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The Grass Dancer
From the lore of her people, the Sioux, Susan Power presents an extraordinary debut novel rich in drama and infused with magic. Set on a North Dakota reservation, this book weaves the stories of the old and the young, broken families, romantic rivals, and men and women in love and at war.
333 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1994
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6109 people want to read
About the author
Mona Susan Power
7 books419 followersSusan Power, now publishing under the name "Mona Susan Power," is an enrolled member of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe (Iháŋktȟuŋwaŋna Dakhóta). She was born and raised in Chicago. She earned her bachelor's degree from Harvard University and a JD from Harvard Law School. She decided to become a writer, starting her career by earning an MFA from the Iowa Writers' Workshop.
Her fellowships include an Iowa Arts Fellowship, James Michener Fellowship, Radcliffe Bunting Institute Fellowship, Princeton Hodder Fellowship, United States Artists Fellowship, McKnight Fellowship, and Native Arts & Cultures Foundation Fellowship.
She resides in Saint Paul, Minnesota.
Her newest novel is A Council of Dolls (forthcoming in August 2023 from Mariner/HarperCollins).
Her fellowships include an Iowa Arts Fellowship, James Michener Fellowship, Radcliffe Bunting Institute Fellowship, Princeton Hodder Fellowship, United States Artists Fellowship, McKnight Fellowship, and Native Arts & Cultures Foundation Fellowship.
She resides in Saint Paul, Minnesota.
Her newest novel is A Council of Dolls (forthcoming in August 2023 from Mariner/HarperCollins).
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 288 reviews
November 7, 2015
What I said in the secrecy of my thoughts was: Fanny, mazaska, the white iron you call money, is useless to me. Even the goods I take from the sutler's store, the flour, coffee, sugar, and tobacco, the knives and blankets, are things I do not want. I give them to my cousins who live upriver.These words belong to Red Dress, ancestor of several members of Susan Power's wonderful cast, who gives the novel a kind of foundation stone or pivot. Her presence, like that of other ancestors and spirits, is real in their lives: here the truth of powerful and often dangerous medicine and magic is taken for granted. I remembered a friend comforting me once saying that everything that dies goes on being somewhere and this is true if only in that afternoon country of the past, but reading The Turquoise Ledge: A Memoir before this prepared me to believe more wholeheartedly in the visions and visitations of Power's multilayered narrative, which eschews linearity and braids stories and voices in a way that reminded me of Louise Erdrich
From the beginning I was smitten with some of the characters, especially Pumpkin, full of joy to be partaking of the pow-wow, consciously shrugging off her inhibitions, flexing and displaying her abilities without vanity or disdain for others. She has been successful in the state education system and she is able to understand what this has given to and taken from her, and to see a way forward for herself that honours and includes her passionate engagement with her native heritage as well as builds on academic success.
One important character, Jeanette, is a well-intentioned ignorant and foolish white woman who has somehow managed to get herself employed as a school teacher on the reservation. Her attempts to integrate herself into Sioux culture and reflect her students' backgrounds in her teaching are almost unbearably cringeworthy, but the cringe-factor is definitely enhanced by my awareness of being a similar sort of cringey white feminist myself. While the teenage students dutifully repeat well-known stories of Iktomi, stories from their own lives or told by relatives, darker and less acceptable, run through their minds. The children use folktale cleverly as a mask or ruse to keep the truth safe from this ignorant, dangerous outsider. That Jeanette is dangerous at this point we can tell from her attitude, as she tells the students that her lessons are about give and take and she expects to learn as much as they do, her intent is exposed as the white liberal strain of extractivism, one which sees cultural heritage as a value-able resource.
Jeanette has a pleasing character arc though, gradually learning some degree of wisdom and starting to be of use to those around her rather than a pain in the ass, wielding her feminism against Herod as white women are still doing today. However, Herod's patriarchal attitudes don't get a free pass from Power. His wife isn't impressed with them either and like conservative sexual customs, they are presented as due for an update. As my friend Margaret pointed out in discussion of the book, it's easy to see how some people would benefit by discussing their feelings openly, as Pumpkin and Harley do, for example. Jeanette's confusion and naivity provides a useful opportunity to correct liberal misconceptions, but also helps other strands to stage a dynamic, living culture that is anything but frozen and monolithic. As Red Dress and uncle Ghost Horse show their descendants, selective adaptation, open-mindedness and commitment to try new ways are themselves traditional to the Sioux.
