Tragedy leads to transformation in this poignant, graceful coming-of-age debut novel about a half-white, half-Mohawk boy raised by relatives on the Six Nations reserve near Hamilton, Canada, after he witnesses his mother's murder. Murder scene aside, Sam's story gets off to a slow start as Monture focuses on the details of reservation life, but the narrative picks up when Sam leaves home to attend Dartmouth College on an art scholarship. There he struggles against his loneliness by engaging in a problematic affair with an older waitress who conceals her sideline as a prostitute from him. Governing the novel's events are the violence and substance abuse that seem endemic to reservation life, from the car wreck that takes the life of Sam's foster mother to the accidental shotgun blast from his foster father that puts Sam in the hospital. A traditional storyteller and beadwork artist, Monture shows great flair for characterization, and Sam, his Mohawk family and friends and the waitress who falls in love with him come to life on the page. Although a weak ending fails to resolve many of the novel's themes, there's more than enough talent on display here to leave readers eager for Monture's next endeavor.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
This first novel is the powerfully moving coming-of-age story of a boy named Sam, the son of a Mohawk mother and white father, who is called Turtle Belly because of the color of his skin. We meet Sam at age six, when his mother leaves him at the Reservation with her cousin Ellie, hoping to keep him safe from his violent father. A few days later, the two appear at Ellie's house, where the father stabs the mother to death as the young boy watches. Ellie and her husband, Tom, accept Sam as their own and surround him with older relatives and neighbors still practicing the old ways. Still, Sam grows up with one foot in each culture, a stranger to both. Life on the Reservation is hard?what work can be found is back-breaking, dogs are numbered instead of named since so many are lost to wreckless driving, and boys learn that they have to fight constantly to maintain their places in the pecking order. We watch this frightened boy grow into a young man of integrity and value and see him off to Dartmouth, where his questioning of his place on Earth begins anew. A stunning debut by a Native American storyteller and noted beadwork artist; highly recommended for all readers.?Debbie Bogenschutz, Cincinnati Technical Coll.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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