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Winterkill
Winner of the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association Book Award
From the two-time winner of the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association a deeply moving and evocative novel of fathers and sons. Danny Kachiah is a Native American fighting not to become a casualty. His father, Red Shirt, is dead; his wife, Loxie, has left him, and his career as a rodeo cowboy is flagging. But when Loxie dies in a car wreck, leaving him with his son, Jack, whom he hardly knows, Danny uses the magnificent stories of Red Shirt to guide him toward true fatherhood. Together, Danny and Jack begin to make a life from the dreams of yesterday and the ruins of today's northwestern reservations.
From the two-time winner of the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association a deeply moving and evocative novel of fathers and sons. Danny Kachiah is a Native American fighting not to become a casualty. His father, Red Shirt, is dead; his wife, Loxie, has left him, and his career as a rodeo cowboy is flagging. But when Loxie dies in a car wreck, leaving him with his son, Jack, whom he hardly knows, Danny uses the magnificent stories of Red Shirt to guide him toward true fatherhood. Together, Danny and Jack begin to make a life from the dreams of yesterday and the ruins of today's northwestern reservations.
336 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1984
17 people are currently reading
766 people want to read
About the author
Craig Lesley
32 books28 followersCraig Lesley is the author of 4 novels and a memoir, along with numerous other works. He has received three Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association Awards, the Western Writers of America Golden Spur Award for Best Novel, and an Oregon Book Award. He has been the recipient of several national fellowships and holds a Doctorate of Humane Letters from Whitman College. Currently the Senior Writer-in-Residence at Portland State University, Craig lives with his wife and two daughters in Portland, Oregon. Both Storm Riders and The Sky Fisherman were nominated for the Pulitzer Prize.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 77 reviews
December 19, 2013
A beautiful father - son bonding story which takes place on the Indian reservations of Eastern Oregon. Gorgeous writing and a definite must - read if you're from the region.
November 21, 2017
Exceptional, gorgeous writing. Reminiscent of Ivan Doig or maybe Ernest Hemingway (although Lesley's writing is far superior to Hemingway's in terms of depicting a character's emotions and to create a connection between reader and character.
An excellent portrayal of contemporary Native American life, and I found the many subtle, tacit instances of racism and the ways Danny handled them, to be but one of the novel's many highlights.
An excellent portrayal of contemporary Native American life, and I found the many subtle, tacit instances of racism and the ways Danny handled them, to be but one of the novel's many highlights.
December 10, 2023
While there is much to admire about this 1984 book and I remain glad to have read it, I want to be 2023 honest.
I think there are a few passages that are not sensitive by today’s standards, I can bear that.
However, this is not a book for everyone, there is body shaming, some nasty remarks about women as sexual objects, and violence against humans as well as animals.
Craig Lesley has done an amazing job of presenting fully realized life for the Umatilla and Wallowa Nez Perce Tribes of Oregon. He writes a vivid accurate landscape of Eastern Oregon.
In researching Craig Lesley I found little criticism of his choice of subject or treatment of sensitive issues.
I think there are a few passages that are not sensitive by today’s standards, I can bear that.
However, this is not a book for everyone, there is body shaming, some nasty remarks about women as sexual objects, and violence against humans as well as animals.
Craig Lesley has done an amazing job of presenting fully realized life for the Umatilla and Wallowa Nez Perce Tribes of Oregon. He writes a vivid accurate landscape of Eastern Oregon.
In researching Craig Lesley I found little criticism of his choice of subject or treatment of sensitive issues.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 24, 2018
This one is set in eastern Oregon. It is the story of a modern Native American and his relationships with others - his father, his son, his friends, his heritage. There is not a lot of plot with this one, but some excellent character development.
January 21, 2020
I liked the main character more as the story went on, as his evolution is significant. Because I live near and have visited many of the book's settings, it felt very real, and it incorporated the history of the native peoples in this area and their beliefs/traditions in an engaging way.