Unlike the parable-like Iktomi tales, which Frank thinks of as baby stories as he tells one, these real stories require more than an explanatory sentence of interpretation. Grandfather Herod passes on a story-stub to Harley about his uncle Ghost Horse, and Harley then has to re-enact the story in his own life to find out its importance. Reenactment is also necessary later, in response to dreams and problems. Some knowledge can't be passed on in telling, even when the seating plan is congenial, it has to be lived, entered through the body.
Harley is perhaps the closest thing the novel has to a central character, subjected to the most twists and turns of event, involved in the most relationships. I loved the scenes between Harley as a child and his grandmother, Margaret, who is ill, and Margaret's twin daughters, Evie and Harley's mother Lydia. Evie wants her mother to witness the historic Moon landing, but Margaret is unimpressed, telling Harley that there is a Moon for everyone who sees the Moon and that she could walk on the Moon herself. She proves this to him with a beautiful flourish. This reimagining disrupts the USian moon landing narrative and its Cold War subtexts, forming a spectacular decolonising gesture that Margaret gifts to her grandson, more fabulous than any material inheritance.
Anna/Mercury is a descendant of Red Dress whose magic is very powerful. She is dangerous because she uses her medicine selfishly, and perhaps Susan Power is giving a little nod here to those who know Iktomi, who is also a selfish person and is punished, reminding us that selfishness is the quality of a bad Sioux. Courage and resourceful intelligence must be the converse, since Margaret thinks, amusingly, Elizabeth Bennett 'would have made a good Sioux'.
A contrast between this book and Louise Erdrich's work is the attitude towards Christianity, the worldview and vision of which Power presents in all its deathly, world-eating, law-and-order horror through the character of a priest helped by Red Dress, who is unmoved by her Christian education, but accepts her situation among the whites as fate. Despite, or perhaps because of, the quality of her assistance he makes no converts. When she translates the priest's stories to her family, Sioux logic defeats them – they are inferior tales:
Bear Soldier, head chief of our band and my own father, was a logician whose counsel was solicited by other leaders. He listened to the anecdotes I dutifully translated for the priest – Cain slaying Abel, Abraham's willingness to sacrifice Isaac, Joseph delivered into slavery by his jealous brothers – and shook his head. My father wanted to know, “Why are his people so determined to kill their relatives?”Thus, the critical orientation to Christianity is always respectfully expressed in a way that explains Sioux traditional religion as again when Frank is chatting with a Sioux Christian and repeats one of Herod's comments: “That's what Tunkasida told me, something like that. He said the Christian God has a big lantern with the kerosene turned way up, and the people pray to Him for guidance, and he lights the way. Now, Wakan Tanka, when you cry to Him for help, says, 'Okay, here's how you start a fire.' And then you have to make your own torch”.
So I asked Father, “Why did Cain kill Abel?”
Father pointed at me and shook his finger. “Because he didn't have faith.”
I told my father, “When the priest's people don't believe in the higher spirits they go crazy.”
”Then we'll pray for them.” he said.
What you get in these stories is no blazing kerosene, but a whole lot of hard work learning, especially for Harley. The key metaphor of the grass dance in the book's title moves gently through the narrative, slowly revealing its meanings and depths, carrying joy, love, grief, anger and power, working its signs in action, in the spirit. This is a gorgeous, glorious novel and I will definitely read all Susan's books.
August 19, 2014
I loved this book and could hardly bear to put it down. In fact it is now one of my favourite magic realist books, which is saying a lot (this is the 116th review on this blog). There are some books that you should read in one sitting or as near to one as you can get. This is one such book. Each chapter in the book is almost a separate story, narrated by different characters at different times (it is important to make a note of the year that appears under each chapter heading). This patchwork of stories comes together to form the larger picture. This structure is why it is important to read the book rapidly, because you can lose your way if you take too long. I felt very much that I was dreaming when I read the book - experiencing a series of instances, visions, references that came in and out of focus, until at last they formed one vision.
Dreaming and visions are at the heart of this book. The full story of Red Dress does not come until towards the end of the book, but she appears in the dreams and visions of the characters throughout the book. I read somewhere that that is how Susan Power got the idea for the book - the woman in a red dress appeared to her. The line between the real and the dream is constantly blurring. Which is real - the dream or the waking? Power makes it clear how central dreams were and are to Sioux culture. I can't help thinking that they should be more important to the culture of the white man (and woman in my case). It seems to me that we have lost something when we forgot to take our dreamworld as seriously as our waking.
