Pointing with Lips: A week in the life of a rez chick

by Dana Lone Hill

“It is rare that you come across a new voice as authentic as Dana Lone Hill. She writes with passion and determination about a side of America that few will ever see. But Lonehill takes you there with emotion and raw power. Pointing With Lips is a startling debut.” - Paul Harris, The Guardian

Sincere Strongheart is a modern day rez chick and single mother of three, living on one of the poorest Indian reservations in America. The novel Pointing with Lips covers a week of her life in Pine Ridge, interacting with many unforgettable characters in her large family. Sincere’s story is funny, raw, sad, even suspenseful, but the main struggle lives inside her as she hopes to overcome the buried demons of her past.

Her first book is already creating a rez sensation with Indian Country media:
“Dana Lone Hill is a powerful new voice from Lakota Country that has so often been confined to historical stereotype or painted in a contemporary setting with a one dimensional brush. Dana shatters those shackles and forms a deeply personal, raw and moving narrative that takes the reader deep into contemporary life on Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, one of the world’s most complex and engaging societies.” -Steven Lewis Simpson director of the Native films Rez Bomb, A Thunder-Being Nation & The Hub.

“With so much literature out there attempting to portray authentic Native life, it is refreshing to have a work written from the perspective of someone who has actually lived it. This book is essential reading for those attempting to understand the life of Native people living in America.” - Brandon Ecoffey, editor, Native Sun News


“Pointing with Lips by Dana Lone Hill just might be one of the best books I’ve come across—if not the best. A beautiful, entertaining, relatable, inspirational, and so-much-more read, Lone Hill’s poetic yet readable wording makes you feel as if you’re sitting attentively across from her, gripping a cup a coffee waiting for more.” - Patricia Stein, Urban Native Magazine

Lone Hill (Oglala Lakota) is internationally recognized for her freelance writing in the Guardian newspaper, LAST REAL INDIANS, Lakota Country Times, The Intersection of Madness and Reality, LA Progressive and her popular blog: www.justarezchick.wordpress.com. On Twitter: @JustARezChick.
On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Pointingwith...

POINTING WITH LIPS © 2014 was published by Blue Hand Books, a collective of Native American authors who guide and assist other Native writers to publish their paperbacks and ebooks using Amazon's Create Space and KDP. They are based in western Massachusetts. Visit their website at www.bluehandbooks.org.
Like BHB on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bluehandbooks

EBOOK BONUS: Interview with Author

Genres: Biography, Native American

328 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 7, 2014

Reviews

[Aliette · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not always an easy read (child abuse and addiction issues, among other subjects), but a deep, layered and wonderful one. Sincere, a single mother on a reservation, recounts a single week in which many things change for her--relationships with family, lovers, friends--in a distinctive and always lovely voice. The cast of characters is impressive: it's large and everyone manages to be both instantly recognisable and memorable. Recommended.

[Fictionista Du Jour · Rating 5 out of 5]

To be perfectly transparent, the author is a friend of mine.

that being said, this is a bittersweet, beautiful, emotional character study.

I found it completely satisfying and wonderful, and laughed at how similar Indian and Mexican life is.

I loved every single flawed character in this story.

Pacing was excellent, plot superb. Now suffering from a story hangover, not ready to move on to the next book...

[Barbikat60 · Rating 5 out of 5]

The dysfunctional life of all the people in this book made me cry. I related to so much of it. I have eight years sober now and if I had any regrets about drinking, it was quickly removed after reading this book. I don't know how much of this is sensationalism on the part of the author. I am hoping that this story is about one particular family and that alcoholism isn't as rampant on reservations as the author is leading us to believe. I look forward to reading more from the author but I do hope she has a better editor.

[Fischwife · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an entertaining, frustrating, thought-provoking, and interesting read.

Dana Lone Hill is a good storyteller. Her characters were believable and likeable, in spite of their flaws.

The book could have used a good proof-read. There were times when errors made the text confusing. )These errors were not part of the characters' vernacular--those "errors" were clearly intentional and appropriate.) In spite of this, the book was readable, and the story moved along well.

I teach adults who have returned to school in hopes of improving their lives, and I know people like "Sis", the protagonist. So, this story hit very close to home for me.

[Greg Olson · Rating 4 out of 5]

On the one hand, this is a light-hearted look at the day-to-day life of a single mother living in Pine Ridge, SD. On the other hand it is an unflinching, unsentimental, matter of fact look at the protagonist's slide into alcoholism and self destructive behavior. I appreciate the fact that Lone Hill avoids the "poverty porn" that permeates most writing about life on the Rez. I also appreciate her portrayal of family life. Dysfunctional though it may be, family is still family.

