Spring Break
David Treuer's Search for Extremely Indian Fiction
Book Review
Review by Granville Ganter, St. John's University
Issue date: 6/1/08 Section: Spring 2008
David Treuer, 'Native American Fiction: A User's Manual'
St. Paul: Graywolf Press, 2006. 212 pp. $15.00.
With friends like David Treuer, Native America hardly needs more enemies. The controversial thesis of his book is that Native American literature does not exist. For Treuer, writers work with text, and their skin color, religious belief, or sex is irrelevant to the magic they perform with words. Treuer, who is himself Ojibwe, is a talented fiction writer and academic who amasses an impressive amount of evidence to make his case. His tone is confident, almost smug at times. He is well aware of the assault he is making on identity politics, and he is deliberately calling out those who claim that the fiction of Leslie Marmon Silko is "authentically" Indian. Well, if he wants to bring it on so badly, he should do a better job.
Treuer's argument rests entirely on close analyses of style and form. In his opening case study of the fiction of Louise Erdrich, Treuer demonstrates that Erdrich writes with literary strategies taken straight from the modern fiction writer's playbook, not from some occult form of Indian blood knowledge. For Treuer, Erdrich's wickedly sharp style comes from "Western" techniques like dramatic intercutting and the use of concrete symbols. He buttresses his case by showing off his own knowledge of Ojibwe (both Treuer and Erdrich have Anishinaabe heritage) and complaining about Erdrich's errors, pointing out that her characters can't even ask for a cigarette properly in their own Indian tongue (he does not consider that Erdrich might deliberately have her characters misspeak). While criticizing Erdrich's storytelling for lack of book learning, he reprints a short Ojibwe folk tale about Wenabozho, a trickster figure. In this version, a man asks Wenabozho where to find some "smartberries." Wenabozho has him follow an animal path, eating the smartberries he finds along the way. They turn out to be rabbit turds, which is Treuer's metaphor for what we are eating when we seek to commune with Indian identity by reading the fiction of Louise Erdrich.
St. Paul: Graywolf Press, 2006. 212 pp. $15.00.
With friends like David Treuer, Native America hardly needs more enemies. The controversial thesis of his book is that Native American literature does not exist. For Treuer, writers work with text, and their skin color, religious belief, or sex is irrelevant to the magic they perform with words. Treuer, who is himself Ojibwe, is a talented fiction writer and academic who amasses an impressive amount of evidence to make his case. His tone is confident, almost smug at times. He is well aware of the assault he is making on identity politics, and he is deliberately calling out those who claim that the fiction of Leslie Marmon Silko is "authentically" Indian. Well, if he wants to bring it on so badly, he should do a better job.
Treuer's argument rests entirely on close analyses of style and form. In his opening case study of the fiction of Louise Erdrich, Treuer demonstrates that Erdrich writes with literary strategies taken straight from the modern fiction writer's playbook, not from some occult form of Indian blood knowledge. For Treuer, Erdrich's wickedly sharp style comes from "Western" techniques like dramatic intercutting and the use of concrete symbols. He buttresses his case by showing off his own knowledge of Ojibwe (both Treuer and Erdrich have Anishinaabe heritage) and complaining about Erdrich's errors, pointing out that her characters can't even ask for a cigarette properly in their own Indian tongue (he does not consider that Erdrich might deliberately have her characters misspeak). While criticizing Erdrich's storytelling for lack of book learning, he reprints a short Ojibwe folk tale about Wenabozho, a trickster figure. In this version, a man asks Wenabozho where to find some "smartberries." Wenabozho has him follow an animal path, eating the smartberries he finds along the way. They turn out to be rabbit turds, which is Treuer's metaphor for what we are eating when we seek to commune with Indian identity by reading the fiction of Louise Erdrich.
Viewing Comments 1 - 5 of 5
Wilma Shakeshaft
posted 3/14/09 @ 8:26 AM EST
Thanks to author! I like articles like this about , very interesting.
Maria Schellden
posted 3/21/09 @ 6:54 AM EST
I thank you for the opportunity to share a portion of my moments in time with future generations.
Lanman Somerset
posted 4/16/09 @ 12:49 PM EST
Great .Now i can say thank you!
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posted 12/03/09 @ 9:37 AM EST
This book is a very interesting one! I recommend others to read it.
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posted 12/09/09 @ 5:22 AM EST
"Native American Fiction: A User's Manual" is great book!
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