Mean Spirit (Mass Market Paperback)

~ (Author) "That summer a water diviner named Michael Horse forecast a two-week dry spell..." (more)
Key Phrases: hog priest, bat medicine, eagle hunters, Michael Horse, Joe Billy, John Stink (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Set in Oklahoma during the oil boom of the early 1920s, this brooding and profoundly moving first novel focuses on two doomed Osage Indian families, the Blankets and the Grayclouds. The brutal murder of Grace Blanket, owner of oil-rich land, witnessed in horror by her young daughter Nola and Nola's friend Rena Graycloud, is only the first of a series of violent events designed to coerce the tribes and put their lands into the hands of the oil barons. Justice is slow and ambiguous. When Stace Red Hawk, a policeman with the U.S. Bureau of Investigation, finds his inquiries blocked and his efforts frustrated by evasive and corrupt federal officials, he travels from Washington, D.C., to Oklahoma to investigate firsthand. Soon, like many of the Indian families depicted here, Stace is torn between the glitter of 20th-century life and the pull of sacred traditions. Hogan, a poet, professor and member of the Chickasaw tribe, mines a rich vein of Indian customs and rituals, and approaches her characters with reverence, bringing them to life with quick, spare phrases. Her absorbing novel pays elegiac tribute to the slow and irrevocable breakup of centuries of culture.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From School Library Journal

YA-- An intense, haunting tale of the Osage Indians in the 1920s. The mystery begins when Nora Blanket, a Native American, witnesses her mother's murder. This killing is only the first of many as white men try to steal the Indians' oil-rich land and personal fortunes. The Osage try to protect themselves and their way of life, but the situation becomes hopeless, especially when the sheriff and government investigators are suspected of participating in the murders. YAs will enjoy the suspense and unexpected twists of the story line, but they will also find it thought-provoking and unsettling. Through this tribe, readers experience the injustice inherent in cultural prejudice as they did in Griffin's Black Like Me (NAL, 1961), and they confront government corruption firsthand. The moving descriptions of Indian values highlight current environmental concerns. A valuable supplement to social-studies classes.
- Lynda Voyles, R. E. Lee High School, Springfield, VA
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Ivy Books (November 24, 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0804108633
• ISBN-13: 978-0804108638
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #187,786 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Engrossing, February 15, 2001

By	Edward Bosnar (Zagreb, Croatia) - See all my reviews

"Mean Spirit" is a fictionalized, but very vivid portrayal of the hardships faced by Native Americans in the former "Indian Country" (Oklahoma) during the 1920s. Most of the main characters are members of the Osage people, who were and to some extent still are better off than many other native peoples because the land alloted to them in Oklahoma sits atop a pool of oil and they retained the mineral rights. However, as Hogan points out, this material wealth was a very mixed blessing in many ways. First and foremost, the Osage became the objects of the manipulations and schemes of various oil barons and others (very likely with the tacit support of the local and even federal authorities) often with fatal consequences - and this is the main theme of the book. Although written in the engrossing style of a thriller, "Mean Spirit" is not a whodunnit novel. It is rather an exploration of the consequences of the U.S. government's policies consistently (either directly or indirectly) aimed against the interests of Native Americans, aided and abetted by society in general. It also shows that even after active fighting and expulsion ended, the war against the Native Americans continued by other means. These messages are skillfully incorporated in a very believable and realistic story (indeed, many characters and situations are based on actual people and events), which is frequently interspersed with some refreshing, very dry humor. "Mean Spirit" is a fantastic novel and a great work of contemporary fiction.

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Hogan succeeds in showing the plight of the Osage Indians..., April 28, 1999

By A Customer

This book, about the killing of Osage Indians by whites for the oil on the Indians' land, is almost spiritual in its descriptions of the Indians and their world. This world is one in which the land is alive just as man is, and the closeness that people have with the land makes for a more complete life. Hogan's descriptions make the reader feel for the Indians and even yearn for the simplicity of the old Indian ways that are shown to be being lost throughout the book.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Evocative and Shameful, August 9, 1997

By A Customer

Linda Hogan's words are powerful, and MEAN SPIRIT demonstrates this most admirably. In this novel we cry out against the outrageous atrocities committed on the Osage during the oil boom in Oklahoma. The fact that many of the incidents are based on true history makes me ashamed to be an American, a white person and an Oklahoman. But that is the power of her writing -- Linda Hogan doesn't preach to the reader, but she allows the reader to draw her own conclusions about the real and supposed crimes, crimes of law and of love and morality. Read this novel and be warned -- you will laugh, but you will also cry, as your sense of outrage and injustice moves you to examine your own life, and your family's history. My family settled on Oklahoma land when it opened up for white settlement -- I'm afraid to find out if they were participants in these crimes. If you, like me, come from a "proud" settler heritage, read this book and see what the original inhabitants think of our coming