الفتى الضاحك

by Oliver La Farge, أوليفر لافارج, ديمة لوقا (Translator)

القصة الحائزة على جائزة بولتزر عام 1930.

Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction, Classics, Native American, Romance, Indigenous, Westerns

271 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1929

About the author

Oliver Hazard Perry La Farge was an American writer and anthropologist, perhaps best known for his 1930 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel Laughing Boy. Named for his father, Oliver H.P. Lafarge, he is the grandson of the artist and stained-glass pioneer John La Farge, nephew of the noted Beaux-Arts architect Christopher LaFarge and the father of the folk singer and painter Peter La Farge.

La Farge's short stories were published in The New Yorker and Esquire magazines. His more notable works, fiction and non-fiction, focus on Native American culture.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oliver_L...

Reviews

[Candi · Rating 4 out of 5]

"I am not a Navajo, nor am I an American, but the Navajos are my people."

This novel, set in the American southwest of 1915, is the 1930 Pulitzer-prize winning novel. As the title implies, it is in fact a love story of sorts. But beyond that, it seems to speak to a time and place when the Navajos were caught between the influence of the American way of life due to westward expansion and the customs and traditions of their own people. Laughing Boy, a Navajo young man, fills the role of a traditional Native American. He follows the ways of the people, living with them and cherishing the ceremonies and rituals. His dreams of the future are pure and lovely. "That would be really on the trail of beauty; to work in silver and turquoise, own soft-moving ponies, and lead the Mountain Chant. Just thinking about it was good. It made him feel cool inside." Until one day he meets the very alluring and mysterious young woman known as Slim Girl. Initially, Laughing Boy feels disdain towards this woman, based on rumors of a corrupt background. Slim Girl has not been raised in the manner of the people, but rather was pulled from her home as a child and forced to attend the American schools. She is not like the others, and is therefore scorned. "He felt animosity towards her, dark and slight, like a wisp of grass—only part of a woman." Yet, the attraction is there, and as one knows, young love will go where it wants, not necessarily where it is directed. Laughing Boy is soon smitten with Slim Girl and will grapple with his own reservations as well as the opinions of his family towards this woman. "That girl was strong for one who looked so slight. He would make a bracelet about her, thin silver, with stars surrounded by stone-knife-edge."

Now, what of Slim Girl… I could not quite figure her out. Does she truly love Laughing Boy as he loves her, or is she using him to her own advantage? She wants to find her way back to the Navajo way of life, yet she wants to live separately from the people, settling at the outskirts of town with Laughing Boy rather than with his tribe. At the same time, she warns Laughing Boy from going into the town itself, as he would not be welcome by the Americans living there. Now Laughing Boy too is caught between the two worlds. "He was necessary to her; he was the perfect implement delivered to her hands; he was an axe with which to hew down the past; he was a light with which to see her way back to her people, to the good things of her people."

This story is told simply but beautifully. As the novel progresses, layers of Slim Girl’s story are revealed. We see beyond the tough exterior and catch glimpses of her doubts and fears. We come to understand what motivates her actions. I loved learning about the Navajo way of life – the ceremonial dances, the exquisite craft of jewelry making, the beliefs and other traditions of the people. The descriptions of the landscape are as stunning as I had hoped them to be. All that vast openness and the striking colors are sure to give anyone pause.

"Right before their horses’ feet the cliff fell away, some fourteen hundred feet, and there, under their hands, lay all the North Country. It was red in the late sunlight, fierce, narrow cañons with ribbons of shadow, broad valleys and lesser hills streaked with purple opaque shadows like deep holes in the world, cast by the upthrust mesas. The great, black volcanic core of Agathla was a sombre monstrosity in the midst of colour. Away and away it stretched, jumbled, vast, the crazy shapes of the Monuments, the clay hills of Utah, and far beyond everything, floating blue mountain shapes softer than the skies."

I became more and more immersed in the novel and sympathetic towards the main characters as the story progressed. I yearned for a happy ending for this pair of lovers. The tension heightens to a dramatic conclusion. This is a stunning novel when you really reflect further, given the fact we as readers know what happens to this way of life and the Navajo people. Author Oliver La Farge was an anthropologist who moved to the southwest and studied the way of life of the Native American people. His writing feels authentic and sensitive towards a people and the issues that were so relevant and important to this place and time. Despite the fact this book was written so many years ago, it is one that modern readers should be able to appreciate due to its impact. The message conveyed inside could easily translate to other cultures that may be pushed aside and lost forever if we don’t recognize each for their own value and respect the rights of all.

"She had unravelled her blanket back to the beginning, and started again with a design which could not be woven without Laughing Boy, and she knew that there could be no other design."

[Debbie Zapata · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have stalled for a few days now before writing this review. Been extra busy in real life for one thing, but also because after I do a review, I have to acknowledge to myself that the book I have just read is actually finished. Sometimes this is easy to accept, sometimes it is a relief. And other times I don't want to let the world of that particular book go quite so quickly.

Laughing Boy fits into the last category. This incredible book won the Pulitzer Prize in 1930. The story is of a traditional young Navajo who meets and falls in love with a Navajo girl who had been taken off the reservation and educated in the white man's way. On one hand you could say it is purely a love story: dramatic, bittersweet, full of the usual tensions between Male and Female, with hidden agendas on one side, pure adoration on the other, and what these two experience as they walk their path together.

But sometimes I felt as though Slim Girl represented much more. Did she stand for the temptations of the white man's world, while Laughing Boy stood for the traditional Navajo lifestyle? And what will be the result of this mix? Will something new be born? Or will something precious and sacred be lost forever?

Oliver La Farge was an anthropologist and author, who obviously understood, respected, and sympathized with Native American people. If you have any heart at all, this book will touch it on many levels. Don't miss it. Visit Laughing Boy's world. It will be a part of you forever after.

