This book was required reading for a college children's lit class and I was incredibly pleased with it. It is an absolutely beautiful story of a young native american boy. The book is written in lovely, lyrical language using incredible imagery. It is a book children can relate to, as it is told in first person by a child and includes all the mixed up feelings of a child, but it also addresses some very deep and meaningful issues that adults will find rather poignent. I was captivated throughout.

Loved this book. What a wonderful world that is depicted by the author. I think it would be a wonderful read for children of all ages. Excellent.

This is a coming of age book with a new twist. The child becoming a man lives in a world which is smaller than we can imagine. It is small because he cannot see more than a few inches, but it is also small because he lives in a tiny Native American tribe that has virtually no contact with anyone outside of its own narrow circle.

And yet in this very small world, the adolescent begins a voyage like that of all adolescents, where adults stop being enormous mythical figures and start emerging as human beings, each with their own strengths and weaknesses; and where those adults begin to see the adolescent as one of them, with whom they can share their secrets.

But, unlike adolescents in our larger world, this youngster does not rebel and become angry. Instead he grows and learns and is awed and almost overcome by what he discovers. Perhaps this is because, in this very small world, all the adults are able to show a respect and sensitivity to the emerging man that we have lost in our larger world.

This book is actually very complex. I doubt that your typical kid would understand it without help, but that is really its strength, that you can talk with your kid about what it feels like to become an adult.

The first story, "The Benchmark," is one of the best pieces stories I've ever read. It's just one of those perfect stories. That the book isn't able to keep up with that level of performance isn't surprising but it's disappointing. There are good stories here but there are some mediocre stories too and I spent the last few stories wondering when I would be done with the book.

For a great book of stories go to Tobias Wolff's _Back in the World_ or Thom Jones' _The Pugilist at Rest_. Dorris has crafted some good things here but there's not enough to hold the whole thing together.

Having owned this for years I recently dug it out (literally, from under a pile of similarly-owned books) and discovered a collection of stories that improves upon rereading. I recall I took readily to Dorris's style during the early nineties, a time in which everything for him looked bright and his marriage to Louise Erdrich remained intact and healthy, at least to the outside world. He and Louise seemed such soulmates--at least in the literary vein. Here was a man with promise, with a raw talent that surely would develop and refine with time, time that Dorris stole from himself with his suicide. Dorris's death makes the reading of these stories all the more pointed. Dorris saw so clearly within his words, within his writings he honed in on lives mundane and not so. His stories deal with the stuff of life: loss, love, work, family. That Dorris is no longer with us makes these stories resonate even further. For what lays beyond his fiction is this fact: Dorris' voice is worth remembering, worth taking out from time to time, worth sitting with up late in the quiet after one's own hard day of work. Within these pages are diamonds of pure truths.

Working Men is a varied yet cohesive volume of short stories that left me breathless. Dorris unfolds each story and character flawlessly. Each emotion is crystalline and each presentation is a rare and gentle treat. Working Men is meant to be read and reread.

The book Morning Girl was about two Taino children named Morning girl, who is polite, mature, smart and an early riser, and her brother Star Boy, who is childish, playful, always hungry and likes the night, and their life on a Bahamian island, in 1492, before the arrival of Christopher Columbus. One day Star Boy pretends to be a rock because he is afraid his father will get mad at him for not pulling the canoe onto the shore. The canoe nearly got pulled away with the tide. Father accuses Morning Girl, and Star Boy decides this is not fair, so he comes back. Morning girl wants to know what she looks like, so she goes to mother and compares the feeling of mother's face to the feeling of her own face, and then she goes to father and sees her reflection in his eyes. The wind is strong one day and there is going to be a storm. Unfortunately, Star Boy gets stuck in the storm, which blows him to next to a tree, where he talks to the spirit of grandfather. Then there is exiting news. Their mother is going to have a baby, but they are all disappointed when their mother has a miscarriage. There is a food festival and Star Boy humiliates himself by running around and eating all the food, but Morning Girl saves him by doing the same thing. After that, Morning Girl is swimming in the ocean and sees two people in a canoe. They seemed to be from a different place.

This was not a good book. It was very boring and had not only a lame plot but also a slow-moving plot. The plot was that their life is going to be ruined by the Spanish. But the book didn't even say what happened to them. It was incredibly confusing. You have to read the beginning over and over to understand what is happening with the first few chapters. After awhile, you finally figure out that the chapters rotate. If you are a child, don't read this book. It is an adult book. I don't recommend it even for adults. It was just boring and there is no way to change it. Don't waste your time on this book.