There are some memorable characters in this book - the most notable being the awful and awesome Anna (Mercury) Thunder. She could so easily have been a stereotype, but Power gives her a back story that shows that she was not always the witch she becomes and also explains why she changed. Of course the book's structure of telling characters' stories in reverse makes the revelation of Anna Thunder's past tragedy all the stronger.
If I have one criticism it is that there are perhaps too many characters to keep track of, especially as the book's chronology jumps about so much. One of the reasons for my confusion was that the storyline is structured almost as a series of variations on a theme, with incidents reappearing through the generations. In this I was reminded of Alan Garner's books, which so influenced me as a child and which also feature legends that reappear in the present day.
I have read a number of excellent magic realist books dealing with the complexity of life of modern Native Americans in a predominantly white society, but none have shown mixed marriages and mixed parentage as this book does. The different generations (apart from Red Dress's) all feature inter-race relationships. And yet this book shows the native "magic" as very much a part of accepted everyday life. On the reservation magic just happens and everyone accepts it. This is contrasted with the attitude of the white schoolteacher who comes to live with and study Anna Thunder. Despite being around Anna and supposedly respecting Sioux heritage and culture, she is shocked and scared when she realizes that Anna can actually work her magic. As Anna affirms: I am not a fairytale.
No Anna you are not and nor are your beliefs and nor is magic realism.
This review first appeared on http://magic-realism-books.blogspot.com
Dreaming and visions are at the heart of this book. The full story of Red Dress does not come until towards the end of the book, but she appears in the dreams and visions of the characters throughout the book. I read somewhere that that is how Susan Power got the idea for the book - the woman in a red dress appeared to her. The line between the real and the dream is constantly blurring. Which is real - the dream or the waking? Power makes it clear how central dreams were and are to Sioux culture. I can't help thinking that they should be more important to the culture of the white man (and woman in my case). It seems to me that we have lost something when we forgot to take our dreamworld as seriously as our waking.
There are some memorable characters in this book - the most notable being the awful and awesome Anna (Mercury) Thunder. She could so easily have been a stereotype, but Power gives her a back story that shows that she was not always the witch she becomes and also explains why she changed. Of course the book's structure of telling characters' stories in reverse makes the revelation of Anna Thunder's past tragedy all the stronger.
If I have one criticism it is that there are perhaps too many characters to keep track of, especially as the book's chronology jumps about so much. One of the reasons for my confusion was that the storyline is structured almost as a series of variations on a theme, with incidents reappearing through the generations. In this I was reminded of Alan Garner's books, which so influenced me as a child and which also feature legends that reappear in the present day.
I have read a number of excellent magic realist books dealing with the complexity of life of modern Native Americans in a predominantly white society, but none have shown mixed marriages and mixed parentage as this book does. The different generations (apart from Red Dress's) all feature inter-race relationships. And yet this book shows the native "magic" as very much a part of accepted everyday life. On the reservation magic just happens and everyone accepts it. This is contrasted with the attitude of the white schoolteacher who comes to live with and study Anna Thunder. Despite being around Anna and supposedly respecting Sioux heritage and culture, she is shocked and scared when she realizes that Anna can actually work her magic. As Anna affirms: I am not a fairytale.
No Anna you are not and nor are your beliefs and nor is magic realism.
This review first appeared on http://magic-realism-books.blogspot.com
October 29, 2015
This book follows the lives of various members of the Sioux Nation starting in the 1980s and going back into the 18 hundreds. It was very interesting reading about things that many would consider paranormal or supernatural, but we're or are considered real in traditional Sioux culture. One of the characters is a Sioux witch, a rather evil one, and there are also ghosts and a shaman. Long-dead ancestors still make appearances in modern life.
At first it might seem like there are too many characters, however as the story ends everything comes together. All the characters and stories are interrelated and come together in a perfect whole story leaving the reader very satisfied. I loved all the references to the Grass dancer who “wants to learn grass secrets by imitating it, moving his body with the wind." Indeed grass is an important theme in many ways. I would highly recommend this book!
This is my second reading and I loved it even more than the first time around, so it definitely gets 5 stars from me!
I think Susan Powers is an extremely gifted writer and I look forward to reading more from her.
