"Applied to a book, the word "important" can glaze the eyes. An "important" book sounds like an earnest, educational one you should read, when you get to it, someday, maybe.

"Rez Life" is important in the word's best sense -- one you'll want to read if you're at all curious about contemporary American Indians. It's important in the way Dee Brown's "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee" was when it came out in 1970, deeply moving readers as it schooled them about Indian history in a way nothing else had.

David Treuer, who grew up on Minnesota's Leech Lake Reservation, is best known as the writer of novels that include "Little" and lesser known for "Native American Fiction," in which he challenged the way Indians are portrayed, even by native writers, and pleaded for works by and about Indians to be read as pure literature.

"Rez Life" is a different kind of book, a well researched mix of history, memoir and commentary that uses reservations to show how Indians got where they are today. Treuer loathes sentiment and stereotypes, and the people whose stories he tells are layered and complex, hard to pin down."

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NONFICTION: "Rez Life," by David Treuer (The Minneapolis Star Tribune 2/18)