[Erika · Rating 3 out of 5]

When I realized this book was about Native Americans, I almost put it down.
Laughing Boy was part of my project to read every Pulitzer winning novel, and I was still fresh from slogging through the “Negro story” that won the year before (1929). Sister Scarlet Mary was cringe-worthy and I had no reason to think that 1930 would treat the Navajos any better.
(As a side note, the About the Author page of Sister Scarlet Mary actually says, “[Julia Peterkin] loves the Negro and understands him. She appreciates the simplicity of the minds of her dark-skinned friends, without sentimentalizing over them…and with the heart of a poet and the eye of a painter she has revealed the soul of a people whom civilization has never touched.” But I digress.)
Anyway, Laughing Boy is a whole lot better than Sister Scarlet Mary, in fact it’s good enough that I would recommend it to anyone interested in Navajo history.
Set in 1915, the story covers the meeting, courtship and marriage of Laughing Boy and Slim Girl. The two central characters are very different people: Laughing Boy is at completely at home as a Navajo, optimistic, devout, confident and comfortable with his clan. Slim Girl is not so lucky. As a young child, she was taken away from her family to be educated in an American Indian boarding school set up by missionaries. The experience left her angry, reserved and ruined her sense of self. The tension driving the novel is a huge secret Slim Girl hides from Laughing Boy, and under that secret is another one even deeper.
Oliver La Farge clearly spent a lot of time around Navajos, and his depiction of the culture is rich with detail that feels true. What I liked best about this novel is the almost Zen-like message at its core: There is beauty in everything, even suffering, and we can live the life we choose. I also really liked the complexity of the relationship between the two characters and the ways in which they changed each other for the better.
I held back some stars for awkward writing in parts and minor characters that seemed a little two-dimensional.

[Michael Finocchiaro · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am not sure what comes over the Pulitzer committee sometimes. This book was written by a white person in New Orleans about distant Navajo tribes in Arizona, Texas, and New Mexico. Its protagonists have the emotional maturity of my 11-year-old daughter. The whole thing felt condescending to me. I found the writing had occasionally some poetry when describing the West and Indian culture (although one cannot keep from wondering how much of this La Large didn't just pilfer out of anthropological research papers).

I guess what galls me is that the same year that this book was published was also the year of the absolutely stunningly powerful The Sound and the Fury which was about 10000000 times better written and one of the greatest Faulkner books as well as A Farewell to Arms which was one of the books I truly enjoyed most from Hemmingway and which was one of his most influential on writers of the 30s following its publication. How this mediocre fairy tale/love story beat out either of those two monuments of American literature is just hard to believe.

My votable list of Pulitzer winners which I have read (only have the 40s, 50s, and 60s to finish!):

[Sara · Rating 3 out of 5]

I find myself unsure what to say about this 1930 Pulitzer winner. It is the tale of a Navajo couple, Laughing Boy and Slim Girl. Laughing Boy is an Indian through and through–he knows the ways, the gods, the rituals, the customs. Slim Girl was stolen from her home and forced into an American school–she has lost all her connection to her people, and she is trying to find her way back.

One feels the doom that hangs around these two characters as they struggle to exist in a no-man’s land between the world of the Navajo and that of the white man. There is a sense, however, that something is missing from the book that, if found, would make it have a more truthful resonance. I felt sorry for both Laughing Boy and Slim Girl, but I did not relate to either of them, and Slim Girl's way of thinking was a bit confusing to me.

The story is not badly done, but the writing is almost juvenile, and I cannot help thinking the reasons for awarding this book the Pulitzer had little to do with its literary merit.

[Sue K H · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a beautiful love story that is gorgeously romantic while being the antithesis of a formulaic romance novel.  Though largely about two Navajo's who fall in love, it's also a love story of their specific culture and customs in the early 1900's Southwest, while remaining universal in its broader themes.  

Laughing Boy and Slim girl meet at a ceremonial Navajo dance but they are from two different worlds.  While she is a Navajo, she was schooled as an American and orphaned by the time she was a teenager. She had been left to make her way without the comforts of family and community.  She's jealous of Laughing Boy's ties to his family and culture and tries to keep him from them as well as away from her other life in the town.  They live alone and isolated but happy in their love and each teaching the other things they have learned in life.  This is okay with Laughing Boy for a while, but when he needs to go back to a ceremonial prayer for a family, she knows she has to.  He felt so changed that he wasn't sure how he'd feel about being back.  La Farge describes his return beautifully is this paragraph:

"There were constant little surges of delight in his heart over trivial, minor things - a shadow across a cliff, the end of cottonwood, the sheep coming in at evening, their silly solemn faces all about the hogahn - why should they have changed?  A man does not realize that he as changed himself, or only partially recognizes it, thinking that the world about him is different; a familiar dish as become no longer enjoyable, a fundamental aphorism no longer true; it is a surprise, then, when his eyes and ears report unchanged, familiar impressions.  So the wonderful sameness of things, the unfailing way in which expectation was fulfilled, were proofs of something beautiful in the order of the world.  It was glorious to pick up the threads of the talk where he had dropped them, discussing the old, well-worn subjects casually and in detail as though they were still inlaid in his life, with a just a little seasoning of the attitude of wone who as been farther and seen more. "

He describes equally well the opposite reaction of Slim Girl and how unconnected she feels to this way of life even though the two are completely connected to one another.  I don't want to give away too much of the underlying plot but hope this is enough to convey that this is no ordinary romance book.  It's a mesmerizing little novel that is not afraid to break your heart in order to mend it and make it stronger.  