At first it might seem like there are too many characters, however as the story ends everything comes together. All the characters and stories are interrelated and come together in a perfect whole story leaving the reader very satisfied. I loved all the references to the Grass dancer who “wants to learn grass secrets by imitating it, moving his body with the wind." Indeed grass is an important theme in many ways. I would highly recommend this book!
This is my second reading and I loved it even more than the first time around, so it definitely gets 5 stars from me!
I think Susan Powers is an extremely gifted writer and I look forward to reading more from her.
November 9, 2022
read this for the first time for a class during my last semester of undergrad & have truly thought about it almost every day since. finally picked it back up & officially shelving it as a favorite—these characters are rubbed into my soul, all alive & circular. i am so so so grateful this novel exists
April 23, 2024
I haven't been this angry at a book in such a long time. And no this is not a good angry. I was angry because this book annoyed so much out of me and I couldn't quit it because I had to finish it for school. God I'm so glad to be done with this book.
Before I rage on this book I'll explain what it's about. It follows a group of people living on a Sioux Dakota reservation, and it's essentially a book of interconnected stories that all basically tell the long multigenerational tale of this entire family. It starts out in the present, and as the book progresses it moves further back in time until at the very end it arrives back at the present again. It's a cool concept, but I hated the book too much to think of it as more than just a cool concept. In class we watched an interview with Susan Power and she basically said that one reason she wrote it like this is so that we first get to have an opinion or impression of each character, and as we move back in time she explains everyone's backstories and reasons for doing things, and it's essentially an entire book telling us not to judge a book by it's cover because people cannot be judged so easily. Again, it's a cool idea, but I honestly don't think it's executed in the best way possible. I'll explain later.
First, let's start with the good stuff because, honestly, this will be very short. I did enjoy the writing and learning about the Sioux culture. I will say the writing in this book is really beautiful, and I love the descriptions and imagery and scenes that Susan Power writes. It's a really descriptive and colorful book, and it certainly was very good. I also really liked learning about the Sioux culture and what they believed in, including the Grass Dances and all the magic they believed in. I thought it was pretty fascinating. That's frankly all I got to say LOL.
Another thing is that, although this book seriously made me annoyed and frustrated and angry, there are some parts of the book that I did semi-enjoy, hence the 2 star rating and not 1 star. For example, there are scenes where we see Christianity being forced into the Sioux culture, like with Reverend Pyke (what an evil man) and the other priests and fathers. I liked the exploration of colonization and religion into the Dakota culture. These parts made me mad, but in a good way. Susan Power describes the invasion of Christianity into the reservation in a really powerful way, and it really shows how Christianity is extremely invasive and absolutely destroying valuable Indigenous culture and teachings and such. Ugh it's always the white people.
Now for the bad stuff. God I'm fuming while typing this right now LMFAO.
THERE ARE WAY TOO MANY CHARACTERS. OH. MY. GOD. You know very well by now that I hate it when books have a plethora of characters but don't spend the adequate amount of time describing each and every single one. Yes, I do say that the story moves back in time and we learn about (almost) every character's backstory. For me, these backstories just weren't good enough. The entire book I'm literally sitting here thinking, why the hell am I supposed to care for this character? Why should I know them? What do they do for the plot? Tell me why at least five new characters appear in every single freaking chapter. Even in the very last chapter there is a brand new character that's introduced (at least I think he's brand new. Omg see. I couldn't even tell you because I don't freaking remember all the characters in the book). Almost all the characters are so forgettable and literally I could care less about every single one. I don't know if this is intentional, but it feels like Susan Power wrote this novel just expecting the reader to have sympathy for the characters right off the bat. Like babe no you gotta make me like them wtf. Anyway, there are way too many characters. I promise Power could cut out half of the characters and the story would still be the exact same thing, but better. Not only are there so many characters, the characters are not given enough detail and are not described with enough care for me to like any of them. Like, oh no, Harley Wind Soldier is sad boo hoo. Like ok????? What about it????? I'm sorry I just really don't feel anything for any of the characters in this book.
This kind of goes on with the last paragraph, but I just don't like how the story is really structured. Like I said in the beginning, the fact that the story goes backwards in time is a really interesting and pretty cool idea. I just really don't think it was executed correctly. The backwards motion of the entire story just makes it confusing as to what's the main focus of the entire story. What's the point of all of this? Literally when I read the first chapter I was thinking that Harley was going to be the main character and that we were going back in time to explain the events his ancestors went through to explain Harley's situation. Boy was I wrong. The structure just makes the entire thing more confusing and it doesn't really make it clear on what's the point, why are we going back in time, and why any of it was necessary. Also, Harley being the main focus in the first chapter and never really being the main focus ever again until the end is so so so so confusing. This is what I mean when I say Susan Power does not give adequate description and time for each character. If all these characters are supposed to be important, why is Harley getting more attention than any of the other ones? Treat all the characters equally if they're going to be more important omg.
