The Bone People: A Novel

Book Description

Integrating both Maori myth and New Zealand reality, The Bone People became the most successful novel in New Zealand publishing history when it appeared in 1984. Set on the South Island beaches of New Zealand, a harsh environment, the novel chronicles the complicated relationships between three emotional outcasts of mixed European and Maori heritage. Kerewin Holmes is a painter and a loner, convinced that "to care for anything is to invite disaster." Her isolation is disrupted one day when a six-year-old mute boy, Simon, breaks into her house. The sole survivor of a mysterious shipwreck, Simon has been adopted by a widower Maori factory worker, Joe Gillayley, who is both tender and horribly brutal toward the boy. Through shifting points of view, the novel reveals each character's thoughts and feelings as they struggle with the desire to connect and the fear of attachment.

Compared to the works of James Joyce in its use of indigenous language and portrayal of consciousness, The Bone People captures the soul of New Zealand. After twenty years, it continues to astonish and enrich readers around the world.

Customer Reviews:

Beautiful language, disturbing words.......2007-09-07

This is a very difficult review for me to write. This book was recommended to me by a new friend.

The language is simply beautiful - even/especially the Maori words that I do not understand. Hulme's words create color drenched pictures and music that is haunting and incredibly sad. (Fitting music for the background of this book.)

The reason that this is a difficult review to write is that because Hulme is so successful at putting us inside the (3) main characters...but those are places I do not want to be. I sympathize with these incredibly damaged people - but I cannot empathize with them. The amount of violence - especially against a small child - leaves me heartsick and almost unwilling to read on.

Because of that level of violence - I was unable to trust Hulme when the story came to a conclusion. I simply no longer believed that the characters would act as they did.

This book provides a window to a world far from my own...one very foreign and very disturbing.

Deserving of 10 Stars.......2007-04-05

This was one of the best books I've ever read, and I've read a lot. Of the books I love, my relationship to those books are intellectual. My experience with The Bone People was purely emotional. From the first page I was hooked and I never looked back. This is a gut-wrenching read and not for everyone. It is not an easy read. It is a book that will never leave you, with characters you will never forget. This is one of the most unique books I have ever read. It is a book that requires a careful read. It is a timeless story. It is a love story, but not at all in the traditional sense. It is a story of three very damamaged people (one is a child) who come together and with all people that love each other, they have the power to heal each other, and destroy each other and over the course of this novel they do all this and more. It's a story of redemption and second chances. It's a harrowing yet fascinating look at the Maori culture. If you're considering reading this book - do so. If you can't get into it right off the bat, stick with it. This book is like no other. It won the Booker back in the 80s. Very highly recommended.

Very difficult and ultimately not really worth it.......2007-03-26

What a struggle it is getting through this Booker Prize-winning novel. It's not just the subject matter -- child abuse within the Maori culture of New Zealand, with a hefty dose of alcoholism thrown in for good meausre. It's also the writing itself, which reads as if it were unedited and subject to the writer's mood swings and bouts of mind-numbing depression? The frequent use of Maori language and expressions means you have to keep flipping to the back glossary which, after a while, becomes a pain. The characters are not very sympathetic and, in the end, I'm not really sure I cared what happened to these people, with the exception of the abused little boy.

Too difficult for such a minor pay off.

Wow..........2007-02-25

Like with many of the books that have garnered critical praise, I started off quite apprehensive about the quality of the book beyond the media-storm (albeit many years too late). But I must say that this did not disappoint. I was apprehensive initially as I am with all fiction that deals with a culturally charged location where race is a hot topic primarily because the taboo-subject and the fact that someone actually wrote about it in fictional form often obscures the poor quality of the text and the story on the whole. "The Bone People" is none of those things. In fact, it's a book that is so well done that the cultural conflicts taking place are a natural and organic part of the text.

The novel follows three people - Kerewin, Joe, and his pseudo-adopted mute son Simon. Kerewin is an artist living in isolation who stumbles upon Simon trying to steal from her. From their first interaction onwards, the two, both outcasts come together and form a wonderful relationship that grows to include Joe. What really works so well in this novel, and I'm not sure if it has to do with the fact that one of the main characters is mute, is the way people read one another and have a way of understanding why it is they do something, whether it be to hurt or to show affection to someone. Hulme accomplishes so much in terms of emotional rapport between her characters that you hardly notice the levels with which they connect and feel for one another. I often found myself in awe with the way she strings words and phrases together in such a beautiful manner, one that truly perpetuates what it is she wants readers to understand about her characters. If you're wondering why so much emphasis on the praise I am heaping upon her character development, it's because the characters are the main reason why I was able to look beyond the Maori - European diaspora and see these people as alive and rich characters.

