A ``catch colt,'' in the words of the Gros Ventre Indians, is an illegitimate child, and Larson, son of a Gros Ventre mother and a white man, considers his life--including his pursuit of ``a life of the mind''--full of illegitimacies. Unfortunately, this diffuse collection of autobiographical reminiscences contains too much awkward prose, hampering the narrative. Larson, who teaches English at Lewis-Clark State College in Lewiston, Idaho, does capture some scenes well, limning teenage rebellion (``the light and space of Montana had zapped me in certain ways''), a time spent running a rugged bar in a Montana town that historically ``treated Indians like dirt'' and his awkward meeting, at the age of 32, with the father he never knew. The author outgrew a career as a lawyer and left a marriage before specializing in Native American literature and concluding that people must return to their ``place of origin.''
Copyright 1995 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
Review
"The ongoing tale of the mixed-blood Indian in this country can be convoluted and difficult. Sidner Larson's version of the paradox is honest and compelling, a coming of age story from the northern plains unlike anything else I have read."-Joy Harjo (Joy Harjo )
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