[Adriana · Rating 4 out of 5]

M-am hotărât: iubesc Premiile Pulitzer! Şi voi încerca să citesc, pe cât posibil, toate titlurile câştigătoare pe care voi pune mâna (ca să zic aşa). Pentru că, de la sfârşitul anului trecut încoace, am dat numai peste bijuterii, începând cu Puntea Sfântul Ludovic (Pulitzer Prize 1928) şi Culoarea purpurie (Pulitzer Prize 1983), apoi continuând cu Empire Falls (Pulitzer Prize 2002)... Şi acum, iată, încă un roman superb (titlul original: Laughing Boy), câştigător al Pulitzer Prize în 1930.

Dragostea nu moare ne introduce în lumea indienilor Navajo şi a stilului lor de viaţă de la începutul secolului 20. În cuvinte simple, dar pline de farmec, este ţesută povestea lui Flăcău-Voios (adept al modului tradiţional de viaţă Navajo) şi a iubirii lui pentru Fata Zveltă, o Navajo crescută de americani şi "contaminată" cu obiceiuri, gânduri şi trăiri diferite. Împreună vor încerca să păşească pe "calea aşternută cu frumuseţe" (minunată metaforă pentru viaţa plină de dragoste şi înţelegere, ce respectă regulile lăsate din moşi-strămoşi)... Dar viaţa, din păcate, are prostul obicei de a fi mai complicată decât ţi-ai dori...

Pe scurt: recomand! Singurul motiv pentru care nu am acordat 5 steluţe acestei cărţi minunate este finalul (care mi-a părut bun ca idee, dar prost ca implementare :D)

P.S. De menţionat (şi subliniat) atmosfera plină de autenticitate creată de autor. Prin cuvintele lui, suntem transportaţi în mijlocul indienilor Navajo, le vedem portul, le auzim cântecele şi le admirăm dansurile rituale. Toate aceste detalii nu sunt ficţionale, ci desprinse din realitatea vremii (autorul, fiind şi antropolog, a trăit ani de zile în rezervaţii, a învăţat obiceiurile şi limba indienilor, scriind ulterior şi un alfabetar Navajo).

[Joan · Rating 4 out of 5]

It reminded me of Kleenex - the way several diaphanous layers make up one substantial tissue. I think the author wanted me to envision it as a woven Navajo Blanket with lives and stories woven into the pattern. That's outside my experience, I thought of Kleenex and phyllo dough. And the author did a great job of writing a good story with interesting characters, a sense of place and timeless themes.

Reader beware, however, this is a work of art that requires commitment by reader; the plot develops very slowly. I think, to fully appreciate it you need to have time and be open to filtering the story through your experience, perspective, emotions - your life. In that, it brought to mind Oscar Wilde and Marcel Proust philosophizing about the nature of art. I wasn't up for that. I think if I had read it at a different time I'd have enjoyed it more but I didn't enjoy it enough to read it again.

The themes and symbolism are the meat of the book. In part it is a coming-of-age story as Laughing Boy and Slim girl try to figure out who they will be as adults, how to square that with their childhood experiences and where they fit into their communities. And it is a classic story of young love - two people trying to work out intimacy, independence and compromise. And finally it is allegorical - Laughing Boy is the epitome of traditional Navajo but Slim Girl is a child of the city. La Farge sets up a collision of two cultures and asks how will each be affected. He did a great job of developing the characters so it became a collision of individuals I cared about.
One of the things I really liked was that he respected Laughing Boy's traditional beliefs without claiming that those ways are more pure/spiritual or valid than other religions. You won't learn much about Navajo beliefs, but you will understand why tradition was important to Laughing Boy.

I read the Kindle Edition - I don't really like e-books, so that affected my rating as well.

[Albert · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have a habit of regularly picking up a prize winner as one of my ways of making sure I read a variety of authors. Sometimes I am disappointed or even bored with the result, but more often I am thrilled to make a new discovery. Laughing Boy was one of those discoveries. The story begins in a very simple manner, what even feels initially to be overly simple. Boy meets girl: a love story.

But as you read, the story becomes more complex. Laughing Boy was raised in a traditional Navajo family. He is very astute and capable in that lifestyle; he can make a living. However, when it comes to love, he seems quite naïve. Slim Girl was removed from her family at an early age and given an American education. She feels something has been stolen from her, and she is on the outside looking in. The relationship between Laughing Boy and Slim Girl reflects the conflict developing between the traditional Navajo way of life and the American culture that is encroaching all around them.

Their relationship is complicated in other ways as well. Slim Girl is conniving and manipulative. Is she just using Laughing Boy? It is clear she loves him though. What drives her dishonesty? She is very focused on building as much security as possible before giving up the benefits of living among the Americans. Why is she not willing to take risks for the life she wants?

This novel won the Pulitzer Prize in 1930, and in my opinion, was very much deserving.

[William Adam Reed · Rating 4 out of 5]

Laughing Boy won the Pulitzer Prize in 1930. It was the first Pulitzer winner that dealt with the Native American people, in this case, the Navajo people. It was written by a man who was not a tribal member, but deeply sympathetic to the Navajo people and their way of life. La Farge was an ethnographer who learned to communicate using the Navajo language and devoted his life to promoting causes associated with the well- being of the American Indian. So, an outsider, but one who's life work centered on the question of how two cultures can coexist to the mutual benefit of each other. If this is even possible is a question La Farge wrote about across his entire career, and he has certainly not been the only writer to cover these themes. But in his time, he was amongst the first, and due to his Pulitzer, he brought attention to this theme.