This is a splendid work that should be read for generations to come.

Overrated and overwritten.......2007-02-10

I didn't like this book much. I tried to work up some enthusiasm, but could not. The author giving the main character a very similar name to her own grated on my nerves. The central problem with the book is that far too much time is spent on long, meandering expositions on the characters' inner lives and the contents of their heads, as well as endlessly repetitive incidents in their lives - having drinks, the kid stealing, the terrible poems she inserts, etc. At LEAST 100 pages could've been cut. I never felt much affection for any of the characters, either, even if I felt sorry for them. The wordy expositions did not deepen the characters, they were also as repetitive as the scenes. I'm really amazed this won the Booker Prize. I almost quit in the middle, around page 200 where it REALLY bogs down, but I have a goal of reading as many Booker Prize winners and nominees as possible and I didn't want to fall short of doing that.

Fortune's Bones: The Manumission Requiem (Coretta Scott King Author Honor Books)

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Seeking one's Fortune
Fortune's remains the Mattatuck Museum

Fortune's Bones: The Manumission Requiem (Coretta Scott King Author Honor Books)
Marilyn Nelson
Manufacturer: Hand Print
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

ASIN: 1932425128

Book Description

There is a skeleton on display in the Mattatuck Museum in Waterbury, Connecticut. It has been in the town for over 200 years. Over time, the bones became the subject of stories and speculation in Waterbury. In 1996 a group of community-based volunteers, working in collaboration with the museum staff, discovered that the bones were those of a slave named Fortune who had been owned by a local doctor. After Fortune's death, the doctor dissected the body, rendered the bones, and assembled the skeleton. A great deal is still not known about Fortune, but it is known that he was baptized, was married, and had four children. He died at about the age of 60, sometime after 1797. Marilyn Nelson was commissioned by the Mattatuck Museum and received a grant from the Connecticut Commission on the Arts to write a poem in commemoration of Fortune's life. The Manumission Requiem is that poem. Detailed notes and archival materials provide contextual information to enhance the reader's appreciation of the poem.

Customer Reviews:

Seeking one's Fortune.......2005-07-10

There are as many ways of honoring the long forgotten as there are ways of mucking that honor up. I came to "Fortune's Bones" with just a bit of trepidation, I admit. Though I knew author Marilyn Nelson had created this book to honor a man long dead in the best way she knew how, I was still recovering from a similar, and foul, title called, "Journey To the Bottomless Pit" which also came out in 2004. In both books, a man who was a slave during his lifetime is honored with a children's book of fiction. In "Journey", the book was a simplistic version of a complicated man's life. I prayed that "Fortune's Bones" would not be the same. Those prayers were answered tenfold. Marilyn Nelson tells the story of Fortune in a manner respectful of his life, then accompanies this retelling with a requiem written in his honor. Though I would have enjoyed further factual information on the topic, this is a worthy addition to any poetry collection or non-fiction collection, for children, teens, or grown adults, anywhere.

There once was a man named Fortune. Born a slave in the 1700s, he and his wife and his children all belonged to a Dr. Preserved Porter. Later tests on Fortune's bones show that his life was not an easy one. His back was once broken and though he had a healthy skeleton, he died at the age of 60. When he did, Dr. Porter took Fortune's death as an opportunity to study human anatomy. He removed Fortune's skeleton, tapped the bones, and made himself a complete human skeleton. Every bone was carefully marked and studied by Porter and his ancestors. Years later, Fortune's name was lost and the skeleton was mislabeled "Larry" and given to the Matttatuck Museum. In the 1990s historians did research on it and found Fortune's true name once again. Now the only question that remains is what to do with Fortune's bones. Do we bury them and put him to rest at long last, or do we learn more from them about 1700s slaves and slavery? The question remains unanswered, but author Marilyn Nelson has done what she can. In this book she writes a requiem in Fortune's memory. Filled with free verse poetry, a Kyrie of the Bones, and a Sanctus at the end, "Fortune's Bones" is a text of respect.