"Morning Girl," by Michael Dorris, is a short novel that is told in the first person by two of its characters, Morning Girl and her brother Star Boy. The chapters alternate between these characters' two voices. The children live with their parents in an island village; their community has a pre-industrial culture.

Morning Girl and her brother have the type of conflict you might expect between a sister and her sometimes annoying younger brother. This relationship is explored against the backdrop of the children's culture and the island setting. I particularly liked the character of Star Boy: he's experiencing some emotional growing pains as he yearns for respect while still engaging in some childish actions. An important theme in the book is the naming tradition of the children's culture.

Dorris writes in a clear, poetic prose style that is touched by a mystical element. And don't miss the startling epilogue which pulls the whole story into focus.

It is incredibly powerful and emotional. Morning Girl and herbrother Star Boy are full-dimensional characters - Taino people in1492. The book shows several aspects of their lives before the Europeans come along. Children should read this book to understand other cultures.

As a citizen of mostly Native American ancestry, I certainly appreciated Mr. Dorris' obvious love for the subject. In "The Broken Cord," which was about his son, Abel (called "Adam" in this book), the horror of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome/Effect is brought to light. This book is typical Dorris. It is lyrical, beautifully written and includes a nod to the wonders of nature. It is not so much the biography of an otherwise not well known person, it is an awareness of that person and his place in the environment. As upsetting as the controversy and subsequent death of Mr. Dorris was, he was still an exceptional author and this book, like his others is proof of it.

Very good and clear to know how to harvest wild rice and what wild rice means to American Indian.

People always say, "You can't judge a book by its cover", and in the case of A Yellow Raft in Blue Water, this saying is defiantly true. The picture on the cover and the title might not leave you at the edge of your seat, dying to read the book, but it is the amazing and captivating story about three generations of women who are all struggling in life to find a reason that counts the most. This realistic fiction novel is intense and heart-wrenching, and lets you see that what happens in the past isn't always forgotten.
The book is told from the point of view of three women who all grew up in different times with different aspects on life. It shows how each choice they made throughout their lives affected each other in more ways then they will ever know, and tore apart their relationships with each other, when they really need each other the most. Rayona, a half black and half Indian girl who is around 15 years old, is suffering from her mother's poor choices in life when all she really wants is to find her place and reason in life. Christine, the mother of Rayona, is an excessive partier who never took life seriously, and who strived to be noticed and admired like her older brother Lee. Her motto was that you can never get to old to be a kid, and living by that left her unstable with many regrets from her foolish choices. Last but not least is Ida, the mother of Christine who has deep secrets of betrayal, and who never had the chance to live life. They are all in search of their selves, but need each other more than ever.
The book starts out in the present with Rayona and then gradually fades back to her mother Christine's life, told by Christine's point of view. After that, it even goes farther back into the life of Ida, which is told by her. Each of the woman have problems that keep them apart from each other, and as the book travels back in time, you see how each decision and action affected their futures and how their relationship turned out.
This book is touching, a very realistic story that can be related to in many ways. Will Rayona, Christine, and Ida ever set their differences aside so they can all be a family? Or will they all be lost forever without each other? Read A Yellow Raft In Blue Water to find out, you won't be disappointed.

My book club agreed this was a worthwhile read and fostered involved conversations about the nature of perceptions and experiences as well as family communication. However, I was most excited by the religious content. Aunt Ida, Christine and Rayona all have priests in their lives and for the most part religion fails them. What seems to break the cycle is the Yellow raft in Blue Water, a place where Rayona finds hope in time spent with the closest thing to a real family. Perhaps her life will improve? Aunt Ida and Christine both find the "end of the world" scenario pivotal in their stories. The importance of religion to the novel as well as the focus on 3 women and the final metaphor the Aunt Ida braiding her hair, incorporating 3 strands, sealed the Trinity theme of the story for me. Furthermore, I can relate Aunt Ida to the Father of the Old Testament, angry and scornful, at times vengeful. CHRISTine is easy! A Christ reference to the New Testament and she suffers and will eventually die for her sins and the redemption, the "saving" of her daughter. Rayona, the Holy Spirit, can we "hope" for her. Is she Ida and Christine and herself - the improved generation? So many layers here to explore. One member of my book club said that they loved the Roshamon style and felt like a fly on the wall with the best view of the truth in those shared experiences between these 3 woman.But another member perhaps said it best when she said that even the fly brings his own experiences to the retelling. Is there ever unadulterated truth?!