Anyway I have to write an essay analyzing a theme for this book. It took me so long to come up with an essay topic because genuinely this book is not as deep as my literature class makes it out to be. I genuinely did not understand how my class was able to have such deep conversations about this book because nothing deep or interesting was going on. For example, one of my assignments in my class was to write a discussion board post analyzing one of the characters from the chapter titled, "Moonwalk," and I'm not lying it took me over 12 hours to write that single discussion post because I genuinely could not write a deep, meaningful character analysis on a single character in that chapter. Literally what. How can I analyze a character that isn't 3-dimensional in the first place. But that's just me. I clearly have the unpopular opinion because my other classmates completed the assignment just fine LOL.
Uh so in conclusion I hated this book but I didn't hate it enough to give it one star. There were some enjoyable moments, such as all the Christianity being evil scenes that I mentioned earlier. This book overall was just a complete waste of my time. I didn't like it. Before I began the book I had low expectations to begin with so I guess it didn't really matter. Please don't read this book unless you really really disagree with my review I guess. Ok bye!!!!!!
Before I rage on this book I'll explain what it's about. It follows a group of people living on a Sioux Dakota reservation, and it's essentially a book of interconnected stories that all basically tell the long multigenerational tale of this entire family. It starts out in the present, and as the book progresses it moves further back in time until at the very end it arrives back at the present again. It's a cool concept, but I hated the book too much to think of it as more than just a cool concept. In class we watched an interview with Susan Power and she basically said that one reason she wrote it like this is so that we first get to have an opinion or impression of each character, and as we move back in time she explains everyone's backstories and reasons for doing things, and it's essentially an entire book telling us not to judge a book by it's cover because people cannot be judged so easily. Again, it's a cool idea, but I honestly don't think it's executed in the best way possible. I'll explain later.
First, let's start with the good stuff because, honestly, this will be very short. I did enjoy the writing and learning about the Sioux culture. I will say the writing in this book is really beautiful, and I love the descriptions and imagery and scenes that Susan Power writes. It's a really descriptive and colorful book, and it certainly was very good. I also really liked learning about the Sioux culture and what they believed in, including the Grass Dances and all the magic they believed in. I thought it was pretty fascinating. That's frankly all I got to say LOL.
Another thing is that, although this book seriously made me annoyed and frustrated and angry, there are some parts of the book that I did semi-enjoy, hence the 2 star rating and not 1 star. For example, there are scenes where we see Christianity being forced into the Sioux culture, like with Reverend Pyke (what an evil man) and the other priests and fathers. I liked the exploration of colonization and religion into the Dakota culture. These parts made me mad, but in a good way. Susan Power describes the invasion of Christianity into the reservation in a really powerful way, and it really shows how Christianity is extremely invasive and absolutely destroying valuable Indigenous culture and teachings and such. Ugh it's always the white people.
Now for the bad stuff. God I'm fuming while typing this right now LMFAO.
THERE ARE WAY TOO MANY CHARACTERS. OH. MY. GOD. You know very well by now that I hate it when books have a plethora of characters but don't spend the adequate amount of time describing each and every single one. Yes, I do say that the story moves back in time and we learn about (almost) every character's backstory. For me, these backstories just weren't good enough. The entire book I'm literally sitting here thinking, why the hell am I supposed to care for this character? Why should I know them? What do they do for the plot? Tell me why at least five new characters appear in every single freaking chapter. Even in the very last chapter there is a brand new character that's introduced (at least I think he's brand new. Omg see. I couldn't even tell you because I don't freaking remember all the characters in the book). Almost all the characters are so forgettable and literally I could care less about every single one. I don't know if this is intentional, but it feels like Susan Power wrote this novel just expecting the reader to have sympathy for the characters right off the bat. Like babe no you gotta make me like them wtf. Anyway, there are way too many characters. I promise Power could cut out half of the characters and the story would still be the exact same thing, but better. Not only are there so many characters, the characters are not given enough detail and are not described with enough care for me to like any of them. Like, oh no, Harley Wind Soldier is sad boo hoo. Like ok????? What about it????? I'm sorry I just really don't feel anything for any of the characters in this book.