July 5, 2023
A spectacular story of a father reuniting with his son in the Pacific Northwest. Lesley himself isn’t Native American, but you’d never guess it from how steeped in tribal lore, history, and community the book is; but it works so well because the story is deeply grounded in the humanity of its characters. Lesley shines in the quiet moments between big life events, the emotional mountains and valleys that mirror the novel’s terrain. The basic story is this: Danny’s ex-wife, who ran off with their son years before, dies, and Danny pulls his now-teenage son Jack, who barely knows him, out of Indian school in Nebraska and back to his hometown in Oregon. We get a lot of flashbacks to Danny’s relationship with his own father, particularly focusing on a fateful hunting trip from when Danny was around Jack’s age. Danny is a past his prime rodeo rider, and Jack has aspirations to make his reputation in the same arena; I haven’t read many books about the rodeo (just this and Larry McMurtry’s Moving On), but it’s becoming a sub-genre I love, apparently. Lesley is such a confident writer, with a deep understanding of human nature; Winterkill feels profound and touching, and I highly recommend it.
November 14, 2021
Gritty tour of the dusty backroads of indigenous Oregon, with a great intro to the cultural mash-up that is the Pendleton Round Up. Well-researched and well-drawn, with a rare, intimate glimpse into the culture destroyed by the drowning of Celilo Falls behind the Dalles Dam. Would give it five stars but for the thin and uneven portrayal of the teenager at the heart of the story. Especially appreciated the fresh take on the Nez Perce tragedy, which has been told many times but feels new and immediate here, and the introduction to Sundown Jackson. Looking forward to the sequel, Riversong. Tough to capture life in Native America without veering into mawkishness, outrage, and/or nihilism, but Lesley does it here with masterstrokes, esp the interplay between a mostly vanished spirituality and rituals like elk hunting.
March 15, 2008
Craig Lesley's writing is fabulous, his characters are memorable. The descriptions of the Northwest are right on. this goes with his other book River Song, but read this one first. Brings you into the heart/mind of the modern day native american and the descriptions of fire fighting, elk hunting, rodeo and the native american experience are enthralling, even if you think you have no interest in these subjects. Highly recommend these and other of Lesley's work.
December 19, 2017
Magnificent, loving depiction of real people, Indians who rodeo, hunt, fish, honor their families, joke and tease. So genuine I sometimes felt like a voyeur. The depiction of the end of the Celillo Falls will never cease to haunt.
August 31, 2018
This coming-of-age and father-son bonding story got off to a rocky start. Drunks, thieves, swindlers were everywhere and to make matters worse they were Native Americans. I wondered where this book was going and had to remind myself that it was published in 1984. If written today, would the author change anything?
The story features Danny, a former high school basketball star and rodeo champion wannabe, and his son Jack, a teenager whose life has been disrupted by his parent's divorce. It also features the late Red Shirt, Danny's father and source of most good things in his life. The setting is on and near the Umatilla Reservation in Oregon, a country that the author, Craig Lesley, describes well. Danny and Jack reconnect after several years' separation and both face difficulties adjusting to their new living situation. Jack is skeptical of the traditional ways that Red Shirt followed just as Danny is rediscovering their importance.
The book is well written with interesting characters and settings. But behind the words I kept wondering how the Native American teachings and descriptions of reservation life would be received by a tribal member.
The story features Danny, a former high school basketball star and rodeo champion wannabe, and his son Jack, a teenager whose life has been disrupted by his parent's divorce. It also features the late Red Shirt, Danny's father and source of most good things in his life. The setting is on and near the Umatilla Reservation in Oregon, a country that the author, Craig Lesley, describes well. Danny and Jack reconnect after several years' separation and both face difficulties adjusting to their new living situation. Jack is skeptical of the traditional ways that Red Shirt followed just as Danny is rediscovering their importance.
The book is well written with interesting characters and settings. But behind the words I kept wondering how the Native American teachings and descriptions of reservation life would be received by a tribal member.
