Oliver La Farge (1901–1963)

While I really enjoyed reading about the Navajo customs and lifestyle, and the author's beautiful descriptions of the terrain, I found the dialogue to be so stilted and unrealistic that it took me out of the story.

As the sub title says this is a love story set on the Navajo Reservation in Northern Arizona/Southern Utah. It is interesting to read about the cultural aspect of how relationships are handled within the Navajo community. The story is slow but worth the time to allow it to develop.

Really good novel about a Navajo couple. Quite poetic and tries to give the flavor of their religion. I don't know how accurate it is, since the author lived among them but was not Navajo, but still worth reading for the story and appreciation of the culture.

'Laughing Boy' is a work of art. And like a work of art, it plays with your mind. It is not abstract, but peculiar. Laughing Boy, the novel's protagonist, is a Navajo indigenous American attempting to straddle the world of tradition and the world of the white man. The initial starting of the novel is not a hook. It won't draw you in. But if you persist, you will discover the beauty and simplicity of La Farge's times and Laughing Boy's richness of heart.