"A Yellow Raft in Blue Water" is one story, a single epoch, but told three times, each telling by one of the three women who shared it: the grandmother, Ida, the mother, Christine, and the daughter, Rayona. But, this book is not just about a single story seen through three different pairs of eyes. It's really a story of the forces that compel each of us to do the things we do, frequently against our own intuition or better judgement ---- and, all of them ring true. Dorris, the author, had incredible insight into human behavior when he wrote this book. Tragically, I understand that he ended his own life by suicide. Although this is fiction, it's a poignant revelation into the consequences of embracing cultural belief systems that have little basis in reality. Ruined or miserable lives are often the result. The daughter, Rayona, like many teenagers, trashes the moors of her elders and shows promise of breaking out of the cruel cycle that held her mother and grandmother captive to an miserable life. This book is a plea: it asks how we know for sure, what we think we know for sure. Granted, that's a bit heavy, but certainly worthwhile for anyone who wonders where happiness lies.

I came to this book without connecting it to the story I had read some time ago of the author's suicide. Neither had I read 'Yellow Raft'. As such, my view was relatively free from preconceptions. I liked Cloud Chamber a lot. No doubt, the plot is compelling and nicely paced - if read without demands the book makes a fine, literary plane or train read. Stylistically, I felt the book's structure of rotating tale-telling between the major characters from chapter to chapter provided a neat framework on which to hang a multigenerational novel without it becoming too Michener-like. Dorris covers a lot of ground while being able to give us some fine psychological detail. An intriguing feature of his prose style is that though each separate voice preserves its individuality and distinctiveness, a skilled, unified lyrical tone is preserved throughout. We do not feel that the delicate surface texture becomes awkward or inappropriate in the mouth of even the harsher characters such as Rose. Some of the historical detailing is beautiful, such as the way the women use the Bible as a "fortune-telling" tool, or the treatment of the sisters consumption. I liked Cloud Chamber best for its quiet, unassuming illumination of the sisters interior lives. Dorris does a wonderful job of giving these anxious, devout women real voices without resorting to melodrama or stereotyping. Where its weaknesses are manifest are in the intended unity provided by the "curse" of Rose Mannion, and in the overreaching of including quite so many races to represent the American melting pot. For me, these themes ultimately proved a little clumsy. Overall, though, I can recommend this book as an enjoyable yarn with some lovely portraiture. Read it in a couple of sittings and be entertained - don't expect a profound life lesson.

Dorris picks up Rayona, the multi-hyphenated character who began his best selling novel, "A Yellow Raft in Blue Water" again in his latest novel. This time, he begins with Rayona's great-grandmother Rose Manion, a beautiful, strong-willed Irish woman who hated one man as much as she desired him and cost him his life. She also ruined the life of the man who loved her. Their tale, and that of their sons, and their half-black grandson, and ultimately, Rayona's make for powerful reading. Dorris is such a skillful writer, that he writes each story in first person, changing to match each character's age, gender and the dialect of the era. Some passages bear frequent rereading. His study of Native American cultures pays off in writing of Rayona and her name-change ceremony. However, the book's flaw is that Dorris gives us too little to like about anyone and we yearn for one character to really identify with. His women are strong and cruel; his men are weak and sometimes unconvincingly devoted to these women. Too often the novelist gives way to scientist, merely tracking the particles in the cloud chamber. All in all it's a good read, however, and his prose is matchless

When I read "Yellow Raft on Blue Water," I was riveted. I was amazed that a man could capture the spirit of a 16 year old, mixed race girl so seemingly effortlessly, and also so well. Coming away from the novel, my only questions were centered around Rayona's father, Elgin. It seemed to me that if there were reasons for Christine's bizarre behavior, there ought to be some for Elgin's as well. My favorite part of reading "Cloud Chamber" and discovering the roots of Elgin's insecurities. I could feel myself relaxing in my anger for his neglect of his daughter as I read of his own neglect and pain. Elgin remains a mystery to me, but at least some questions were answered. The other characters in the novel ranged from amusing and frustrating, Marcella, to downright infuriating, Rose. However, my all- around favorite remains Rayona, the brave young heroine who inspired me as a neglected misfit in "Yellow Raft." I was struck by the sub! tle change wrought in Rayona's relationship with her maternal grandmother, which seems somewhat less adverserial in "Cloud Chamber." Overall, I find Dorris' sequel somewhat less satisfying than the first installment, but still well worth the read. I mourn for the loss of a talented writer, one I have emulated since first reading about his Rayona.