November 26, 2019
I enjoyed this story of a Nez Perce Indian man who reconnects with his teenage son after a time of separation. There are wonderful insights into modern Indian life, and some moments of levity. There us much sadness too with the flashbacks of his time with his own father, Red Shirt, and with his wife who also recently died. The history of Chief Joseph and the Dreamers is also brought out within the narrative and that is sad to read. The least interesting to me was about the rodeo circuit with which I am unfamiliar and don't care for too much, but it was important to the story Overall, the book is a wonderful look at human relationships, the importance of our heritage, and the strength of family bonds. I really enjoyed it.
August 17, 2024
Perhaps 4.5. This is a slow yet captivating novel, which immerses the reader into the Umatilla reservation and the stunning Oregon landscapes in the 80s. It is a book that breathes life into old native stories, customs, knowledge, and history; where visions of spirits in the canyon forests take the shape of wolves and elks; where the modern conditions of life in the reservations are tactfully addressed. But mostly, it is a story of a man reconnecting with his estranged son while revisiting his relationship with his late father, and trying to teach his son what it means to be an Indian in the modern world. I'm definitely looking forward to reading the sequel, River Song.
January 21, 2023
I really liked this fictional book about Danny Kachiah, a Native American of the Pacific Northwest. It's not so much a story with a beginning, middle and end, as it is a picture of the life of Danny as a 20th century Indian, living between the white world and the reservation. He is living the life of an Indian rodeo cowboy when his former wife is killed in a car accident and he takes custody of his teenage son. Much of the story has to do with what Danny had learned from his own father, Red Shirt, as he navigates his new role as a father. Set in Oregon, all the places are familiar.
July 13, 2017
The story was not intense or riveting but his writing style just kind of reached right into your mind and emotions. I cannot explain why but I could relate so strongly to some items of my personal experience that I think it allowed me to feel the same way about items that I had not experienced.
I will be looking for more of his work.
I will be looking for more of his work.
October 21, 2018
I enjoyed the book, but am troubled by a story about Native American people and culture, written by an outsider to that culture. That situation was obviously viewed differently in the mid-1980s, when the book was written, than it is today.
August 27, 2021
Beautiful slice of life story. It may not be fast-paced, but it sure is poignant. Its observations about Native American culture, what traditions stand the test of time and are passed on, were intriguing, along with the father/son dynamic and realistic characters. Highly recommend.
March 12, 2018
Not the best writer technically, but created a world full of characters worth caring about...
July 14, 2018
Nice story , but a bit too much emphasis on hunting and rodeo for a city boy like me .
Gave me some insights on the way modern native Americans live with the traditions of their forefathers .
Gave me some insights on the way modern native Americans live with the traditions of their forefathers .
February 1, 2019
I'd never heard of Craig Lesley before, and I was surprised at how good this book is. It captures the quintessential old Pacific Northwest, and offers its characters unadorned and without judgment.
Read
October 14, 2021Local author. Learned a lot about the history of this place!
November 22, 2021
This book came highly recommended to me by a colleague. I liked it well enough, but didn't think it was amazing.
September 28, 2012
The two things that made it 4 instead of 5 stars for me: the dialogue felt unreal to me sometimes and I'm having a hard time personally being "amazed" by stories where women are peripheral. Not a problem with the writing, just hard to blow me away. I did love this book a lot, though, especially when I picked it back up and read it side by side with some relative crap taking place in the same vicinity: Dies the Fire.
Things that ARE amazing/5-star in this book:
*these things that really happened so recently are fucking important for people to know about, and there aren't very many people trying to remind us.
*the writing is beautiful, patient, gentle, and slow in tempo with detailed, physically difficult and time-spanning experiences (again, I might not have appreciated this as much or felt like it stands out as much if I hadn't also been reading a book where people kill, butcher and eat animals in tv-time and without even seeming to be outside)
*the author genuinely seems driven to make the art serve purposes and create change, not by being pedagogic with his writing but by AVOIDING that while taking great care with the subject matter and his commitment to honoring the elements, etc. The scene at the parade is a great example, and hearing from Lesley himself that he worked seven nonstop days - night and day - on a three page passage about the drowning of Celilo Falls.
*edited to add: I did love the women in the stories, too. Women definitely aren't *invisible* in this book; they feel real and likeable even though they are other.
