Diversity in reading

[lyras]

I have been reading various of the recent tangle of posts on white privilege and writing people of colour, and I hope I have learned a few things. However, I tend to stay out of these sorts of discussions where I feel so very clueless, so the main tangible result is that I discovered 50books_poc, a community in which people challenge themselves to read fifty

Comments

[midnitemaraud_r]

Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko, and House Made of Dawn by N. Scott Momaday. I read both (and several others) years ago for my Native American Literature course in college, and these two in particular have stayed with me over the last 20 years. They're also both fairly short - C is under 300 pages and HMoD is just under 200. Short but very powerful and poignant.

[lyras]

Thanks - I'll definitely add those to my list. Pretty much the only thing I've read about native american culture is Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee, which was very powerful.

[midnitemaraud_r]

I knew that title was familiar. It wasn't part of the reading curriculum of my class because the author wasn't Native American himself, but 30 seconds on Google reminded me (still! I loved that class!) of the discussions we had about it because many Native American authors held widely differing views about it - ironically I saw L.M. Silko wasn't all that impressed with it overall while N.S. Momaday praised it.

The two that I recced both take place post-WWII, both protagonists - Abel in HMoD, and Tayo in C - having returned from fighting in the war. So they're more contemporary stories about individuals coping, rather than a history of Native Americans, though both reveal the richness of the cultures as well as the tragedies of the People.

[lyras]

Thanks so much for the extra details - contemporary stories are great. I was a little horrified at the stratification of midwest society when I lived there a few years ago, where it really did seem like Native Americans were at the bottom of the pile. (Mind, we were living in a leafy suburb in which our ostensibly very nice neighbours were frightened of pretty much anyone who wasn't white and thought Bill Clinton was "evil".)

Now you mention it, I had heard that Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee divided Native American critics. Maybe I'll look into finding another history on the same subject by a Native American writer.

[retsuko]

I found Breath Eyes Memory by Edwige Danticat to be absolutely amazing. And what about Isabel Allende? *cheers for House of Spirits*

[lyras]

Another two for my list - thank you! I've read a couple of books by Allende before, but never yet House of the Spirits.

[vegablack62]

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian is an excellent young adult. I would also stronly reccommend two collections of his short stories: "Ten Little Indians" and "The Toughest Indian in the World

[lyras]

Thanks - there are some great ideas here. I read Things Fall Apart a couple of years ago - what a heartbreaking book. I'll be adding the rest of your suggestions to my list.

(I like One Hundred Years of Solitude, but sometimes feel I'm the only person in the world to have hated Love in the Time of Cholera, so perhaps I'll try rereading that.)

[lyras]

Cheers, I downloaded one of Obama's books from Audible!

Haha, Mike Gayle. I read My Legendary Girlfriend a few years ago (I had to, for the title!), and it made me want to KILL MYSELF. And him. Such a bloody miserable protagonist who couldn't do anything but lie on the sofa, with a pastede on happy ending. Has he got better since then?

Are you by any chance talking about "My Place" by Sally Morgan? If so, it's on my to read list!

As for Rushdie, I loved Midnight's Children, but that's the only thing I've read by him. I should probably add another of his books to my list, but in some ways he seems so much part of the "grand old white men" US literary establishment that I'm loth to count him. Still, I'd love to read something else by him. You recommend anything in particular?

[lyras]

Maybe I'll give Mike Gayle another shot - but if the book turns out to be about another scuzzy, depressed thirtysomething who lies on the sofa all day, it's going straight out of the window!

I should probably try The Satanic Verses. I know what you mean about Rushdie being very British, but he seems to spend more time in the States these days...or perhaps I just have a skewed impression of him.

[teenage_hustler]

i think i can help you with this. i'm australian so australian aboriginal history has been forced down my throat from a very early age, and if you want to learn about
1st: watch the film "Australia". It depicts what life was like for Aborigines, particularly half-castes, around the 1930's.
2nd: For my year 12 end-of-school exams I had to read a book called "My Place" by Sally Morgan; a woman who is... one eighth Aboriginal. The book focuses a lot on her grandmother who is a half-caste, and it shows a particular example of how it was for Aboriginals some 50 or so years ago.
I also know a lot of stuff myself, so feel free to ask me about it.
Best.

[lyras]

Cheers, I've added My Place to my reading list. I've seen it everywhere, so it's about time I got around to reading it!

Australia (the film) was better than I was expecting, and if it can get stories of how aboriginal people were treated into the mainstream, then I'm all for it.

[teenage_hustler]

glad i could help.
re. the other comment on the date of australia day, yes, i suppose you could say it's in bad taste. but i dunno - I feel i don't understand enough about it to argue.
well, i loved that film, but not so much for all of that stuff. it is nowadays shoved into the throats of every single primary school child from a very young age, and then some. but it is an excellent opportunity to get their story out to people in other countries.
so when are you coming back to the UK?

[lyras]

so when are you coming back to the UK?

I don't know. :( Flights are horribly expensive at the moment. But September is looking probable due to various family celebrations.