This is one of the few books I've found that really explores the issues of sovereignty and native women together. Maracle really explains the connection between women's integrity and wholeness and tribal self-determination. She also looks at issues of domestic violence, rape, and sexual assault from a uniquely native perspective. I would recommend this book to all women of native descent.

I read and re-read this book while in university studying native cultures throughtout Canada. I can honestly say, as a native male, that this is one of the most powerful books that I have ever read. Lee Maracle's story portrays that which everyone should know about - the struggles that native people, especially native women, have endured over the past centuries.

If I had only read one book while in university, it would have been this one.

Mixed blood Ojibwe writer Drew Hayden Taylor touches the heart with this two act play which relates the pain and grief resulting from government programs in which Indian children were virtually stolen from their parents to be adopted by non-natives.

The plot revolves around the newly found relationship of long-separated sisters who have been reunited; one from the reservation and the other an urban raised attorney. A short play of pathos and humor, the characters are very alive and will remain in the reader's memory

This reader found herself hoping to have an opportunity to see the play performed someday.

Contrary to amazon.com, the title of this book is "Sojourner's Truth," the truth in stories of someone pausing on her lifelong journey. Maracle knows who Sojourner Truth is, of course she's a liberation writer, and her actual title is something of a play on the name, but not the actual name of the Black heroine who led slaves to freedom.

Maracle is experimenting with attempts to combine Native oratory and storyteller oral styles with more conventional ways to invoke the reader's imagination.

Her stories are narratives of individuals -- a little girl who freezes to death after being kept in school detention; a boy abused in one of the forced residential (boarding) schools Indian children were taken away from their families and put into in order to break the culture, the language, the tribes, the people; a fish packing plant worker who dies while on a drunken binge.

The people are not tragic; they are presented -- present themselves -- as tough and stubborn, and even though it is those qualities (coming up against too much power, no-win situations) that kill them, we admire their strength (while wishing they had more survival smarts and slyness).

One story is a knifeblade dripping bitterness, "Worm". This was written at the request of Maracle's 3-year-old son, and is effect is a true story, bitterness transfigured by wit into weapon. "Who's Political Here?" probably comes from Maracle's personal experiences as a young revolutionary/rebel. Her Bobbie Lee, Indian rebel, period. The story's revolutionary-wife decides to leave revolutionary-hubby in jail overnight, so she can get the laundry done and get a good night's sleep for once.

In this strong book -- perhaps Maracle's best mature writing (because her novels are too woodenly didactic, she jerks her characters around too much and makes them speak manifestos) -- Maracle thoroughly engages us in her lifelong struggle against racism and cultural genocide. There is no compromise here, but no strawman targets are set uip for easy knockdown blame, either.

Reviewed by Paula Giese, editor, Native American Books website, http://www.fdl.cc.mn.us/~isk/books/bookmenu.html

I started this book wanting to like it but found myself consistantly disappointed. Lee Maracle's writing style is stiff and disjointed. The perspective of the character Stacey is supposed to be from the perspective of a naive, confused, 17 year old girl. Instead it reads like a grown woman reflecting back on being 17 with all the knowledge she has gained since then. The comparisons between the white world and the Native were stiff and contrived. The lack of development of Celia was disappointing and the additions of Raven and Cedar seemed tacked on and under developed. I recommend Tomson Highway's "Kiss of the Fur Queen" over "Ravensong". The characterization of Wesagechak/ Fur Queen is much more compelling and the story is much more interesting.

I am writing in reaction to the other two reviews that claim that Celia's potential as a character is never fully realized. I strongly believe that Maracle chose to portray Celia in this way to comment on how spirituality is lost in the midst of assimilation. Celia imparts visions from the past and appear in the beginning to have a prophetic potential. However, she seems to gradually fade away throughout the novel. Her gradual dismissal should hint to the reader of the gradual dismissal of Natives in history. Since the book deals with the process of losing one's innocence through maturation, it makes sense for a spiritually intuitive young girl like Celia to be neglected in the end.

Set in the 1950's, Ravensong is a story of a girl trying to find her place in the world. It is a difficult task as she is divided between the white society that educates her and her own native village.

Stacey, the heroine, feels the changes of approching adulthood as she finishes her last year of high school and prepares to attend university. She struggles with a major epidemic in her community, deaths, and the realization of what she has and does not have. She matures throughout the book, learning to take her power for herself.

Canadian Lee Maracle writes from the perspective of a seventeen year old as though she was still there herself. She captures the confusion and excitement, the questions and the fears experienced by everyone who feels their childhood sliping away.

Maracle provides a critical look at the division of white and native cultures. She also examines such issues such as spousal abuse, literacy, lesbianism, predjudice, and the roles of women in a thought provoking way.

My only criticim was the lack of development of Celia, a lesser character in the novel. Celia starts out with great potential that is never fully realized, and infact, she disappears at some points in the story.

Dispite my criticizm, this book illustrates how you can be loved, smart, brave and driven, but that does not change the fact that life is full of questions and is not always easy.

Ravensong is a short, thoroughly enjoyable read.