It didn't feel as tragic and disheartening to me as I was expecting it to or as the words referring to it lead you to believe ("deeply moving", "magnificent stories", etc.). It's more casually fatalistic than that.
*****
"Later, he would tell Jack about Red Shirt's chant, and that Jones had seen him cruising the canyons and high ridges. And he would tell the boy about seeing the Weyekin and the dark figure, too. But he needed to think about the stories first, and make sure he told them right."
Things that ARE amazing/5-star in this book:
*these things that really happened so recently are fucking important for people to know about, and there aren't very many people trying to remind us.
*the writing is beautiful, patient, gentle, and slow in tempo with detailed, physically difficult and time-spanning experiences (again, I might not have appreciated this as much or felt like it stands out as much if I hadn't also been reading a book where people kill, butcher and eat animals in tv-time and without even seeming to be outside)
*the author genuinely seems driven to make the art serve purposes and create change, not by being pedagogic with his writing but by AVOIDING that while taking great care with the subject matter and his commitment to honoring the elements, etc. The scene at the parade is a great example, and hearing from Lesley himself that he worked seven nonstop days - night and day - on a three page passage about the drowning of Celilo Falls.
*edited to add: I did love the women in the stories, too. Women definitely aren't *invisible* in this book; they feel real and likeable even though they are other.
It didn't feel as tragic and disheartening to me as I was expecting it to or as the words referring to it lead you to believe ("deeply moving", "magnificent stories", etc.). It's more casually fatalistic than that.
*****
"Later, he would tell Jack about Red Shirt's chant, and that Jones had seen him cruising the canyons and high ridges. And he would tell the boy about seeing the Weyekin and the dark figure, too. But he needed to think about the stories first, and make sure he told them right."
April 1, 2013
Lesley tells the story of thirtyish one-time athlete and almost rodeo star, Danny Kachiah, a Nez Perce Indian, as he reconnects with his teenage son after finding out that his ex-wife has been killed in a car accident. Danny follows the rodeo from small town to small town in Eastern Oregon, where he encounters various friends who are frequently on the wrong side of the law and always up to something. Kachiah helps them out as far as he can while trying to stay mostly out of trouble himself. He returns to the Reservation to round up some loose cattle, enlisting his son for help. Later he invites his son to Elk camp, along with old friend "Ass-Out" Jones (there's a great story behind the name that is eventually revealed).
Danny remembers his father, Red Shirt, a hard-drinking, hard-fighting, follower of the old ways who also has other redeeming qualities and teaches him many things.
If you appreciate the detail of small town life, including lots of real places and real events in Oregon, you'll love this book. You will also learn what it's like to be a rodeo cowboy and modern-day Indian dealing with white and Indian culture. And plenty of fishing, hunting, and basketball too!
Danny remembers his father, Red Shirt, a hard-drinking, hard-fighting, follower of the old ways who also has other redeeming qualities and teaches him many things.
If you appreciate the detail of small town life, including lots of real places and real events in Oregon, you'll love this book. You will also learn what it's like to be a rodeo cowboy and modern-day Indian dealing with white and Indian culture. And plenty of fishing, hunting, and basketball too!
March 3, 2012
This is the Port Townsend Community Read book for 2012. I have read Craig Lesley's memoir, Burning Fence, which is a very nice story of growing up with a difficult stepfather and a distant father in Eastern Oregon.
This fiction piece is set in the same territory with great descriptions of the Celilo Falls, the Umatilla River basin, and the Willawas. This is the story of a modern native american, Danny Kachiah, recounting the lessons he learned from his father as he passes his traditional knowledge on to his son. Danny was a promising rodeo rider, but never made it big. The story begins as his bull riding days are coming to an end. He is living a hardscrabble existence in the old trailer that belonged to his father, Red Shirt. His life revolves around rodeo, drinking, and cowboying until his ex-wife is killed in a car wreck and he brings his 14 year old son, Jack, back to the reservation from an BIA school in Nebraska. Danny settles into showing Jack some of the old ways including the annual elk camp up the Imnaha River. It is a very engaging book that is well-written with some great characters.