This kind of goes on with the last paragraph, but I just don't like how the story is really structured. Like I said in the beginning, the fact that the story goes backwards in time is a really interesting and pretty cool idea. I just really don't think it was executed correctly. The backwards motion of the entire story just makes it confusing as to what's the main focus of the entire story. What's the point of all of this? Literally when I read the first chapter I was thinking that Harley was going to be the main character and that we were going back in time to explain the events his ancestors went through to explain Harley's situation. Boy was I wrong. The structure just makes the entire thing more confusing and it doesn't really make it clear on what's the point, why are we going back in time, and why any of it was necessary. Also, Harley being the main focus in the first chapter and never really being the main focus ever again until the end is so so so so confusing. This is what I mean when I say Susan Power does not give adequate description and time for each character. If all these characters are supposed to be important, why is Harley getting more attention than any of the other ones? Treat all the characters equally if they're going to be more important omg.
Anyway I have to write an essay analyzing a theme for this book. It took me so long to come up with an essay topic because genuinely this book is not as deep as my literature class makes it out to be. I genuinely did not understand how my class was able to have such deep conversations about this book because nothing deep or interesting was going on. For example, one of my assignments in my class was to write a discussion board post analyzing one of the characters from the chapter titled, "Moonwalk," and I'm not lying it took me over 12 hours to write that single discussion post because I genuinely could not write a deep, meaningful character analysis on a single character in that chapter. Literally what. How can I analyze a character that isn't 3-dimensional in the first place. But that's just me. I clearly have the unpopular opinion because my other classmates completed the assignment just fine LOL.
Uh so in conclusion I hated this book but I didn't hate it enough to give it one star. There were some enjoyable moments, such as all the Christianity being evil scenes that I mentioned earlier. This book overall was just a complete waste of my time. I didn't like it. Before I began the book I had low expectations to begin with so I guess it didn't really matter. Please don't read this book unless you really really disagree with my review I guess. Ok bye!!!!!!
December 22, 2020
Another reviewer called this magical realism and I think that’s the best description of this series of interwoven ‘chapters, or maybe they are short stories about Dakota Sioux and the myths, magics and choices that impact several generations.
June 27, 2024
“I prefer to watch the present unravel moment by moment than to look close behind me or far ahead. Time extends from me, flowing in many directions, meeting the horizon and then moving beyond to follow the curve of the earth. But I will not track its course with my eyes. It is too painful. I can bear witness to only a single moment of loss at a time. Still, hope flutters in my heart, a delicate pulse. I straddle the world and pray to Wakan Tanka that somewhere ahead of me He has planted an instant of joy.”
First of all I absolutely loved the structure of the books & how the stories were sort of told circularly starting with the “present” & then working backwards to Red Dress’s & Ghost Horse’s stories & then coming back again to continue Charlene’s & Harley’s stories. Seeing all the different character arcs sort of go in reverse & then come back to complete their circles was really powerful. In this way the ending isn’t really an ending but a beginning which is also a really cool representation of Indigenous conceptions of time & history.
Click here to read my full review of THE GRASS DANCER on storygraph complete with my full thoughts, further reading suggestions, & more of my favorite quotes!
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
CW // racism, genocide, death, murder, alcohol, ptsd, abuse
August 29, 2024
The magical realism, the character development, and craft is just amazing. Very bright and intelligent work that fortifies the many experiences, beliefs, and practices of the Dakota people. I loved the theme of seeking identity when feeling in between two worlds, especially with the threat of colonialism. Each character’s navigation through those struggles were so interesting and revealing all at the same time. Definitely worth the read!
December 9, 2015
A great read with Ms. Power's wonderful storytelling.
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February 16, 2023School
August 25, 2013
Right from the beginning, I knew that Susan Power's The Grass Dancer was a book I never would have picked up on my own. Though I'm generally up for reading about any culture, I've been burned by a couple about Native Americans, so I'm hesitant to read them. Still, that's not something I'm proud of and is certainly no reason to write off all of those books, so, when this showed up in Sadie Hawkins, I figured I'd give it a try. While I didn't precisely dislike The Grass Dancer, I didn't really like it either, and I definitely did not understand it.