The story is set in the 1910's on the Navajo reservation in the four corners region. The story deals with Laughing Boy's relationship with Slim Girl. They meet at a Navajo dance and are smitten with each other. They soon agree to marry, although Laughing Boy's uncle warns him about having anything to do with Slim Girl. As it turns out, Slim Girl was orphaned at a young age, and she was taken to a nearby American school and grew up learning the ways of the whites. She even continued to work for a missionary woman in her community. This close association with "the Americans" (I know, the irony) as they are called in the novel makes Slim Girl an outcast in her community. But Laughing Boy is head strong and Slim Girl has a determination that seems to set her apart from most young women. She seems very knowing about the ways of the world also, which impresses Laughing Boy, who is a little naive. Laughing Boy is an expert silversmith, good at raising and evaluating the worth of horses, and has a deep connection to his tribe's spiritual ways. In fact, Slim Girl sees through Laughing Boy, a way to reconnect to her people.
But Slim Girl has not be completely honest with Laughing Boy about all aspects of her past. This sows the seed for the main conflict of the story.

This novel is engaging and easy to read. The characters are compelling and there is a lot of time spent in the novel showing the Navajo way of life and the conflict they had living in a world that increasingly was coming to be shaped by their white neighbors. I have previously read N. Scott Momaday's Pulitzer winner "House Made of Dawn" and am currently reading Louise Erdrich's "The Night Watchman" to get some various views on the evolving relationships between the Native people and their fraught interaction with the white culture. I have now read 41 Pulitzer Prize winning novels in my quest to read them all, and I ranked "Laughing Boy" as my ninth favorite.

[Helga Cohen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This Pulitzer Prize winning book for fiction (1930) described the culture of the Southwest in 1915 in an engaging way. La Farge, described how Laughing Boy, a Navajo, met Slim Girl who had been westernized during her years at a boarding school during a ceremonial communal dance. During this time Slim Girl lost all tribal and family connections. Laughing Boy and Slim Girl fell in love. They must face a changing way of life as they marry despite the disapproval of Laughing Boy’s family.

In this book, we see laughing Boy’s self-identity, his cultural taboos and challenges, his religious beliefs and his values. The description of Navajo country in the southwestern Colorado and into Utah gave a perfect setting for this story. It was a deeply moving and tragic story about the Navajos.
We get an excellent depiction of Navajo life written by an anthropologist who obviously understood the Navajo way of life. In the Forward, La Farge writes about the time he spent with the Navajos and how enjoyable the experience was for him.

"By and large, the Navajos liked the way they were living, they felt secure, they enjoyed life, they knew how to have fun, they were wonderfully friendly.

This book deserves its classic status as well as the Pulitzer Prize.

[Mabel · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book; it is beautifully written. The characters are memorable and I completely identified with them. I loved the bits of Navajo poetry the author included. This is by far my favorite book involving Native Americans (I haven't read all that many). The author was an anthropologist so he was a knowledgable observer of the Navajo culture. It presents the plight of the American Indians sympathetically, portraying their innate nobility as well as their downtrodden status at the time. An unforgettable love story.

[Katy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting, but not quite a true First Peoples voice.

[L Y N N · Rating 5 out of 5]

Full review at Smoke & Mirrors: http://books-n-music.blogspot.com/201.... I am giving this a full 5 stars because I "feel" as if this book gives genuine insight into the Native American (specifically Navajo) culture, society, and particularly belief system. However, this was written by a "white guy" and this is one of the few times in my life when I'm questioning the overall authenticity of the writing/expression of Navajo life at the time. Although La Farge was an anthropologist who studied Native American culture extensively, so I presume this is as close as we might get to authentic? And just because it wasn't his lifestyle doesn't mean he can't portray it authentically, right? I guess we must assume that is true. However, you can read what I feel is a fair evaluation of this quandary here: http://americanindiansinchildrenslite.... And I would agree. If we really wish to "experience" a culture authentically, it makes sense to read writings authored by those of the indicated cultures, doesn't it? At least the Pulitzer was perhaps a recognition of the attempt to publicize NA culture of the time, especially with regard to the children who were kidnapped and forced to abandon their native heritage and culture. Unbelievable that we white people did that. I am so often ashamed of Caucasian behaviors with regard to others...

[Judy · Rating 5 out of 5]

earlier readings: 4 stars
This was my intro to specific Native American tribes. It was definitely not my typical choice of books. I liked it much better the second and third times I read it. A good many years have passed since I last took this off the shelf, so it's probably time to read it again. (And write a more meaningful review.)

2018: Maybe, just maybe, I'm beginning to understand something about the Navajo culture and that may be why this story means more to me now than it did when I was younger. In the Foreword, La Farge writes about the time he spent living among the Navajos, an experience he obviously enjoyed:

By and large, the Navajos liked the way they were living, they felt secure, they enjoyed life, they knew how to have fun, they were wonderfully friendly.

He set his story before his visit, in 1915, in order to contrast the old way with the rapidly encroaching new ways, the ways of the 'American.' Here, he uses two young people, both Navajo, one raised in a traditional family, one taken away to a boarding school, to show the collision of the cultures. This story is a tribute to a vanished way of life.

I felt the pain; I cared about the characters. And I will probably read it again some day.

[Jody Kyburz · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't know who Oliver La Farge is...I should google him...but he knows how to think like a Navajo (in my humble Caucasian opinion). I've spent a teensy amount of time in the Southwest hiking on my own, looking at petroglyphs, reading interpretive signs at national parks, and even listening to some audio in the car about how to learn the language (I found some similarities in learning Japanese), but in the end, I'm not an Indian. I am especially not a Navajo. I am glad, however, that I once hired a Person named Jimmy who took me in his Jeep deeper into the desert than I could have walked on my own and chanted for a long while where his voice echoed off the red rocks. I didn't understand a word, but I understood it all.

The great thing about "A Navajo Love Story" is that it's not so very different from any other love story--there's the universal concept folks! The writing is clear and symbolic at the same time. Lyrical in some places. Justice and Mercy all wrapped together. Loved it.

