The Ancient Child
The Ancient Child by N. Scott Momaday
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
I had to read an Anisfield-Wolf Book Award winner for the popsugar challenge and Momaday is a lifetime achievement winner so I selected this. Honestly I think I would have been better off with his poetry but this is what my library had. I'm always happy to read an Indigenous author but I have to say this just didn't work for me.
It has a lot of 'artistic' elements, such a uber short paragraphs mixed in with long, flowing omniscient points of view, lush descriptions (too long IMO), poetic language and an attempt to make it feel like a story from Native folklore. I appreciate these techniques but still it failed to draw me in. I didn't connect or care about these characters which was so disappointing because two of the main characters had backstories that I usually go for: Setman is an artist who has lost his spark and has never been in touch with his Kiowa culture having been orphaned at an early age (Momaday is Kiowa). Grey is a young woman who has visions.
What we get however, is a disaffected Set coming to Oklahoma when an elderly relative is on her deathbed. He's not even sure why he went (and gets there too late) because he doesn't know these people. He's immediately taken by Grey who is meant to help him find himself. Unfortunately I found Set (in his 40s) interest in the teenaged Grey (who is somewhere between 17-19) to be frankly creepy.
For me the story wasn't helped by Grey's visions which seem to be more like time travel with her spending time with historic figures like A.G. Bell and Billy the Kid. It was a muddied timeline and story progression. Ah well.
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