Laughing Boy (Signet Classics) (Mass Market Paperback)

~ Oliver La Farge (Author) "HE was riding the hundred miles from T'o Tlakai to Tse Lani to attend a dance, or rather, for the horse-racing that would come afterwards..." (more)
Key Phrases: Slim Girl, Jesting Squaw's Son, Red Man (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A romance of haunting and poetic beauty...compelling in its strength and simplicity." --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Description

This Pulitzer Prize-winning novel captures the essence of the Southwest in the early 1900s-and depicts a young Native American couple experiencing all the uncertainties and joys of first love. Laughing Boy is one of the most powerful novels in American fiction.

"Lucid beauty, vital artistic imagination, and a clear, almost hypnotic style."-New York Times

"Daring...triumphantly successful!"-Owen Wister, author of The Virginian

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Signet Classics (September 1, 1971)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0451524675
• ISBN-13: 978-0451524676
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #781,689 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars My Favorite Book, January 18, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Laughing Boy (Library Binding)

My husband and I lived with the Navajos for 12 years. From 1950 to 1962. We lived in the most isolated parts of the reservation and got to know the Navajos well. I am a cultural anthropologist. This book describes the old time Navajos' way of life and how it was being destroyed by the superimposing Anglo culture, slowly, insidiously. It is also a love story. The Navajo landscape is realistic, every time the dialogue changes, it is written so I can hear a Navajo or a Hopi or an Anglo speaking.

It is a powerful book and one that I have read many times. LaFarge is a poet and he spoke Navajo so he knew their pattern of thinking, their "world view" so to speak. I can't recommend it too highly.

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Authentic Navajo Love Story, October 24, 2002

By	Lavon Hardy (Flagstaff, AZ) - See all my reviews

I thoroughly enjoyed Oliver LaFarge's book, LAUGHING BOY, because the Navajos were portrayed authentically. There are not many books written that do justice to writing about Native American culture so I was pleasantly surprised to find out a non-Native American had written a novel about the Navajos.
The novel presents the story of a young Navajo couple as they start their lives together. They are in a time when things are changing for their people and their way of life. The Navajos are no longer isolated and free from Anglo influences. The "civilizing" of the Navajos has started and Slim Girl has experienced it already when she meets Laughing Boy.
The couple begin their life amidst this change and encounter other obstacles on their road to total happiness. Laughing Boy is a traditional Navajo and has yet to realize the world outside the reservation and this "innocence" could be Slim Girl's salvation. Slim Girl is out of harmony with herself and with her people. The novel does an excellent job conveying that harmony is the ultimate goal for Laughing Boy and especially, Slim Girl.
The novel is similar to Willa Cather's, MY ANTONIA, in that, the readers may have preferred a different outcome for the characters, but what was written is more profound. I completely enjoyed reading LAUGHING BOY and recommend it to readers who may want to experience true Navajo culture and true love combined.

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a great book to past on to todays young people, September 16, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Laughing Boy (Library Binding)

Once you read Laughin Boy you'll remember it forever. I've read it in high school many years ago, my teenage daughter read it, now I planned on reading it to my 4 year old. The landscape that La Farge describes in the book is genuine. Every time we pass through Tee Nos Pos,AZ I can image where Laughing Boy may have ran. My teenagers today know little of their own people, through this book their eyes have open, they've learned a little about them and the old traditions. Even though Laughing Boy is fictitious some parts are authentic!