one of the characters actually materializes before him in the attic. (This becomes a nice, neatly wrapped metaphor with regard to how we become the story we are reading because it consumes our mind through our rapt attention and focus.) Bastien's active participation is required for the story to reach its conclusion.

In my own life, Winona's Web took on a transcendent quality akin to Bastien's experience. Cogan includes short poems or quotations at the start of every chapter. These helped orient my thoughts so I could absorb the essential purpose contained within that chapter. Although Cogan does a nice job of keeping it light, a lot of the material is quite profound. More than once, I was blown away by the overlap between my immediate experience and the message conveyed in an introductory quote.

Winona's Web circles around the powerful heritage and traditions of the Lakota tribes. It's as though the earth on the North American continent carries their memories--or maybe all places emanate the energies of whoever came before--but strange things happen when one reads this book. It grabs hold of something ancient and magical, something that continues to resonate. There's plenty of spirituality in the world, and yet what's compelling about Lakota mythos is this loving connectivity with the earth, sky, and all forms of life. Lakota call the sky "Grandfather", and the earth, "Grandmother". When smoking the pipe they pay homage to all their relations. (And if you trace back far enough, that includes everyone. So maybe I wasn't so far off with the LAX thing after all.)

Leanne
(aka Lee Denning, co-author of Monkey Trap (Nova Sapiens, Book 1) and Hiding Hand)

Cogan is a very warm, introspective author. I have had the pleasure of reading all her books & would highly recommend all of them, starting with Winona's Web, then Compass of the Heart. Her characters have so much depth ~ truly refreshing. She knows the heart & soul of them each. I felt my soul grow reading her books. Do yourself a favor, & give her a try.

This is a very special book, the best I've read this year. I couldn't wait for Winona's next visit with Meggie to see what lessons she would teach. I especially liked the porcupine hunting scene where Slade gave thanks to the porcupine for giving up its life and the way he made use of the body parts instead of discarding them. The porcupine earrings which Meggie received as a present from Slade were a delicious surprise!

This was a wonderful book which I could not stop reading. I didn't want it to end. Be sure to read the sequel "Compass of the Heart" if you want to follow these characters further.

This is a very well written and insightful book. I found myself learning from Winona right along with Dr. Meggie O''Connor. Winona has something to teach all of us if we open our minds and listen.

I loved this book, and I loved Winona. Started reading it on a Saturday afternoon and finished it early Sunday morning and spent Sunday afternood searching the bookstores for the 2nd of this 3-book series. Winona's Web is definitely for any woman or some type of journey and most of those who are not. Winona is an example of a woman who has found herself and an excellant role model to Meggie, who has not. This book is to be coming out as a movie, and I can hardly wait.