Review: Compelling stories in 'Don't Know Much About Indians'

Tuesday, January 3, 2012  

"Short stories and poems in the voice of the regular Joe Indian are a compelling representation of what it means to be a Native today.

But don’t confuse this for a “deep” book, says Gyasi Ross, author of “Don’t Know Much About Indians (But I Wrote a Book About Us Anyways).”

Ross, who lives in Suquamish, Wash., and is a member of the Blackfeet Tribe, wrote that he intends his stories to be not deep, not research projects, not traditional stories but fun, if heavy and heartbreaking at times, a product of his “dysfunctional love affair with Indian people.”

“On one hand, in my love affair with Indian people, we consistently do bizarre and self-destructive stuff that breaks my freakin’ heart into a million pieces,” he wrote. “Then, on the other hand, Indian people (and primarily Indian women) will mend my heart back up using bungee cords, spit and electrical tape and show Indian people’s amazing capacity to love and care and grow and succeed and accomplish whatever we want to accomplish.”"

Get the Story:
Review: Book portrays 'regular' Indians (The Great Falls Tribune 1/2)