In keeping with the development of Erdrich's rich, fictional Native American saga, "Tracks" takes her characters one step closer to reality. Contrary to initial impression, the novel does not limit itself by cultural lines. Erdrich's work provides an insightful and engrossing tale, which highlights the struggles of a frayed culture. However, spoilers abound and surprises go unappreciated for those who haven't read her previous works first. Erdrich makes brilliant use of alternating narrators. One speaker is a highly spiritual grandfather named Nanapush, and the other a crazed and confused Indian woman called Pauline, retelling the life of protagonist Fleur. Both offer differing slants when shedding light on Fleur's troubles, including passage through a suicidal youth and falling in love with shy Indian boy Eli. Rich imagery, and the short-and-sweet figurative way of Native American storytelling may be a bit much for some. However, the manner of speech fits the novel beautifully for those so inclined to a book of this type. Interesting, not mind-blowing, it is an honest and sufficient work in the representation and preservation of a culture.

After reading several different Native American authors, I finally had the privilege of reading Louise Erdrich. TRACKS captured my imagination as I listened to Nanapush and Pauline tell their stories. Erdrich brilliantly has the two narrators cast doubt upon each other's tales- a tactic which makes the book all the more enthralling to read. Pauline's zealous quest for sainthood, filled with sacrifices that border on ridiculousness, contrasts with Fleur's relationship to nature, embodied in the forest and the lake creature, Misshepeshu. Erdrich's characters endear themselves to the readers with their first-person revelations, their bawdy senses of humor, and their uncanny strength. The sexual banter between Margaret and Nanapush brings the characters to thriving, realistic life. TRACKS presents these characters against the backdrop of a dwindling forest, which government agents consume piece by piece, selling to American logging companies. As Fleur and Nanapush's homeland disappears, their struggle to control their own future becomes present and touching. Each of the characters reaches out in a different way to attempt to determine their future in some way. TRACKS deserves several reads, and Louise Erdrichs deserves high praise for an incredible and entertaining work.

In all of her work, Louise Erdrich writes with rich visual language, and always from the heart. Until I read Tracks, I held up Love Medicine as Erdrich's best, and one of my all-time favorite novels. Tracks surpasses Love Medicine in scope, personality, and drama. The early lives of Erdrich's legends - Fleur and Moses Pillager, Eli and Nector, Lulu Nanapush,the Morrisseys, and even Sister Leopolda unfold in the despair and heartache of the early part of this century, when the Chippewas were just begining to lose their land and their lives to alcohol, disease, and other pressures from the ever-encroaching whites. What I love about both Love Medicine and Tracks, more than, say, The Beet Queen is the amazing number of characters Erdrich can master, and the way she interweaves their lives. Tracks does Love Medicine one better by making the circle of voices a bit smaller, and the stories more intensely personal. This book made me cry at work and laugh out loud on the subway. If you love the way Erdrich creates many varried personalities to tell a story, you will love this book. If you've never read any of her work, this is an excellent place to start.

One day Moss, a young Native American boy, follows Trouble, a young Native American girl, into a clearing in the woods to see where she is going. Moss talks to Trouble, lies to her about being on his away time, walks into the woods without any weapons or tools, and he gets lost. In the woods, Moss meets and talks to a porcupine, and the porcupine tells Moss not to be afraid of the guests that are coming to Moss's village. Moss thinks about the advice the porcupine gives him. Moss sleeps in the woods, and in the morning he finds his way out. Outside the woods Moss meets Trouble, and they talk as they walk back to their village. When they are at their village they see that the guests have arrived. They are worried!

Michael Dorris wrote this book very well. This story would be a good book for people who like adventure! It wouldn't be such a good book for people under the age of 8 because it is a little confusing. It was very interesting and it made me want to read on. If you are able to check out this book out or borrow it, my advice is that you read it.

Guests

By Michael Dorris

Guests, an excellent book by Michael Dorris was an adventurous and touching book. Michael Dorris explained what it is like to be young and in love. He explained how the boy, Moss, could find his answers in the wilderness. After all, since Moss is from a Northeast Indian tribe he has to find his role in life. I'm guessing that Dorris wrote this book because he as well is partial American Indian.