[Irene · Rating 3 out of 5]

Set in the early 20th century, this is the story of the relationship between two Navajo youth who meet at a communal dance and fall instantly in love. But this marriage is fraught with difficulties as Laughing Boy comes from a traditional Navajo upbringing, but Slim Girl has been westernized during her years at a boarding school and has lost all tribal and family connections. Based on the author’s observations during his time in Navajo country, this book contains interesting descriptions of Navajo customs. Unfortunately, reading it nearly a century after its publication, it had a patronizing feel to much of its portrayal of this society and its values. 3.5 stars

[Rick Ludwig · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Pulitzer Prize winning story, Laughing Boy, is a masterpiece of descriptive narration. The author creates a love story that is more than a love story. He makes his setting and characters complex and interesting and develops each with the skill of an artist. La Farge makes the scenery an integral part of the story. He presents the mood of the story through the setting. In a period of sorrow and desolation, he makes the setting desolate and barren. If he wishes to create a feeling of happiness and satisfaction, he makes the locale green and lush. He describes each scene with words that perfectly represent the feeling of the moment. His words are colorful direct and perfectly accurate in describing each scene.
La Farge describes the personalities of his characters in the same manner as he describes the setting. He instructs the reader in the reasons behind certain beliefs and actions of the characters. An example of this is the way in which he correlates the belief that the gods are present during certain Indiana dances with the Christian belief that communion supper is the blood and body of Christ. The Indians’ belief in the actual presence of the gods is in no way lessened by the knowledge that the dancers are normal men wearing masks; just as the priest’s belief that communion supper is, indeed, the blood and body of Christ is not lessened by his knowledge that the bread and the wine are not, in themselves, sanctified.
The author’s style of character development is also illustrated in another portion of the book. The author presents a person as seen by different people. He presents the wife of Laughing Boy, Slim Girl, as seen through the eyes of Laughing Boy and as seen through the eyes of an American. To Laughing Boy, Slim Girl is the epitome of intelligence and tact; whereas to the American she is just a fairly pretty, ordinary squaw. Through his masterful style, he causes the reader to agree with Laughing Boy and see her true beauty.
This novel is both beautiful and interesting and very few books fulfill both of these qualifications.

[Joyce · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book dropped me straight into the canyons of New Mexico, and the early, unsettled contact between the northern Navajo nation, The People, and those they called Americans, whose chief was ‘in Washingdon’.

Laughing Boy’s enjoyment of Navajo gatherings, races, and dances conveyed much about what The People most esteemed - namely, to follow the trail of beauty.
“Laughing Boy was more than just what that name implied; one felt the warrior under the gaiety, and by his songs and silver, he was an artist.” “His craftsmanship was fine, his invention lively, and his taste in turquoise most exacting. It was strong, pure stuff, real Northern Navajo work, untouched by European influence. Other Indians would buy it in the store, and its barbaric quality caught the tourist’s eye.” He sold some of his pieces to Harvey agents.

He finds his life mate, a young woman who had been taken from her family and educated at missions in California. Slim Girl imagines a life ‘in a place where the agent’s men never came to snatch little children from their parents and send them off to school.’

The landscapes, journeys, horses, weaving, silver making, housekeeping - all fascinating, especially the odd mash-ups of Navajo and white settlers’ worlds, such as the wedding banquet that started with yellow corn and then entailed canned tomatoes, pears, plums, beans, candies, pop, white bread, coffee with plenty of sugar, and whiskey with orange and lemon.

It’s a tragedy, in the end, on a few levels. In his introductory note, the author says “It is not propaganda, nor an indictment of anything. The hostility with which certain of the characters in it view Americans and the American system is theirs, arising from the plot, and not the author’s. It is also entirely possible.”

The 90-year old edition I read, retrieved for me by ladder from the highest reaches in the Athenaeum stacks, was acquired Nov 2, 1929 and thus bears no publicity about its winning the Pulitzer Prize in 1930.

[Brian E Reynolds · Rating 3 out of 5]

This 1930 Pulitzer winner is a standard romance of two young people with some unexpected twists. The characters are two young Navajos living on the reservation. The romance story is a basic one: between the young extremely competent insider, Laughing Boy, and the atypical outsider, Slim Girl, a Navajo who attended a school run by Americans to basically Americanize young Navajos. There is the issue of acceptance between Laughing Boy’s ‘family and friends’ and the outsider girl, who has no family. However, it is the issue revolving on the hidden and secret life of Slim Girl that adds a unique tension to this story. I found her character’s wants and motivations to be unexpected and intriguing.
The author La Farge did a good job portraying Navajo society. His references to alcohol and mysticism seemed real rather than stereotypical. His depictions of the rituals and mysticism did not seem either overly patronizing or overly reverential. However, while I enjoyed the story, the ending felt a little flat with perhaps a bit too much time spent on rituals.
The writing was awkward at times and did not always flow smoothly for me. It was adequate though and never difficult. Overall, this Pulitzer winner was worth the read and I rate it as 3 stars.

[Sana · Rating 3 out of 5]

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Eine Sache war es, einen Entschlu[ss] zu fassen, etwas ganz anderes aber, sich klarzumachen, wo er nun stand - es war der Unterschied zwischen dem Aufbruch auf einen neuen Pfad und dem Festlegen der Wegzeichen in dem neuentdeckten Land. - S. 109



1915: Der Navajo-Indianer Lachender-Knaber trifft bei dem Fest auf Schlankes-Mädchen, die zwar vom gleichen Stamm abstammt wie er, jedoch als junges Mädchen durch Amerikaner von ihrem Stamm getrennt wurde. Sie gehört weder dem einen noch dem anderen Volk an, völlig allein auf der Welt. Voneinander hingerissen beschließen sie durchzubrennen und ein Leben auf eigenen Beinen zu führen. Doch beide erfüllt die Sehnsucht nach den Traditionen ihres Volkes ...