[Ezra · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was a required read for the Native American Novel course I'm taking for my English major. While it was slow moving, the characters were likable and realistic. I would have liked the ending to have been less abrupt, and I feel like most of the action, as well as the climax of the novel, took place in the last fifty pages - which, I think, was a factor in the slow-moving beginning. But, it was one of my favorites of the books we read for the class, and an unflinchingly told story.

[Alexis · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best books I have read this year. Excellent characterization, believable characters, perfect sense of micro/macro movements, and extremely entertaining.

I am now suggesting this book to everyone I know.

Beautiful.

[mad mags · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Ain't gotta lie to kick it."

(Full disclosure: I received a free pdf copy of this book for review through Library Thing's Member Giveaway program. Also, trigger warning for discussions of rape, violence, and drug and alcohol use.)

Born and raised on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, Dana Lone Hill offers us a glimpse inside "a week in the life of a rez chick" with her debut novel Pointing With Lips. We meet 32-year-old Sincere Strongheart - "Sis" for short - the titular "rez chick," just as she's trying to sell some of her jewelry to the tourists who have flocked to town for the annual Oglala Nation Fair and Rodeo. ("People from all over America and the world are fascinated with us, maybe because we are still here after all the bullshit America put us through.")

During the course of the week, we follow Sis as she spends time partying with her best friends Boogie and Zona; evading brother George, a cop who's constantly throwing his siblings in the drunk tank; quits/is fired from her dead-end job at the Great Sioux Shopping Center, the one and only grocery store on the rez; rescues her sister Frieda's kids from one of her drug-fueled sex parties; and flirts with friend Ricky and border town white guy Mason. There's also the town parade (Planned Parenthood was banned for life when it handed out condoms instead of the more standard, diabetes-inducing candy) and brother Misun's going-away BBQ, complete with plenty of family drama.

Against this backdrop, we see Sis slowly slide from social drinking into the bottomless pit of alcoholism, which has claimed the hopes, dreams, and lives of so many of her friends and family.

Sis has three children - 6-year-old Jasmine and 12-year-old twins Craig and Creighton - but is mother to many, including her six siblings. (Well, except for Mark's twin, Misty, who moved off the rez and changed her name.) With all the time Sis spends worrying about others, her slow descent has gone mostly unacknowledged, even as Sis has witnessed firsthand the damage this "smallpox in a can" can wreak. Brother Mark is alcoholic and homeless, despite his family's repeated attempts to help him, and sister Frieda is in constant danger of having her children taken away by DSS. Their own mother Velma began drinking heavily after the death of her baby Rita, and a nine-year-old Sis was sexually assaulted at one of Velma's drunken parties.

Lone Hill doesn't pull any punches when it comes to the scourge of alcoholism among Native populations. Pine Ridge is a dry reservation; the sale of alcohol is banned, and even "possession by ingestion" is a crime. Thus we see Sis and her family making frequent trips to nearby border towns in Nebraska, patronizing white-owned bars in order to buy beer and liquor, effectively taking this money off the reservation. Then they're forced to either rent a motel room or drive home while still inebriated. (Drinking and driving is a frequent occurrence in Pointing With Lips, and often quite literally, e.g., chugging a beer and driving simultaneously vs. getting behind the wheel of a car when already drunk.)

Likewise, the local police spend a disproportionate amount of time enforcing the rez's liquor laws, while violent crimes go mostly ignored. Meanwhile, there appear to be few or no resources for this who wish to get help, and those who seek it are met with impersonal, uncaring social workers - many of them white people brought in from border towns.

Says Sis: "Most of the border towns around our reservation have a troubled history with our tribe due to racism, discrimination, hate crimes, etc., but I think Gordon might take the cake in that department. Back in 1972, an Indian man from our reservation was beaten, stripped, stuffed in a trunk, and publicly ridiculed, then left for dead. Out of the five people originally charged, only two were prosecuted on manslaughter charges with seven years served and a thousand dollar fine between the two."

His name was Raymond Yellow Thunder. Pointing With Lips may be a work of fiction, but it's one that's deeply rooted in fact.

Along with alcoholism and racism, poverty is a constant presence on the rez. Sis reveals how the rez's only store price-gouges its customers, charging triple the off-rez prices. And they have the gall to do this while selling dream catchers and Native pride tees that were manufactured in China (!). Most of the food for sale is of gas station quality: beef jerky, chips, sunflower seeds, and the like; "commod" food seems little better. If people on the rez want fresh produce, they mostly have to grow it themselves or reclaim wild-grown foods from shared spaces.