To find his answers was difficult for the young boy. Until however, he meets a mysterious porcupine that tells him to go on with life. Dorris did not actually say this in his story but is trying to say that nobody can ever answer your questions.

If I were asked to describe this book I would say adventurous and romantic. Moss was very brave. But was he brave enough? He walked into the woods with nothing... This is where the book got very interesting.

Trouble who comes in the story later is a girl. Usually Moss is weird around girls but this girl was different He acted around her just like he would to anyone else.

Moss is what made this book interesting to me. He was adventurous and clever. He always knew what to do.

Even though this story takes place in the woods it is still very fun. The setting is what makes Guests suspenseful.

"Where have you been Moss"? "In the woods". "ALONE". The reason I put that quote is because it left a lot of questions ringing in my mind.

Now do you think Moss found his answers? To find that out you have to read the book!

I never got to read all of Michael Dorris's books. I am sure that he would have made more but instead he died on April 10-11 of committing suicide.

Guests

Guests, by Michael Dorris was an adventurous, mysterious, exciting, and suspenseful book. When the author sets the tome in the beginning he describes the enchanting life of a young Native American searching for is position in life. As the story goes on he meets someone. "You're a girl" Moss the main character once said along with "Usually if a girl smiled at me I would laugh, or blush, but not his time, this time I smiled back" With these statements he shows the reader what love really is.
Answers to lives questions such as "Moss, what do you think beauty is" are hard to answer like that. In the forest when Moss meets a mysterious porcupine the author explains without putting it in words that no one can answer your life questions, but they can only help you.
This book was both adventurous and romantic. Moss had a very brave soul, or did he? When he walked into the forest he walked in without anything, not even a knife. You could infer he was scared and nervous because he stated, "I'm going with nothing, I said braver then I felt" With that said you could sense something bad was going to happen.
Moss the main character of this book was a dare devil at times but was also a scared at times too. Trouble, the girl Moss meets was definite a tomboy. She once stated, " Would you want to be a girl?" Explaining to Moss tat being a girl was NOT one of her favorite parts of life.
As Michael Dorris is a Native American boy himself I bet he wrote this book to express his childhood event or one of another's. Michael Dorris has also written, A Yellow Raft on Blue Water, and, The Broken Cord. With that books breakthrough brought fetal alcohol syndrome to national attention. This was a great book to learn lives questions and how to answer them. Because of Michael Dorris's sudden death he was not able to write more books.

How many ways are there to hate this book? Let's get started.
First, the characters are so feeble and unsympathetic I found
myself not caring what happened to them. From hobosexual Karl
to mediocre Mary, and oh yes, Dot. Dot is a not-so-gentle
reminder that the characters in some novels should be spayed
or neutered before they get a chance to randomly breed. There
are 2 characters of interest (Russell and Fleur), but they
contribute about 3 pages to this monstrosity of a book.

I had to read this monumental waste for a literature class. I
normally like to read, but this book nearly beat the reading
bug right out of me. Even if I had not been required to read
it, I might have finished it anyway in the expectation that
something interesting would (finally) happen. Bad news, folks:
it never does. The same utter pointlessness continues right on
through the last page.

I don't want to keep you hanging by a thread here, so let me get
right to the point: This book is awful.

I picked up this book at a second hand store. It had a dedication in the inside cover. It had been a gift for Mother's Day, and it read: "To the Queen of the house, because she can't be Beet!".

Erdrich has the special touch to make surreal situations so very believable. I love the parallel drawn with the plane rides, how in one case it is a beautiful woman running away from responsibility, and on the other it is a not-so-graceful woman running away from scorn. The birthday party scene is one of the most hilarious that come to mind, with the cake spinning out of control and Mary still singing Happy Birthday to You, while the guests are showered in frosting. And Mary's fall in the ice and the revered imprint of her face... How surreal can this book get?!?!

In my opinion, it makes sense to read this book first, followed by Love Medicine (93), followed by Tracks (89).

I first learned of Erdrich in some anthology, where i read her short story Fleur (now, that's a scary character, who appears in all three books!)

I found this novel to be enjoyable to read, with unexpected events occuring around every corner. The dark humor fits in well with the story line and it keeps the reader motivated. While the ending appears to leave the reader hanging with respect to some characters, it really makes you think about what the reason for that is. Why don't we know what happens to Jude? Maybe it is because Jude is the only character in the novel who has his needs met -- all the other characters endure a life long struggle for one need or another. The author uses strong symbolism which can be cryptic, yet challenging. It's definitely worth the read.