The Grass Dancer is a strange novel from a narrative perspective. Power uses multiple perspectives, varying from chapter to long chapter. Some of the perspectives are in third person and others in first. Since I read the book in chunks by chapter (seriously, they're long), I can't say for sure how unique the voices are in the first person chapters, but it pretty much all read like the same narrator to me. As such, I found the shifts in narration confusing.
Shifting from third to first person isn't all that weird though. Plenty of books do that. What not as many books do is jump around in time while switching perspectives. The book opens (with no year ascribed, then goes to 1981. From there, the narrative keeps jumping backwards years at a time, all the way to 1935, at which point it finally hops back to the early 1980s. WHUT.
Each chapter is a somewhat self-contained narrative and, taken individually, some of them were quite interesting and would have made decent books if built out more. Both the 1981 story, involving Pumpkin, one of the only female grass dancers and one of the best regardless of gender, and the 1964 story about Crystal Thunder, which is about her falling in love with a white man. Race and culture and identity and romance are the main themes, and I'm totally all for that. Some of the other narratives, the one of Red Dress most especially, bored me.
Taken as a whole, though, I have no freaking clue what to make of this book. Why did it go backward? Why make it so difficult for me to piece together how everyone's related? To follow this, I would have had to build out a family tree and keep track of names. As it is, I think I got the broad strokes, but missed the more subtle impacts the earlier timelines had on the later. Having finished, I really have no clue what I was meant to get out of this novel. What I consider the main plot, the frame story, seems, to me, unresolved and unsatisfying. Basically, I just don't get it.
So there you go. I don't think this was a book for me, and I don't think I did it justice because I am baffled.
The Grass Dancer is a strange novel from a narrative perspective. Power uses multiple perspectives, varying from chapter to long chapter. Some of the perspectives are in third person and others in first. Since I read the book in chunks by chapter (seriously, they're long), I can't say for sure how unique the voices are in the first person chapters, but it pretty much all read like the same narrator to me. As such, I found the shifts in narration confusing.
Shifting from third to first person isn't all that weird though. Plenty of books do that. What not as many books do is jump around in time while switching perspectives. The book opens (with no year ascribed, then goes to 1981. From there, the narrative keeps jumping backwards years at a time, all the way to 1935, at which point it finally hops back to the early 1980s. WHUT.
Each chapter is a somewhat self-contained narrative and, taken individually, some of them were quite interesting and would have made decent books if built out more. Both the 1981 story, involving Pumpkin, one of the only female grass dancers and one of the best regardless of gender, and the 1964 story about Crystal Thunder, which is about her falling in love with a white man. Race and culture and identity and romance are the main themes, and I'm totally all for that. Some of the other narratives, the one of Red Dress most especially, bored me.
Taken as a whole, though, I have no freaking clue what to make of this book. Why did it go backward? Why make it so difficult for me to piece together how everyone's related? To follow this, I would have had to build out a family tree and keep track of names. As it is, I think I got the broad strokes, but missed the more subtle impacts the earlier timelines had on the later. Having finished, I really have no clue what I was meant to get out of this novel. What I consider the main plot, the frame story, seems, to me, unresolved and unsatisfying. Basically, I just don't get it.
So there you go. I don't think this was a book for me, and I don't think I did it justice because I am baffled.
April 11, 2017
Two young Sioux—Harley Wind Soldier and Charlene Thunder—try to figure who they are and what love means to them on a North Dakota reservation. Their family histories create a tapestry of possibilities, ways of living with loss and love. On Harley Wind Soldier’s side, his mother Lydia Wind Soldier deals with the death of her husband and oldest son by refusing to speak, while Margaret Many Wounds, Lydia’s mother and Harley’s grandmother, keeps her grief close in a secret only revealed with her death. Ghost Horse is their ancestor, and where Harley’s history connects with Charlene’s, for Ghost Horse loved and lost Charlene’s ancestor Red Dress.
Charlene’s family deals with loss much differently than Harley’s. Charlene is raised by her grandmother, Anna/Mercury Thunder, who has turned her medicine woman powers into evil, and plans to pass down her legacy to Charlene. Mercury tried to pass down her powers before with Charlene’s mother Crystal, and failed. Crystal is thus lost to both Charlene and Mercury. But Mercury has had sorrow in her past too, as has her ancestor Red Dress, whose spirit haunts the family and condemns Mercury’s magic.
Grass Dancer is a beautiful magical realism novel, one I’ll revisit.