One of the many things I loved about this book was the fact that as an author/poet, Nelson tells us why she wrote what she did. One poem is entitled, "Not My Bones", in which Fortune states clearly, "I am not my body", to anyone who cares to listen. This phrase comes from the Vietnamese Buddhist leader Thich Nhat Hahn, a fact that could well have gone uncredited by a less careful author. Each poem in this book is accompanied by factual information pertaining to Fortune's story, along with photographs, papers, tapestries, maps, and other important documents of the period. As a whole these poems speak beautifully together, forming a single Requiem. I especially liked "Dinah's Lament" in which Fortune's wife speaks of the cruel injustice of being forced to dust the bones that once would, "hold me when I cried; to dust where his soft lips were, and his chest what curved its warm against my back at night". Nelson, the accomplished voice behind her other great book, "Carver: A Life In Poems", is at her best here.

Admittedly, there were aspects of this book left unspoken that I (and I'm sure others) would have liked to have heard more about. The book is a Requiem and doesn't dwell on the fascinating process scientists took to discover Fortune again. There's a small series of three pictures on one page that shows three stages of facial reconstruction of Fortune, taken from his bones. That's something that would have made for a fascinating story in and of itself. Or how did the researchers and historians eventually discover who Fortune really was? Who did they talk to? What did they read? Sadly, such information will have to wait for another book. It's not answered here.

"Fortune's Bones", will obviously be snatched up by any child and/or teen assigned to read a book of poems since it's a mere 32 pages altogether. This is a great good thing. In spite of its scant length, this is a title that will teach a lot of information to a lot of kids in a wonderfully stirring way. The poems are mindful of the past and give the greatest of respect to a man of whom we know so little. A wonderful publication

Fortune's remains the Mattatuck Museum.......2004-12-04

Fortune's skeleton is not on display. The exhibit about Fortune at the Mattatuck Museum includes a photographic illusion allowing visitors to see an image of Fortune's skeleton transform into a painting of Fortune as he may have looked in life. Fortune's actual bones have been carefully placed in archival museum storage, awaiting a community decision about whether to bury the remains or preserve them for future study.

Bone Black: Memories of Girlhood (Bone Black)

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Memories with imagination and maturity
GREAT BOOK, GREAT AUTHOR
you know her work, now get to know the author
you know her work, now get to know the author
A prose experiment that suceeds in providing insight

Bone Black: Memories of Girlhood (Bone Black)
bell hooks
Manufacturer: Owl Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0805055126

Amazon.com

bell hooks, who teaches English at New York's City College, is well-known as an abrasive, take-no-prisoners feminist cultural critic. In this moving memoir of her childhood she explains the roots of her forceful and rigorous attitude to life and literature. She grew up in a poor Southern black family, an heir to poverty and racism, surrounded by people too wrapped up in their own struggles to offer much help to her. She writes here of her mother's suffering in an abusive marriage, of her siblings' rejection of her for being "different," of her own painful discovery of sexuality, and of how she found escape through books.

Book Description

Stitching together girlhood memories with the finest threads of innocence, feminist intellectual bell hooks presents a powerfully intimate account of growing up in the South. A memoir of ideas and perceptions, Bone Black shows the unfolding of female creativity and one strong-spirited child's journey toward becoming a writer. She learns early on the roles women and men play in society, as well as the emotional vulnerability of children. She sheds new light on a society that beholds the joys of marriage for men and condemns anything more than silence for women. In this world, too, black is a woman's color-worn when earned-daughters and daddies are strangers under the same roof, and crying children are often given something to cry about. hooks finds good company in solitude, good company in books. She also discovers, in the motionless body of misunderstanding, that writing is her most vital breath.

Customer Reviews:

Memories with imagination and maturity.......2007-05-23

bell hooks is known for her many books on the politics of art and culture. This addition is more about the processing of becoming a mature thoughtful writer. Her road was a painful one but all that she experienced fortified her work process and personality. There is some beautiful visual writing and depth in bell hooks' bone black.

GREAT BOOK, GREAT AUTHOR.......2002-10-24

This book is especially for intelligent black females, but is for all who want to understand the pains of growing up being a poor black female.

you know her work, now get to know the author.......2001-01-28

I couldn't stop turning the pages of this brutally honest tale of a black, southern, woman who grows up knowing that she is diffrent. And therefore, her life will be diffrent.

This little book gives an intimate look, at the writer some say is the most prolific writer on race, gender and class. hooks, uses words extremely cautiously whick makes this piece on you simply can't put down.

Eat this book!

you know her work, now get to know the author.......2001-01-28

I couldn't stop turning the pages of this brutally honest tale of a black, southern, woman who grows up knowing that she is different. And therefore, her life will be different.