Ein eher unbekannter amerikanischer Klassiker, der Indianer zu seinen Protagonisten macht und sich mit dem Zerrissen-Sein zwischen zwei Kulturen beschäftigt. Eine wirklich tolle Prämisse für eine dramatische Liebesgeschichte mit einem gewissen exotischen Touch.
Doch leider sind es genau diese neuartigen Elemente, die einem den Zugang zur Geschichte erheblich erschweren.
Da der Autor Anthropologe ist, merkt man, dass ihn die indianischen Kulturen und Stämme sehr interessieren und er auch eine bestimmte Zeit bei den Indianern verbracht hat. So gesehen wirken die Beschreibungen von Festen, Tänzen und Spielen authentisch und wecken ebenso das Interesse des Lesers, der ähnlich wie Schlankes-Mädchen kaum etwas über die Traditionen der Stämme weiß. Das große Problem ist, dass es dabei bleibt. Manchmal wird in Fußnoten zwar erwähnt, dass es sich bei den genannten Anspielungen oder Nacherzählungen um wichtige Legenden handelt, jedoch werden diese nicht mal im Ansatz erläutert. Weshalb gibt es das Fest des Nachtgesangs? Wofür stehen all die legendären Figuren, als die sich das Volk verkleidet? Vollkommen kontextlos begleitet man die zwei Hauptfiguren durchs Buch und fühlt sich dauerhaft vor den Kopf gestoßen wegen all diesen Festlichkeiten, deren Hintergründe einem komplett schleierhaft bleiben. Die Figuren kennen sie, und es gibt kaum etwas Schlimmeres als erzwungene Exposition, aber wirklich gar nichts darüber zu erfahren, macht es einem fast unmöglich sich in ihre Situation hineinzuversetzen und zu verstehen, warum es beiden so sehr zusetzt, wenn sie sich davon entfremden. Bei einer Geschichte, in der es sich um das Zuhausesein und das Empfangen seiner Kultur gehen soll, hat das fatale Folgen.
Auch der Schreibstil macht es einem schwer, von Anfang an einen Zugang zur Story zu finden. La Farge wählt sehr einfache Worte, um sowohl Handlung als auch Gedankengänge zu beschreiben, weswegen es ganz am Anfang in Verbundenheit mit all den fremden Bezeichnungen (z.B. Stammesnamen) ungelenk und verwirrend wirkt. Manchmal stolpert man regelrecht über seine Sätze und muss sie mehrmals lesen, um dem Beschriebenen wirklich folgen zu können. Auch die Dialoge wirken in dem Zusammenhang recht hölzern und machen es einem schwer, die Figuren voneinander zu unterscheiden. Umso schwerer nachzuvollziehen ist die plötzliche Anziehung zwischen Lachender-Knabe und Schlankes-Mädchen, die sich in den ersten fünfzehn Seiten nicht ausstehen können, und kaum dreißig Seiten später miteinander durchbrennen. Natürlich findet die Handlung am Anfang des 20. Jahrhunderts statt, zu diesem Zeitpunkt war ein Heiratsantrag eher so etwas wie die Frage nach dem ersten Date, aber dennoch erschien das sehr sprunghaft und als hätte der Autor seine Ausgangsposition möglichst schnell erlangen wollen.
Nach diesem wahnsinnig verwirrenden Anfang steigert sich der Autor jedoch ganz langsam in der Erzählung seiner Geschichte. Merkwürdigerweise beginnen die beiden erst nach ihrer Heirat eine echte Chemie zu entwickeln und bieten einem alles andere als eine normale Beziehung. Tatsächlich stellt Lachender-Knabe für Schlankes-Mädchen eher ein Mittel zum Zweck dar, ihre Verbindung zu ihrem Ursprung nicht zu verlieren und eventuell wieder herzustellen. Dieses Kalkül neben der naiven Verliebtheit es männlichen Protagonisten ist ziemlich erschreckend, gleichzeitig aber sehr verständlich. Ganz besonders interessant ist, wie Schlankes-Mädchen für den Großteil des Buches überhaupt nicht den Standards eines indianischen Mädchens entspricht und deswegen zunehmend Angst hat, Lachender-Knabe an die Kultur, der sie eigentlich angehören will, wieder zu verlieren. Ein sehr spannender Konflikt, der sich im Laufe des Buches zuspitzt und den beide bis zu einem gewissen Punkt verdrängen. Auch dass der Navajo-Stamm von Lachender-Knabe selbst sich strikt gegen ihre Beziehung wehrt, und zwar größtenteils deswegen, weil das Mädchen von Amerikanern gegen ihren Willen aufgezogen wurde, verleiht dem Ganzen Tragik und lässt einen verstehen, wie Schlankes-Mädchen so abgestumpft ist.
Sie ist allgemein der interessanteste Charakter in dem Buch, da sie nicht nur eine Geschichte zu bieten hat und sich nirgendwo wirklich zuhause fühlt, sondern durch ihre widerstreitenden Gefühle zu Lachender-Knabe einen inneren Konflikt entwickelt. Dieser wird zwar sehr schnell aufgelöst, geht allerdings mit wirklich schönen Szenen einher, in denen sich die beiden aussprechen und nicht nur gegenüber einander, sondern vor allem sich selbst gegenüber ehrlich sind.