This fiction piece is set in the same territory with great descriptions of the Celilo Falls, the Umatilla River basin, and the Willawas. This is the story of a modern native american, Danny Kachiah, recounting the lessons he learned from his father as he passes his traditional knowledge on to his son. Danny was a promising rodeo rider, but never made it big. The story begins as his bull riding days are coming to an end. He is living a hardscrabble existence in the old trailer that belonged to his father, Red Shirt. His life revolves around rodeo, drinking, and cowboying until his ex-wife is killed in a car wreck and he brings his 14 year old son, Jack, back to the reservation from an BIA school in Nebraska. Danny settles into showing Jack some of the old ways including the annual elk camp up the Imnaha River. It is a very engaging book that is well-written with some great characters.
March 19, 2012
This was the first of Craig Lesley's books that I read, I'm guessing in about 1986. I've gone back a few times to refresh my memories of his writing. I love it for his descriptions of the west Idaho and east Oregon region around the Snake River. His ability to talk of the First People and their traditional beliefs and traditions and mesh that with contemporary life helped me see things about the First People I have not been able to understand. It helped me understand the struggle and conflict a young Native American endures. Among dozens of stories he captured in this first novel, he has one of the best descriptions of elk camp I've read. Those of you who have hunted this country will feel back home. I did.
March 9, 2012
Started out really disliking this book--too much "man" appeal, not a single woman character of depth or complexity--but somewhere about 1/3 of the way in it turned a corner for me. I came to appreciate the author's understated style of writing--a lot. Event driven, but not necessarily eventful. It really stands out against the overheated angst I have come to expect from "literary" novels (and my main issue with most book groups). Maybe I'm a Native American or "Rez" denizen at heart, but for a white middle-class CPA, I get the "deal with what's in front of you the best way you can figure out" sensibility of the author better than you might expect. It speaks to my comfort zone.
September 7, 2009
keepin' the faith.... a father/son bonding book that i found very enjoyable. the outdoor life, hard scrabble existence and the worth in living off the land one way or another. the descriptions of the land, especially in winter, were vivid. and the strange shorthand that men use as communication seemed natural and descriptive given the environment of the story. i enjoyed having been some of the places described in the book so i could really picture the place so important to this book. honoring a way of life and code of ethics best remembered before it's too late.
March 4, 2010
I wouldn't have ordinarily picked this up, but a neighbor recommended it and lent it to me as one of her favorite authors. It took me a little bit to get into it, but in the end I enjoyed it and really connected with the characters. It's about a Nez Perce man and the relationship with his son (and memories of his father) - I'm not sure of the time period, but I suspect the 1990's - I think it's a fairly realistic picture of native americans struggling to maintain their culture in the light of our white-dominated society.
February 3, 2021
Exquisite writing...I loved the flow of the story and attention to detail. He moves between Danny
Kachiah'smemories of his father, Redshirt (Nez Perce) and his bonding with his son, Jack, after his ex-wife dies. Set in the Pendleton, Oregon region, especially the Umatilla reservation. We meet Henry Nine-Pipes, Billy Que, Pudge, Ass-out Jones. We hear the stories of the loss of Celilo Falls and the elk camps in the Wallowas. All blended together, it is story of love and loss and reconciliation.
Kachiah'smemories of his father, Redshirt (Nez Perce) and his bonding with his son, Jack, after his ex-wife dies. Set in the Pendleton, Oregon region, especially the Umatilla reservation. We meet Henry Nine-Pipes, Billy Que, Pudge, Ass-out Jones. We hear the stories of the loss of Celilo Falls and the elk camps in the Wallowas. All blended together, it is story of love and loss and reconciliation.
September 7, 2011
I read River Song first which is probably backwards, but was so enamored by the story of Danny Kachiah that I immediately chose this book to read next. I hope there are more! It brings alive the tragic lives on reservations, in contrast to the traditional ways of living. Danny tries to teach his son Jack, as Danny was taught by his father Red Shirt, the traditions of the Nez Perce Indians before they are forgotten and lost.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 77 reviews