...

A prose experiment that suceeds in providing insight.......2000-08-03

At first, I found the uniformly sized (3-page) chunks of invoking with stripped-down sentences in bell hook's Bone Black: Memories of Girlhood somewhat affectless and very structurally arbitrary. Hemingway sprang to mind, but then I thought of Stein's syntax (and the role she claimed in forming Hemingway's style). Hooks's repetitions are more subtle, and perhaps her prose is, too, because eventually I found it compelling. The pain of being different while young and vulnerable came through the chilly prose.

What she describes of female complicity in male privilege is particularly frightening and compelling. She experienced little female solidarity, being rejected by her five sisters and never able to please her mother (who agreed with her father that her spirit needed to be broken).

Average customer rating:

An interesting book

A good place to start

"The Bone Detectives" for the interested 11 year old

Great for forensic science fans.

An exceptional book for exceptional children

The Bone Detectives: How Forensic Anthropologists Solve Crimes and Uncover Mysteries of the Dead
Donna M. Jackson
Manufacturer: Megan Tingley
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Explore the World | People & Places | Children's Books | Subjects | Books
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Similar Items:

The Bone Lady: Life as a Forensic Anthropologist

Bones: A Forensic Detective's Casebook

Dead Men Do Tell Tales: The Strange and Fascinating Cases of a Forensic Anthropologist

What the Corpse Revealed

Trail Of Bones: More Cases From The Files Of A Forensic Anthropologist

ASIN: 0316829617

Amazon.com

In 1987, a skeleton was turned up near a Boy Scout camp in Missouri. A forensic anthropologist was brought and, using clues from the skeleton and some decaying clothes found nearby, determined that the victim was a young Asian woman. From there, police where able to determine the identity first of the victim and then of her killer. Using the Missouri case as a jumping-off point, The Bone Detectives provides an introduction for young readers to the science of forensics. Written for curious readers who are approaching adolescence, this book is sure to appeal to the nearly universal interest that age group exhibits for the macabre and the horrible.

Customer Reviews:

An interesting book.......2005-01-31

I read this book for a sixth grade nonfiction reading assignment.

It explains how forensic anthropologists help police solve crimes by studying the bones of victims. It also describes how Dr. Michael Charney of the Forensic Science Laboratory at Colorado State University helped identify bones found at a Boy Scout camp in Missouri in 1988.

I thought the book was very interesting. If you like shows like Law & Order and CSI or if you like to read mysteries, then you might like The Bone Detectives.

Caelan (age 11)

A good place to start.......2001-08-23

I had the chance to work under Dr. Michael Charney for 5 years before his death. Dr. Charney focused heavily on education and teaching people. That is what this book does. When this book came out he gave me a hard time for buying a copy because it was a "kid's book". All of that aside, the book gives a basic introduction to forensic anthropology on a level that explains it to the reader. It covers the case from start to finish as well as touching on the other aspects of forensic investigation such as forensic entomology and facial reconstruction. So if you have a child that is wanting to learn more about the field or you are looking for a good place to start learning, this is the book to get.

"The Bone Detectives" for the interested 11 year old.......2001-07-17

Okay, this book was so absolutely basic that I could have written it. I was extremely disappointed with how much I didn't learn from this book. It is 45 pages long, so if you're expecting a good, interesting weekend read--this is not it. There weren't any detailed case studies. There weren't any crime scene pictures. Just basic info on fingerprinting and skull re-construction and a little bit of this-and-that. Extremely basic. Recommended for the interested 11 year old, but not for anyone who wants to really learn the nitty-gritty of Forensic Anthropology.

Great for forensic science fans........1998-04-25

If you like anthropology or forensic science you will love this book. It tells of forensic anthropology, along with several other forensic techniques. It also explains about forensic archeology, and how past mysteries are being solved using forensics.

An exceptional book for exceptional children.......1998-01-03

The Bone Detectives is a compelling book for young readers. While the subject matter may seem out-of-the-ordinary and even macabre to many adults, pre-teens and teenagers seem facinated with the science and technology involved in solving murder cases. The book can also serve as a way to open a dialogue about the harsh realities bombarding our children from televison, film, and the evening news.
If you know a bright child with an interest in science or police work, or if you just want to foster an interest,this book is a good start.