Leider ist Indianische Liebesgeschichte der reinste Flickenteppich aus wunderschönen Sätzen und so eindringlich beschriebenen Szenen, dass sie einen mitreißen und während des Lesens nicht loslassen, und vollkommen pathetischen und unbeholfen geschriebenen Passagen, die man mehrmals lesen muss, um sie zu verstehen. Der Alltag der beiden ist wirklich schön beschrieben, ebenso wie die ständige Zerrissenheit, die ihre Beziehung und ihre Persönlichkeit auszeichnet. Doch emotional mitreißen kann einen die Geschichte leider kaum, was nicht daran liegt, dass sie in einer dem Durchschnittsleser unbekannten Kultur spielt, sondern dass man diesem nichts über die Kultur näherbringen möchte. Und warum sollte man mit den ihr entrissenen Figuren mitfühlen, wenn man nicht versteht oder erklärt bekommt, weshalb genau sie ihnen so viel Halt bietet? Kein schlechtes Buch, aber mit viel verschenktem Potential.

Gesamtwertung: 3.00/5.00

[Toni Bennett · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting read, it gives a reader a first hand account of life as a Navajo tribe member and the way the adjusted to life with the White Man. A great love story.

[Sallan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is pure poetry, a journey on the Trail of Beauty. Can you love someone who is different from everyone else? When Laughing Boy meets Slim Girl, that’s his challenge.

[☕Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ratings:

Writing 4
Story line 4
Characters 4
Impact 3

Overall rating 3.75

[Alexandra Harmon · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wordier version of this review can be found on my blog.

I picked up Oliver La Farge’s Laughing Boy with one preconceived feeling – dread. I came to it knowing both the book’s subject matter (Navajos in 1915) and the time period's terrible track record when it came to people of color. At best, it would be a bunch of barf-inducing noble savage stereotypes. At worst, well…

So imagine my shock when Laughing Boy turned out to be full of well-rounded characters, nuanced culture insight, and a sympathetic portrayal of the culture conflicts of the time period. And I had almost lost my faith in you, 1920s.

Laughing Boy purports to be about the titular character, a young man who has lived his whole life on the reservation, but the real star of the story is Slim Girl, the woman he falls in love with. Slim Girl is… well, I don’t want to spoil it for you, but let’s just say she has a dark past. This past has left her a bitter, angry, vengeful, and conniving woman, who you will be rooting for the whole way. No, really. Her past has left her emotionally damaged, but she struggles against her own darkness, trying to find peace and acceptance in two cultures that reject her. She is easily one of the strongest and most nuanced female character from the timer period, if not from my whole lifetime of reading.

She also gives one of the best descriptions of a codependent relationship as I have ever read: “unless she was the whole for him, she could not be sure of holding him.”

Culturally, this book most reminds me of Things Fall Apart. Both capture a tribal culture in a positive, but not romanticized way. Both meander from the plot to recreate tribal rituals, use folklore to reinforce themes, and attempt to stay faithful to native dialect. And both explore the consequences and misunderstandings that arise when this tribal culture clashes with a “civilized” one.

If there’s one thing that maybe (maybe!) surprised me more than the appearance of a woman who subverts the madonna/whore trope, it was the unflinching and ruthless way La Farge depicts American/Native American relations during this time period, everything from the casually ignorant racism of a local goods trader to the brutal atrocities that were the Indian Schools. Of course, if I’d done my research, I would have realized this was because La Farge was a cross between Indiana Jones and Martin Luther King Jr.

The only bummer about this book is that it wasn’t actually written by someone from inside the culture itself. Although, unlike Chinua Achebe, La Farge got to experience tribal life during the depicted time period firsthand, so that’s cool

Also, while I do enjoy literary midcentury Chicago and New York (and Chicago and New York and Chicago and New York ad infinitum), it was nice to get a really beautiful piece of literature from my side of the world for once. La Farge does a fantastic job capturing the wonder and solitude of the desert, and I enjoyed all the little cameos of places I know: the Grand “Cañon,” the petrified forest, Winslow, for some reason.

So yes, this book absolutely deserves its classic status, and I don’t think you’ll regret reading it. Just keep the tissues handy.

[Justin · Rating 1 out of 5]

Strictly based on story, I might have given this three or four stars. It was pretty good, although a bit clunky or simplistic at times. I'm sure it was an important step for representation and a non-sympathetic view of white practices towards Native Americans at the time. Slim Girl was quite a good character. The scenes about her and Laughing Boy's marriage were excellent and complex; the other scenes faltered a bit.

HOWEVER, I took off multiple stars for having THE WORST book dedication I have ever read. "Dedicated to the only beautiful squaw I have ever seen in all my life, whose name I have forgotten." WHAT?! From the slur, to the "only," to this unnamed woman who was only impressionable as an aesthetic object, it starts the entire book off on the wrong foot. The major selling point is that the author was a Harvard-educated anthropologist who studied Navajo culture and language, and so he really "understood" them.

The dedication is inexcusable. The book's narrator acknowledges in the text that the word "squaw" is derogatory, so it's not like La Farge didn't know better. The book is clearly written for a white audience, and there are other little snippets that reveal the author's feeling of superiority. At one point, he describes that some bags are tied to a horse in the "...Navajo way (that is to say, badly)." An unnecessary parenthetical that echoes La Farge's dedication and reminds the reader who the author is: a non-Navajo outsider who is writing from a superficially Navajo perspective and for all his talk of loving their culture, views them as not fully people.

It's a shame, because as I wrote earlier, the stuff about the complexities of marriage and relationships is quite good. But it never truly stands free of the author's non-native whiteness. I'm sure a lot of the cultural depictions are accurate, but because of some authorial missteps (like the dedication), its supposed veracity is always under question. As an "authentic" text about Navajos, it feels tinny. But there could be an interesting adaptation that tackles its lens head-on: that of the well-meaning, white, anthropologist who cannot relate the subtle complexities of the culture he studies because he cannot remove his own biases.

[Jeanette · Rating 4 out of 5]

This novel deserves the classics designation. It seems to just grab the Navajo mindset, cognition, culture during these times - early 20th century. It tells Laughing Boy's life these few years with high context for his own individuality, his own self-identity, his own cultural bench marks- what would be at times, now considered, base values for full adulthood and strongest autonomy.

