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A Story of Deep Delight
Explores the changes that have formed the American South as experienced by three young men living in different eras
480 pages, Hardcover
First published October 23, 1990
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November 26, 2011
Chickasaw territory, cultivated enough to provide generously for its people, still contained, after generations of settlement, large areas for hunting, and wild swamps with intricate waterways that covered the ruins of an earlier era when the Chickasaw Nation was in its prime. All that remained of their great city was a flat topped mound, with a circle of painted stones still sacred to the remnant of the tribe which carried on its traditional ways.
By 1811, the year this chronology begins, it was evident that the treaties they had made with the white politicians were not being honored.
The first part of this book portrays the last betrayals that led to the forced removal of the Chickasaw Nation. It does not follow them along the trail of tears. Some of them survived. They even have a website
http://www.chickasaw.net/
It seems that they are flourishing in the modern way, and, if you are highly qualified,they are even hiring over the internet.
Am I merely foolish and sentimental, not to mention ineffectual to mourn something so fine that has been mostly lost? A way of living life with integrity in close relationship with the land, a truly new model for the European conquerers. Am I being self indulgant when I scream and cry in a fit of rage at what occured so long ago? It isn't as if I don't know these facts, this common story of colonialism, appropriation of land and cultural annihilation.
A Story of Deep Delight is one of those books that takes old news and presents it in such a vivid way that the reader is immersed in the intimacy of the story, engulfed by it, giving it an immediacy that provokes such extreme reactions.
And this is just the first part of a trio of stories, an underground geneology.
In the hands of a lesser author, this could have been a potboiler. McNamee handles his account of slavery and the impact of the civil war between the north and south USA on a particular group of ancestors with delicacy and a lack of judgemental bias. A master of point of view, he makes his readers work hard to keep up with the unexpected twists and turns of the plot. He never takes the conventional, easy way and his characters, while somewhat archetypal, are all presented in their vulnerable complexity.
Part three catapults us into modern times, not yet the present but approaching a century after the war between the north and south. We are given the life of a boy, and his name is unusual but familiar. Thoughtfully, the author has included at the beginning of the book the cast of characters in order of appearance, indexed by year. We can go back and refresh our memory and the connections and connotations. We may spend some time puzzling it out, but in fact, for me, the details didn't matter as much as the overview. Even stronger than a chronology or a family saga it is a history of place. The people who came and went and the things that endured. A weathered mound, circle of stones, an Indian knife.
Parrallels are easily drawn between the hidden tributaries of the swamp and the significant deeds that occurred around it as cities flourished and died around those mud banks. Mcnamees' lucid, straightforward, often terse but more often lyrical prose contains revelations and surprises and a subtlety that reveals itself at the end of part three, when it all becomes, if not clear, full of dizzying implications.
It took me a long time to read this book, having to put it it down abrubtly when I couldn't bear any more. The three stories could actually be read independently, but in fact weave together, laced with pain and sacrifice and noble asperations, a story that will never end and is indeed delightful.
By 1811, the year this chronology begins, it was evident that the treaties they had made with the white politicians were not being honored.
The first part of this book portrays the last betrayals that led to the forced removal of the Chickasaw Nation. It does not follow them along the trail of tears. Some of them survived. They even have a website
http://www.chickasaw.net/
It seems that they are flourishing in the modern way, and, if you are highly qualified,they are even hiring over the internet.
Am I merely foolish and sentimental, not to mention ineffectual to mourn something so fine that has been mostly lost? A way of living life with integrity in close relationship with the land, a truly new model for the European conquerers. Am I being self indulgant when I scream and cry in a fit of rage at what occured so long ago? It isn't as if I don't know these facts, this common story of colonialism, appropriation of land and cultural annihilation.
A Story of Deep Delight is one of those books that takes old news and presents it in such a vivid way that the reader is immersed in the intimacy of the story, engulfed by it, giving it an immediacy that provokes such extreme reactions.
And this is just the first part of a trio of stories, an underground geneology.
In the hands of a lesser author, this could have been a potboiler. McNamee handles his account of slavery and the impact of the civil war between the north and south USA on a particular group of ancestors with delicacy and a lack of judgemental bias. A master of point of view, he makes his readers work hard to keep up with the unexpected twists and turns of the plot. He never takes the conventional, easy way and his characters, while somewhat archetypal, are all presented in their vulnerable complexity.
Part three catapults us into modern times, not yet the present but approaching a century after the war between the north and south. We are given the life of a boy, and his name is unusual but familiar. Thoughtfully, the author has included at the beginning of the book the cast of characters in order of appearance, indexed by year. We can go back and refresh our memory and the connections and connotations. We may spend some time puzzling it out, but in fact, for me, the details didn't matter as much as the overview. Even stronger than a chronology or a family saga it is a history of place. The people who came and went and the things that endured. A weathered mound, circle of stones, an Indian knife.
Parrallels are easily drawn between the hidden tributaries of the swamp and the significant deeds that occurred around it as cities flourished and died around those mud banks. Mcnamees' lucid, straightforward, often terse but more often lyrical prose contains revelations and surprises and a subtlety that reveals itself at the end of part three, when it all becomes, if not clear, full of dizzying implications.
It took me a long time to read this book, having to put it it down abrubtly when I couldn't bear any more. The three stories could actually be read independently, but in fact weave together, laced with pain and sacrifice and noble asperations, a story that will never end and is indeed delightful.
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