Average customer rating:

Numbering the Bones
Numbering all the bones
Wowzer
Numbering all the bones
Numbering All The Bones

Numbering All the Bones
Ann Rinaldi
Manufacturer: Jump At The Sun
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Ages 9-12 | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0786813784

Book Description

The Civil War is at an end, but for thirteen-year-old Eulinda, it is no time to rejoice. Her younger brother Zeke was sold away, her older brother Neddy joined the Northern war effort, and her master will not acknowledge that Eulinda is his daughter. Her mettle is additionally tested when she realizes her brother Neddy might be buried in the now-closed Andersonville Prison where soldiers were kept in torturous conditions. With the help of Clara Barton, the eventual founder of the Red Cross, Eulinda must find a way to let go of the skeletons from her past.

Customer Reviews:

Numbering the Bones.......2007-08-25

Excellect for teaching about the Civil War, war crimes, slavery and the need for showing respect foe life.

Numbering all the bones.......2007-01-10

I bought this for a friend that was in school. She said he really helped.

Wowzer.......2006-11-12

I loved this book!It was reccomended by the librarian at my school. I was surprised that slave masters had affairs with their slaves. My opinion on the book has no effect on what you think, read it for yourself!

Basically the book takes place in 1864. It is about a slave girl before and after she was given freedom. She is named Eudlina. She ends up working for Clara Barton. I wont give away anymore.

:)READ IT FOR YOURSELF!!!:)

Numbering all the bones.......2006-04-05

I think the book was excellent because it taught me more about slavery and the old days. The setting is in southern alabama. The problem of this book is a girl fighting to keep her father alive and still do her work. I really enjoyed this book.

Numbering All The Bones.......2006-01-27

This book is called Numbering All The Bones. It is a historical fiction book written by Ann Rinaldi.
Eulina is a house slave, during the Civil War. She has been through many hardships, some of which being, her younger brother, Zeke, being sold away,her older brother, Neddy, who ran away to join the Northern Army,and her mother, dying of illness.Eulinda is torn between her master, who is also her true father,and her fellow slaves. She is faced with the choice of staying in the South or going Notrh , and being free.
I think this book is one of the best books I have read by Ann Rinaldi. This book will appeal most to those who like historical fiction and books that expess African American slaves' journey through life.

Average customer rating:

The Bone Keeper
Megan McDonald
Manufacturer: A DK Ink Book / DK Publishing, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Ages 4-8 | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 0789425599

Book Description

Try this book for Halloween, and for edge-of-the-seat suspense anytime.

The language of the telling rustles like dry grasses, crackles like bones shifting in the windblown sands. Emerging from it, the Bone Woman herself, bent over her stick like an arch of stone, searches this way and that across the wide, scoured distances outside her cave. On the ground, she's assembled the bones she needs, all but "that tiny piece at the tip of the tip of the tail." That one is still unfound. She looks further. Finally triumphant, she "dances with one side of her body, waits with the other." Yet it is a while before her creation stirs, shakes itself, stands. What will it be? A wolf. The paintings powerfully suggest the Bone Woman's intent, her dramatic context, her nature a crone. Inspired by creation myths from many desert cultures, words and artwork (some of which appear to be made of bone itself, or of bronze) cast an indelible spell.

Average customer rating:

a must read with 2 issues

Valley of the dry bones

I FOUND THE BOOK STARTLING, AND INFORMATIVE.

The Valley of the Dry Bones: The Conditions That Face Black People in America
Rudolphf R. Windsor
Manufacturer: Windsor Golden Series
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

African-American Studies | Special Groups | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
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500 Questions and Answers on the Black Presence in the Bible

ASIN: 0962088102

Book Description

Mr. Rudolph R. Windsor, has a fascinating compilation of history, antropology, sociology, and theology. Drawing extensively from the Bible and many works by eminient scholars in various disciplines, the author has created a work that is at once inspiring and intriguing. He seeks to prove that the black people, more properly called "Black Israelites," are truly God's chosen people and as such, should become more aware of their unique heritage. The Valley of the Dry Bones represents a first step in this amirable endeavor.

