Blue Ravens: Historical Novel

by Gerald Vizenor

Gerald Vizenor weaves an engrossing historical portrayal of Native American soldiers in World War I. Blue Ravens is set at the start of the twentieth century in the days leading up to the Great War in France, and continues in combat scenes at Chateau-Thierry, Montbrehain, and Bois de Fays. The novel contains many of Vizenor s recurrent cultural themes the power and irony of trickster stories, the privilege of survivance over victimry, natural reason and resistance. After serving in the American Expeditionary Forces, two brothers from the Anishinaabe culture return to the White Earth Reservation where they grew up. They eventually leave for a second time to live in Paris where they lead successful and creative lives. With a spirited sense of chance, totemic connections, and the tricky stories of our natural transience in the world, Vizenor creates an expression of presence commonly denied Native Americans. Blue Ravens is a story of courage in poverty and war, a human story of art and literature from a recognized master of the postwar American novel and one of the most original and outspoken Native voices writing today. Check for the online reader s companion at blueravens.site.wesleyan.edu."

300 pages, Paperback

First published February 11, 2014

About the author

Gerald Robert Vizenor is an Anishinaabe writer and scholar, and an enrolled member of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe, White Earth Reservation. Vizenor also taught for many years at the University of California, Berkeley, where he was Director of Native American Studies. With more than 30 books published, Vizenor is Professor Emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley, and Professor of American Studies at the University of New Mexico.

Reviews

[Kiki Bolwijn]

I loved the mix of old native American aspects and the new world that the brothers discover, but what I found most memorable is the theme of storytelling. Sometimes I forget how much I like the art of storytelling, just between family or friends. The feeling of that experience was conveyed in such a great manner that, when writing this, I almost forget that the storyline itself did not interest me that much.

[The Kenosha Kid]

I feel like this is going to be one of those books that didn't immediately impress itself upon me after reading but over time will continue to rattle around my brain with growing appreciation. I think most of all what really interested me was the cultivation of identity across cultures and countries. Especially the way the brother's explore and establish their indigenous identities in France because of how France's trauma of WWI is reflected in their own trauma of WWI.

I probably would've gotten a lot more out of this book if I had a better grasp of Native American Lit. and its history. My favorite parts were his musings and description of Art History (both western and native american) and was always eager for more of that probably because this was the most accessible to me.

I read this right before I read Cosima by Grazia Deledda and it was a good pairing because both explore the impact of traditional story telling on the emerging writer. I talk about this more in my post on Cosima.

Edit: a really good review on the book is Jay Whitaker's from The American Indian Quarterly, Volume 39, Number 2, Spring 2015. I found it on Project Muse.

[Hannah Young]

While I can recognize that this is an excellent book, I get really bored reading it. Sorry, world.

[Jan]

I love it when a book sends me down a rabbit hole. I took a break from the book to read about WW1 injuries, Anna Coleman Ladd, portrait masks, and
anaplastology.

[a.ramos]

At one point, I thought Piri Thomas' Down these Mean Streets was the worst book I have ever read. However, Gerald Vizenor came in, guns blazing and all, and made me appreciate DTMS. If I was told to choose between reading DTMS or Blue Ravens, DTMS hands down. Hell, no contest. I cannot, in good conscience, recommend Blue Ravens to anyone. There is absolutely no plot. I am not exaggerating. There is literally no plot whatsoever. Just two brothers that aren't really brothers fighting in the First World War, talking about writing about war stories and painting blue ravens on everything and everywhere (vandalism?). If there was a clear point to Vizenor's novel, I definitely missed it, and I don't have any plans to read it again to find out. I have other ways to torture myself if I wanted to, but I am not a masochist. I guess that is it for this review.

[Yvonne]

4,5 stars out of 5.

Would I recommend this book to my friends?
No, unless....
Would I talk about it with them?
Sure thing!

Unless one has some interest in Vizenor's theoretical work on "presence"/"absence" and irony of (native) trickster stories, one must have a lot of 'reading flesh' to one's disposal to actually finish this book.
Perseverence [that is:
1. to cope with Vizenor's use of his own theory on almost every second page of this novel (there are countless phrases with the words 'natural sense of presence' or 'ironic' - preferably combined in one sentence);
2. to not be bothered by name dropping when it comes to avant-garde artists that lived and worked in Paris (not to mention all the street names that are used);
3. to very actively use the internet to search for photographs, paintings, maps and historical information 4. etc.]
will surely be rewarded in the end.

Vizenor is a good novelist, no doubt. I feel enriched by having read this complex work and happy to have the opportunity to study it a little more....

[Kelly]

I liked how art and literature were portrayed as ways of understanding war. The recurring blue ravens as reminders of Native presence and vision were a powerful motif.

[World Literature Today]

This book was featured in the Nota Benes section of the March/April 2015 issue of World Literature Today Magazine.

http://www.worldliteraturetoday.org/2...

[Michelle Boyer]

I feel like the best way to describe my feelings about this book are as follows: I like the idea of the book more than the book itself.

I am not a huge fan of Vizenor because his novels are always just a little too hard to fully envelope yourself in. There is a lot of information to be had here and I do love the blue ravens that appear throughout the novel. After all, art brings beauty to a world at war. But of course, the blue ravens are deeper. There are some fun trickster analyses throughout that you might pick up on if you're a Native literature or Native studies reader. Some of it might not become apparent if you're not familiar with some of these nuances.

All in all, I'm glad that I read this so that I can know what people are talking about if this ever comes up in conversation. If someone asked me about an Indigenous work that deals with war, this might be one that I would mention alongside a few others. But as just a reader, not my favorite.