Green Grass Running Water was a great read. I’m not sure if this is for everyone, but I certainly appreciated it. The book has a great balance between humour and real life struggles for Natives today. King introduces his readers to many main and supporting characters, all of whom are struggling with life as a Blackfoot in modern Canada. The characters are trying to blend into modern day culture but also feel compelled to maintain their heritage. As much as they try to ignore their culture, it is always with them. There are many quirky characters. We have Alberta who is a university professor, with two boyfriends, refuses to get married and desperately wants to be a mother. Oh, yes the boyfriends are cousins and know about each other. Charlie is a prominent lawyer, and Lionel a television salesman. We are also introduced to Latisha who is a restaurant owner, and pretends to serve up dog meat to her customers. It seems to attract tourists.

Lone Ranger, Ishmael, Robinson Crusoe and Hawkeye have run away from an institution and have vowed to fix part of the world. These four storytellers frequently interrupt each other, and blend Native American tales with Christianity in an attempt to get it right. Ahdamn meets first woman. The telling if this new creation story is hilarious.


“Ahdam is busy. He is naming everything.

You are a microwave oven, Ahdamn tells the Elk.
Nope, says that Elk. Try Again.
You are a garage sale, Ahdamn tells the Bear.
We got to get you some glasses, says the Bear.
You are a telephone book, Ahdamn tells the Cedar Tree.
You’re getting closer, says the Cedar Tree.”

The stories keep juggling around, and each time I keep waiting to get back to the character I just read about. However, the next character is just as entrancing. I do admit, the creation story gets confusing and I did want to skip ahead. All in all, I really enjoyed it. I think everyone should try it. ( )

I loved this book. It will definitely show up on my list of top reads for the year. It was fun, it was intelligent, it was sophisticated, it was literary, it was interesting . . . what more could you want? I have to add that I tend to be adverse to folklore and myth, and this book has a lot of it . . . but it's done in great fun, and is important to the stories about the "real" people. I tended to read those sections pretty quickly, and I wish there was a bit fewer of them. Also, there are bits of magic realism throughout the book, which I loved, but I know some readers just don't do magic realism.

One of the themes I really enjoyed was "selling-out" . . . what is selling-out, what is not? Where is the line? The best thing I learned from this novel is that Aboriginal fiction does not have to be grim or depressing. This is an intelligent, well-written book that isn't a downer. How refreshing.

I don't use the "favourite" status at LT very often, but Thomas King will join my favourites list today. ( )

I had a hard time getting through this book. At certain parts I was really intrigued by the characters and their lives. At other parts I had a hard time following what was going on. The dynamic seemed to be either life on the reserve or the rest of the world. I don't have a lot of knowledge on native culture but the novel presents a tension between staying on the reserve and living off the reserve but still retaining their culture. I was frustrated with all the magic realism but at the same time I found it interesting that most of the stories were based in native creation stories but fused with "modern" and Christian culture. Overall I give this book a 3 out of 5 ( )

The plot revolves around the escape from a mental hospital of four very old Indians called Ishmael, Hawkeye, Robinson Crusoe and the Lone Ranger. These, however, are no ordinary natives. They may be the last survivors of the Indians interned at Fort Marion in Florida in the 19th century. Or perhaps they are the first human beings, as described in tribal creation myths. Their repeated breakouts--37 to date--have coincided with disasters: the 1929 stock market crash, the eruption of Mt. St. Helens, etc. On the fateful day when disaffected Lionel Red Dog and his aunt stop to pick up four ancient Indian hitchhikers things begin to change for Lionel and a number of his Blackfoot neighbors. The action moves from Canada to Wounded Knee to Hollywood. As all paths converge on the reservation in time for Sun Dance, Lionel is brought back to his tribal roots by family and the powers-that-be, becoming a protector of the sacred ceremony, while Uncle Eli finally wins his one-man stand against the corporation that built a massive dam just upriver from his mother's log cabin- -with a little help from trickster Coyote, whose dancing summons an earthquake.

This is a unique combination of storytelling, myth and magic, but I didn't like it that well, personally. ( )

This is a great romp. King has an almost Wodehouseian sense of comic coincidence, but with a subtler and rarer touch. Although it is a hilarious book, the discovery of yet another connection between the novel's converging story lines is just as likely t ( )