I'm trying to remember which writer of humor it was that talked about how her native American family taught her about how to be funny. While I'm not particularly interested in native American culture, that makes the last book a bit more interesting.
King Maker, on the other hand, sounds fascinating, even though I don't generally do bleak.
Yeah, I think it was in the last book of his that I read where Conley talks about the Cherokee emphasis on humor, and how many famous American humorists are or were Cherokee. (Will Rogers I certainly remember, but there were others as well.) It also serves to make the stories less unrelenting... I have a lot of sympathy for the Cherokee experience with colonialism, but I also have a well developed sense of morbid humor, and that goes pretty well with the way that his characters face down some deeply fucked up history. It's also pretty awesome for showing a deep and nuanced culture rather than the "and then horrible things happen to you and everyone dies" pat version that I got in school. Really funny is outside the stereotype, and awesome.
Re: "King Maker", I sent it off to Paperback Swap already... I would have sent it to you if I'd thought you wanted it. Doh. It's good, but, oof. It would be really rough to be in the shoes of pretty much anyone in that world.
No worries: I have that on my queue at the library. And I'm so totally refusing to borrow any more books from you until I return one. Sadly, I can't even pretend I'll finish one before I see you again, as I've 4 books half finished as it is. *sighs*
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King Maker, on the other hand, sounds fascinating, even though I don't generally do bleak.
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Re: "King Maker", I sent it off to Paperback Swap already... I would have sent it to you if I'd thought you wanted it. Doh. It's good, but, oof. It would be really rough to be in the shoes of pretty much anyone in that world.
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