But it also tells Slim Girl's story in a secondary slant to the American contact and influence reality of the then current Navajo adjustment to Americans. And social arrangements or economic attachments to the larger and changing society within their physical world. One shared by increasing degree.

It holds extreme beauty, it did for me, in the chanting and dancing descriptions. Those 3 men dancing with arms over the others shoulders, the bonds and the emotive connections held within all of these days' experiences. That was done in an excellent manner. Excellent writing throughout, but of top rung quality here.

Yet, as an anthropologist and not a Navajo raised- I wonder. Is what he saw and felt- what they saw and felt? By the art of his excellent writing and observation skills too- you would believe so.

Maybe this book should just be taken simple without the analysis to acts that I can't seem to ignore. Simple as the pleasure or pain of now- which is what these characters excel within and succeed to experience in their understanding of life. Supremely well. But at the same time violent acts, crimes of denigration and theft- hurt can be celebrated as "fit" to use or to rationalize toward karma within that same "now" culture. Culture clash again.

And that is why something in this book, being so celebrated, did bother me. The crimes are seldom reviewed, especially the murders and most of all the last one- but the love story remains instead in memory.

Because it IS Laughing Boy's Love Story- but it is also a story of cultures with such opposing values. Values that could never mesh into a pot or be ruled by one common list of "laws".

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Laughing Boy," published in 1929, won the Pulitzer Prize in 1930. Oliver La Farge 1901-1920 is the writer.

The story is a good depiction of Navajo life and the coming of age of "Laughing Boy," a young Navajo Indian who meets Slim Girl at a ceremonial Indian dance. They fall in love and marry against his family's wishes.

Laughing Boy is an innocent and loves horses, tribal dances and competition of all kinds. After he wins events at the ceremonial dance when he met Slim Girl, he is coerced into gambling the money and his horse away. When chided by Slim Girl, Laughing Boy tells her that it doesn't matter because winning and loosing were the source of his pleasure.

Slim Girl went to an American school and was given the school name, Lily. The central conflicts in the story deal with Laughing Boy and Slim Girl's dealing with American culture. At one point, Laughing Boy and his friends arrive at an Indian trading post. He brags to his friends that he could get the owner to give them free coffee. Then he pretends that he is going to make major purchases from the trader, who offers the coffee as he totals the bill. After getting the coffee, he smiles and tells the owner that he changed his mind, then wonders why the owner became angry.

What Laughing Boy doesn't realize is that Slim Girl is leading a double life. She spends time as the married wife of Laughing Boy and also with an American.

I found the story to be entertaining as depicting a segment of American life but never became too involved in the story. With the different ways that Indians behaved and lived their lives, it was difficult to empathise with their dilemma. Also, with all of the Indian names, there were times that I couldn't tell if the characters were members of Laughing Boy's clan and if the names were real names or nicknames.

[Mitch · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn't love this book and am prepared to strip off some veneer with some hard-boiled spoilers...so you are forewarned.

Encountered in this book is a young Native American girl who has been seduced and abandoned by a faceless American guy. As a result of this, she's an outcast and she takes up prostitution.

In time, she judiciously limits who she'll have sex for money with to one guy...and she's doing it as a symbolic act of revenge on that guy and other Americans who have screwed her in various ways.

But then she meets, falls in love with and commits to a young man who is fairly decent if you overlook his pride and his gambling. They start to build a life together but she conceals the fact that she's still whoring with the American on the side.

See, she's not just doing this for revenge; she's doing this to get more money so the young pair can have an ideal future together elsewhere. She acknowledges to herself that she could do other work, but that prospect doesn't seem too exciting and it doesn't pay as well, so never mind.

Well, of course the true love of her life finds out by discovering her at work. He shoots an arrow into her, but once he hears her reasons...he forgives her. I guess all that lying and deceit didn't undermine his trust in her and their relationship because....love conquers all! It was only a flesh wound, so to speak.

How very, very romantic!

We never discover the longlasting value of their love though, because at this point the author brings in a bit player to set up a tragic (but-you-probably-had-it-coming) death scene.

How tidy.

That leaves the young lover to continue on with his life in sorrow and solitude.

It kinda makes you wonder what criteria people were using when deciding what constitutes a literary classic.

[Paul Manytravels · Rating 5 out of 5]

In spite of my reluctance to give 5 star ratings, I find myself unable to consider anything else for this wonderful book. In spite of being a first novel, it won a Pulitzer Prize and certainly deserved it.
I probably should not be surprised that I am giving 5 star ratings lately since I depend so heavily on the ratings and comments of others whenever I choose a book, but since those ratings have been so helpful, I feel a bit duty-bound to pay it forward.
Laughing Boy is an intense love story, not the usual go-to novel for guys, but one that is worth getting out of the male rut. The strengths of this novel are that it develops both the characters and their feelings for one another with such precision, such insightful detail and such empathy for the characters, their relationship and the struggle they face. Its other strength is its ability to so beautifully depict the Navajo culture in which the story occurs.
A few years ago, Tony Hillerman created a series of crime/suspense novels set on the Navajo Reservation and detailedly describing the Navajo culture while also telling compelling murder mystery stories. I read every one of his books as did everyone in my office. Reading Laughing Boy takes me back to that experience and give me the same feeling of authenticity that Hillerman's books did.
For anyone who has been in love, totally, unconditionally besotted with another, this book will ring true, reminding them of the early days of their passion and perhaps renewing it through its honest and detailed portrayal.
This book was written over 55 years ago yet continues to receive the type of praise that earns respect, that can make a book stay around for many years until it is finally recognized as a classic.
It is a book that readers will not only read but will also feel and remember.