Pointing With Lips is at both a highly readable book and a socially important piece of fiction. Lone Hill tells a story of personal self-discovery and growth that also introduces the reader to the longstanding oppression of Native peoples and the resulting hardships of reservation life. Over on her blog (the source of this review's title), the author describes Pointing With Lips as "chick lit" - and, while there's plenty of soap opera-style drama to be found, it's so much more. (Not that there's anything wrong with chick lit, mind you.) Lone Hill grapples with weighty issues here, including domestic violence, child neglect and abuse, rape, addiction, racism, poverty, food justice, sexuality, identity, and more.

Oftentimes downright painful to read, Pointing With Lips offers a hopeful - yet appropriately ambiguous - ending that both does Sis's story justice, without giving any easy answers. (Also, I loved the Inception-like plot twist at the end!)

My only real complaint is the frequent use of gendered slurs ("bitch," "pussy") and sex-shaming language ("whore," "slut," "hooker"), including against Boogie, a gay man. While Boogie does call out the narrator for using "derogatory and racist" language against her own people (Misty, for example, is an "apple"), I can only assume that he's okay with sexist slurs, since he himself uses the term "bitch." Towards the end of the book, Sis begins to reconsider her negative and judgmental attitude towards other women, so I guess that's a start.

Additionally, the book could stand another round of editing; I spotted a number of grammatical and punctuation errors - enough to be mildly distracting, but not necessarily egregious. Some of these "mistakes" are clearly intentional, meant to reflect the way people actually talk. Others, like missing quotation marks and whatnot, look like they just escaped notice.

A strong 4.5 stars, rounded up to 5 on Amazon.

http://www.easyvegan.info/2014/04/02/...

[Charlene Thompson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it. So many similarities, I understand historical trauma now.

I enjoyed reading this book. They say not to judge a book by it's cover but this Navajo woman did. The cover grabbed my attention. I am searching for more books to read about how to deal with historical trauma, To better help our indigenous people.

[kashtin cole · Rating 5 out of 5]

amazing

This is the second time I read this book and it still stands strong today! Amazing and true, I am native who grew up and lives on a reservation and a lot of the book I can identify with and see happening here! Hit all the emotions and understandings! Amazing work of art and expression!

[Tara Schuhmacher · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had a student ask me to order this book, and I decided to read it first.

Overall I think it was a really great storyline and it was fun to know all the places that were talked about.

There were a few glaring mistakes though, nothing too terrible, but I wish it was edited a little better.

[anitafv · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is one of the best modern Native written stories that I've read in a long time!

The story was based on a reservation and had so much realism I easily related
I highly recommend it to any age.

[Melanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing

Great book; definitely recommend it to anyone who is looking to experience a different world. It is written in rez style.

[Lyssa · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved having class discussion about this novel and frankly enjoyed the conversations more than the reading experience. My classmates had such insightful thoughts that really deepened my understanding and perspective on Sis and all her different relationships. I do think the story could use a bit of polishing–the pacing was off and there were numerous typos. However, I recognize this is a smaller publisher so I didn’t knock the rating over these slight issues. I read this for a Native American Literature course and thought it provided a very frank and honest reflection on reservation life. The other texts we read didn’t go into the modern rez life quite as in depth.

[Alison · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pine Ridge Reservation life unfiltered. The protagonist is flawed, but so very likable. She is a woman I would enjoy having a beer with-- tough but charming.

The novel could be said to use a thorough edit, but alternately one might read the tense-changes and grammar errors as part of the main character's persona. She tells the story in first person and comes across as smart but uneducated. A woman who could do so well for herself if only given a chance.

The ending was a bit abrupt. I won't spoil it, but there were a few plot lines that just weren't wrapped up adequately. I enjoyed reading this nonetheless.

[Kevin Sells · Rating 5 out of 5]

This one has all the bones in it.

This is one gritty, tell it like it is story. The sights, sounds and smells are right. The situations are real. The family dynamics are accurate. And the despair... The hopelessness... There's no exaggeration. If anything it's toned down a bit.
It brought back memories of sending my crews out every Monday morning to drive around and tally up broken windows in the HUD houses. Of how one year we went through 500 interior doors. Most of which had holes in them right at head height. And Rez dogs!

[Colin · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book brings me home

Pointing with Lips captures the real hardships of surviving reservation life. Lone Hill brings together characters that can be found in any Rez anywhere. I’ve read this book multiple times and am always captivated by the familiarity of growing up on the Rez. RIP Dana. I wish I wrote this while you were still here. This book is my go to when I feel homesick. Wopila.

[Michael Blackmore · Rating 4 out of 5]

Took me a while to get into it, but I was well rewarded by the time that happened. Good first book and I hope to see more by the author. It's often troubling and sometimes you want to shout some sense into the lead, which just shows how real some of the characters can feel.