Customer Reviews:

a must read with 2 issues.......2006-11-01

i love this book. i've read it about 5 times and it's changed my life (along with scripture). every brother in america should read this, as we are the valley of the dry bones that ezekiel spoke of.
2 very important issues though,
windsor corroborates the popular belief that hyksos were in egypt as the ruling class when the israelites were there and later enslaved. however these hyksos were called "shepherd kings" but joseph told his family that the pharaoh thought shepherds were abominations and inferior before they entered egypt, so this could have only been native egyptians who ruled at the time, Hamites aka "black africans".

secondly, the israelites were not enslaved for four hundred years in egypt. the total time they spent in egypt was 430 years, so after the first 30, slavery should have begun if the prophecy of genesis 15:13 were about egypt. if you follow the life span of joseph, you'll see that he was buried as an egyptian (embalmed and mourned by the people of the land). if the israelites were enslaved, how could joseph had been a vice royal in the land and been buried with honor? it wasn't a secret that he was a hebrew, and slaves in ethnocentric egypt would not have embalmed just anyone. i mean, the israelites were brought in to egypt with the pharaoh's chariots, not in ships and in chains (as dueteronomy 28:68 says slavery will occur). furthermore to close this topic, i just want to point out that the bible says (in exodus) that there came a pharaoh that didn't know joseph (who lived to be 110). this means some time passed between the life of joseph and the slavery of the israelites. we can see that 30 years isn't enough time to forget a man who was mourned and loved by the masses. this tells us that the slavery didn't last four hundred years. if you understand this prophecy, you'll see that the trans-atlantic slave trade is the one in prophecy, which coincides with this book. Israelites are the black masses who have lost their history and traces of their ancestry. we are the valley of the dry bones. 1ove and halleluYAH!

Valley of the dry bones.......2005-08-10

This is a pretty awesome book, should be read by all!

I FOUND THE BOOK STARTLING, AND INFORMATIVE........1999-10-24

I HAVE SEEN VIDEOS AND READ SOME BOOKS ON THIS SUBJECT, BUT I FIND THIS BOOK ESPECIALLY COMPELLING FOR THE FOLLOWING REASONS; THE POINT OF VIEW THE BOOK TAKES THE READER, AND THE INFORMATION AND THE INTERPRETATION OF THE SUPPORTING FACTS OF HIS POINT OF VIEW.

Geronimo's Bones: A Memoir of My Brother and Me

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Fiction Not Fact
Read it as fiction....
Article Raises Questions Of Authors Authenticity
Bravest writer in America
Walking in Beauty

Geronimo's Bones: A Memoir of My Brother and Me
Nasdijj
Manufacturer: Ballantine Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Authors | Arts & Literature | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0345453913
Release Date: 2004-03-30

Book Description

In Geronimo’s Bones, award-winning author Nasdijj has written a love song to his brother, Tso—short for The Smarter One—and the powerful bond that sustained the two of them through the grim reality of their childhood. Filled with poetic intensity and unfiltered emotion, Geronimo’s Bones is a visceral reading experience.

Born to migrant parents—his father a self proclaimed “cowboy” and his Navajo mother, tender-hearted and flawed—Nasdijj knew little of the conformity spreading across America in the 1950s. He was busy surviving the migrant camps in Texas, Florida, Oklahoma, and North Carolina, where despair and death were familiar faces. Nasdijj and Tso were boys racing trains and demons, whispering tales about Spider Woman, Sa, Geromino, and Coyote, the stories of their mother’s people that they had heard at bedtime. Nasdijj writes: “Geronimo is a voice who comes to me at night, when all the other creatures are asleep and the universe belongs to us.”

After their mother’s tragic death from alcohol, the young brothers were left in the care of their sometimes indifferent, often abusive, and occasionally loving father. Nasdijj and Tso rarely attended school, but they picked cotton, tomatoes, potatoes, apples, peaches, beans, and artichokes. To escape this indentured servitude, Nasdijj and Tso eventually stole a car and ran away.

Told in brilliant flashes of poetry, narrative, and song, Geronimo’s Bones reveals a world that to this day remains hidden from most Americans. But Nasdijj’s work derives its special power from his ability to capture the universal emotions that we all share: hate and love, loss and remembrance.

Customer Reviews:

Fiction Not Fact.......2006-01-29

This book may be powerful, but readers need to know that the story is not a memoir. Indeed, it is not even nonfiction. As recent reviewers have noted, Nasdijj has been unmasked as a white man who previously wrote gay porn. This book--like other works by Nasdijj--is basically a novel, marketed as a "true story."

There is--or should be--a contract between readers and writers so that readers know what they are buying and how much of what they are reading is actually true. Sure, genres overlap and the rules are fuzzy. A reader has one set of expectations for a work of history that adheres to academic standards and a different set of expectations for a memoir or autobiography by a Hollywood star. Ben Franklin probably fudged things a little in his AUTOBIOGRAPHY; James Frey made up a whole lot of stuff in A MILLION LITTLE PIECES.

Publishers need to be more careful about what they publish and how they promote their books. Obviously, scrupulous fact-checking is a thing of the past, but Frey's "memoir" is full of totally unbelievable incidents, and Nasdijj's work was questioned by respected Native American authors and academics before it was published.

That is not to say that works like A MILLION LITTLE PIECES or GEROMINO'S BONES are totally without merit as pieces of writing. But they are not memoir. They are not history. And they are not nonfiction. They are novels, and it is unfortunate that they were not presented and marketed (by their authors and publishers) more honestly.

Readers beware. We need to learn from this lesson. As readers, we are moved by stories--that is good--but we need to know whether or not those stories are "true" because that does affect how we respond to a writer's work.

Read it as fiction...........2006-01-26

....since the author is apparently a brotherless non-Native American named Tim Barrus (look him up -- his other works might surprise you). See the LA Weekly's story "Navahoax", available online....

Article Raises Questions Of Authors Authenticity.......2006-01-25

I don't have an critical opinion of this book, but I think it would be extremely depressing to read. I did read an online article from the LA Weekly that raises questions about the authors authenticity, and just wanted to pass that along. This may be a fictional book writen by a white. http://www.laweekly.com/index.php?option=com_lawcontent&task=view&id=12468&Itemid=47

Bravest writer in America.......2004-09-23

Navajo poet Nasdijj has produced another triumph in his latest memoir, Geronimo's Bones: A Memoir of My Brother and Me. Although the writer's earlier works centered on his adopted children, in this new book Nasdijj explores his own abusive past and that of his brother, Tso.

There's no polite way to put this: Nasdijj and his brother were repeatedly raped and beaten by their father over a period of several years after their mother died. Nasdijj frequently emerged from these confrontations with broken bones that, he indicates, are to blame for a painful bone disease that threatens his life now that he is in his 50s. This cycle of abuse took place within the context of poverty, hunger and instability. A migrant worker, Nasdijj's father moves his family every few weeks. A chronic alcoholic, he rarely gets around to shopping for food or cooking for his boys. Other migrants are too scared to report the abuse to the authorities. And the arm of the law isn't long enough, apparently, to catch up with a migrant child molester.

Geronimo's Bones is loosely woven around the brothers' daring escape from their father. At ages 13 and 14, they pick their father's pocket of several thousand dollars, steal a Corvette from a chop shop and drive it to California. One of their first stops is a House of Pancakes where they pick up a 16-year-old girl who is also running away from home. Her driver's license facilitates their journey since she can legally drive and can check them into motels along the way.

Their journey is not told in a straight line, however. Nasdijj deliberately fragments his story, going back and forth in time, slipping years ahead without warning. By organizing his story this way, he mimics the way the human mind deals with harsh memories-in pieces that string together in random patterns.

"What pisses me off about the assumption that my life, and the life of my brother, can be explained in linear ways, is, too, an assumption that my father was destroyed in degrees," explains Nasdijj. He goes on to write, "our father was destroyed in a thousand ways, a trillion ways, ways far beyond our limited ability to understand even as it was happening in front of our eyes. Even as it was happening to him, it was happening to us."

Nasdijj interweaves his narrative with Native American mythology, especially the myths surrounding Indian leader Geronimo. The author reinvents himself and his brother as mythological "war twins," sons of Changing Woman, sister to White Shell Woman. Each new chapter of his narrative begins with myth, then gears back into the story of his own horrible childhood.

In Geronimo's Bones, Nasdijj casts a light on the psychology of abusive parents and children who are so disempowered they don't appeal for help. Some people may find themselves drawn to this book for the lessons it offers psychologists and social workers. Others will be drawn to Nasdijj's haunting poetic style. Whether for its sociological values or for its literary merit, most readers are bound to find Geronimo's Bones a groundbreaking and important new work.

Walking in Beauty.......2004-08-25

A lyrical, pain-filled memoir of two Native American boys, Nasdijj (To Become Again) and Tso (The Smart One), fighting to survive the harsh, oppressive world of countless migrant camps and the consistent abuse and terror inflicted on them by their white father in the 1950's.
Before the tragic death of their alcoholic mother, she instilled in them the beauty and myth of her Navajo people, "those who walk the surface of the Earth". Nasdijj weaves the myths of Indian leader Geronimo and the War Twins, put on Earth to slay monsters, into each chapter of his narrative. These myths sustained him through illness, poverty, racism and the horror of his life, sustaining him until he and Tso were brave enough to escape the tyranny of their father and travel the open road.
Although many may find the agony and brutality resonating from every page of Geronimo's Bones difficult to read, it is a powerful, evocative book of poetry that gives us insight into the very depths of Nasidjj's love and strength for his younger brother. Revealing a world not known to most Americans, it is an incredible testimony to the astounding resilience of human nature. Listen and learn "to walk in beauty".

Dry Bones and Indian Sermons: Praying Indians in Colonial America

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Dry Bones and Indian Sermons: Praying Indians in Colonial America
Kristina Bross
Manufacturer: Cornell University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0801489385

Book Description

Native converts to Christianity, dubbed "praying Indians" by seventeenth-century English missionaries, have long been imagined as benign cultural intermediaries between English settlers and "savages." More recently, praying Indians have been dismissed as virtual inventions of the colonists: "good" Indians used to justify mistreatment of "bad" ones. In a new consideration of this religious encounter, Kristina Bross argues that colonists used depictions of praying Indians to create a vitally important role for themselves as messengers on an evangelical "errand into the wilderness" that promised divine significance not only for the colonists who had embarked on the errand, but also for their metropolitan sponsors in London.

In Dry Bones and Indian Sermons, Bross traces the response to events such as the English civil wars and Restoration, New England's Antinomian Controversy, and "King Philip's" war. Whatever the figure's significance to English settlers, praying Indians such as Waban and Samuel Ponampam used their Christian identity to push for status and meaning in the colonial order. Through her focused attention to early evangelical literature and to that literature's historical and cultural contexts, Bross demonstrates how the people who inhabited, manipulated, and consumed the praying Indian identity found ways to use it for their own, disparate purposes.

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great service.......2006-08-31

just what my husband was looking for; service and condition was more than what was promised. thanks

On the Bones of the Serpent: Person, Memory, and Mortality in Sabarl Island Society

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Interesting people, less interesting author

On the Bones of the Serpent: Person, Memory, and Mortality in Sabarl Island Society
Debbora Battaglia
Manufacturer: University Of Chicago Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0226038890

Book Description

Sabarl island—created, in myth, from the bones of a serpent—is a coral atoll in the Louisiade archipelago of Papua New Guinea. The Sabarl speak of themselves as true "islanders": persons separated from the means of both physical and social survival. The Sabarl struggle for continuity—of the physical and social person and of social relations, of cultureal values, of paternal influence in a matrilineal society—is the subject of Debbora Battaglia's sensitive ethnography of loss and reconstruction: the first major work on cultural responses to mortality in the southern Massim culture area and an important contribution to studies of personhood in Melanesia.

The creative focus of Sabarl cultural life is a series of mortuary feasts and rituals known as segaiya. In assembling and disassembling commemorative food and objects in segaiya exchanges, Sabarl also assemble and disassemble the critical social relations such objects stand for. These commemorative acts create a collective memory yet also a collective experience of forgetting social bonds that are of no future use to the living. Sabarl anticipate this disaggregation in patterns of everyday life, which reveal the importance of categorical distinctions mapped in beliefs about the physical and metaphysical person.

Using remembrance and forgetting as an analytic lens, Battaglia is able to ask questions critical to understanding Melanesian social process. One of the "new ethnographies" addressing the limits of ethnographic representation and the fragmented nature of knowledge from an indigenous perspective, her finely wrought study explores the dynamics of cultural practices in which decontruction is integral to construction, allowing a new perspective on the ephermeral nature of sociality in Melanesia and new insight into the efficacy of cultural images more generally.

Customer Reviews:

Interesting people, less interesting author.......2000-05-03

This is an ethnography of the Sabarl Islanders of New Guinea, and Battaglia creates the following categories to describe them: Part I is "The Person: Basic Distinctions," Part II is "Relational Personhood" and Part III is "The Person Performed." Battaglia writes using the assumptions of a "perspectivist" ["postmodern," deconstructive," "poststructural"] anthropology, and uses typical postmodern jargon that I personally find grating. I sometimes wondered if the Sabarl were as candid with her as she assumed, as she was 26 when she first arrived at the island, and she seemed a bit naive throughout her book. This book, like most ethnographies, is fascinating to read with regard to opening one's mind to other ways of viewing the world. However, I think Battaglia's observations should be taken with more than a few grains of salt. (But mine probably should be, too.)

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