Charlene’s family deals with loss much differently than Harley’s. Charlene is raised by her grandmother, Anna/Mercury Thunder, who has turned her medicine woman powers into evil, and plans to pass down her legacy to Charlene. Mercury tried to pass down her powers before with Charlene’s mother Crystal, and failed. Crystal is thus lost to both Charlene and Mercury. But Mercury has had sorrow in her past too, as has her ancestor Red Dress, whose spirit haunts the family and condemns Mercury’s magic.
Grass Dancer is a beautiful magical realism novel, one I’ll revisit.
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June 6, 2008It took me back to the days when all I had to worry about was if my boyfriend was ever going to tell me he loved me. Days when going to PowWow's was our summer vacation and we looked forward to it as if we were going on a trip to Disney Land.
September 7, 2015
This is a beautifully written book. The magical realism, the character development, the lyricism are all fabulous. I did occasionally have trouble keeping up with who was who in the sectional changes, but not enough to effect my rating.
July 25, 2024
I liked this book and may teach it. It goes back and back and back in time, and the students will have to keep track of a whole lot of characters, but there's a lot of cool stuff, some of it unsettling. I want to read more by Susan Power.
May 10, 2023
Wow wow! I have chills, with the ending of this book still hovering over me. This book was good from beginning to end. Around page 100, I wrote down some thoughts in my book journal. These are still relevant, now that the book is complete:
"Some novels are composed of a series of stories from various characters' perspectives. Novels like these can sometimes feel like a short story collection, rather than a bigger-picture-piece. Sometimes, that style doesn't really work for me. In such stories I've previously encountered, chapters often contain hidden mentions of a character from a previous chapter. These surprise connections often feel more like cheap easter eggs, planted randomly to illicit a simple "ooh, there she is again!" from readers.
This book, however, blows my mind. It elevates this variety of narrative structure to heights I haven't previously experienced. Each chapter has a different protagonist, different narrator, different setting and time frame. Yet, the chapters still feel connected because when you reencounter characters, there is such depth to discover. These aren't mere passing-bys, characters from different chapters serendipitously making brief appearances in each others' lives. These are stories built on a certain small-town interconnected feeling, each character impacts the others in unexpected and profound ways. Each chapter adds a layer to these relationships. All together, those layers give me a deep-rooted community feeling. Characters make reappearances and histories deepen. Nuance is added. Perspectives shift and leave me spellbound. These pages are poignant and powerful and I can't get enough."
Also...shout outs to my husband (cuz I borrowed his copy), and to his professor, who assigned it to him in college :) it's funny how books stumble into your life, sometimes.
"Some novels are composed of a series of stories from various characters' perspectives. Novels like these can sometimes feel like a short story collection, rather than a bigger-picture-piece. Sometimes, that style doesn't really work for me. In such stories I've previously encountered, chapters often contain hidden mentions of a character from a previous chapter. These surprise connections often feel more like cheap easter eggs, planted randomly to illicit a simple "ooh, there she is again!" from readers.
This book, however, blows my mind. It elevates this variety of narrative structure to heights I haven't previously experienced. Each chapter has a different protagonist, different narrator, different setting and time frame. Yet, the chapters still feel connected because when you reencounter characters, there is such depth to discover. These aren't mere passing-bys, characters from different chapters serendipitously making brief appearances in each others' lives. These are stories built on a certain small-town interconnected feeling, each character impacts the others in unexpected and profound ways. Each chapter adds a layer to these relationships. All together, those layers give me a deep-rooted community feeling. Characters make reappearances and histories deepen. Nuance is added. Perspectives shift and leave me spellbound. These pages are poignant and powerful and I can't get enough."
Also...shout outs to my husband (cuz I borrowed his copy), and to his professor, who assigned it to him in college :) it's funny how books stumble into your life, sometimes.
August 15, 2019
Dreams, medicine and ceremony are integral parts of The Grass Dancer. Susan Power writes with carefully executed intensity in each of her haunting stories which are all set on the same North Dakota reservation.
It took a little while to become fully immersed but once there, I was swept away by Power’s stark and confident prose.
We are gifted a plethora of unique and fully fleshed characters but Mercury Thunder, an elder who uses bad medicine, was written with a particularly brilliant depth and is one of the greatest characters I’ve encountered in years.
This is one of the first fiction novels I’ve read that explores bad medicine and it’s reputation on reservations at length. The fear and danger surrounding it was palpable.
There are many who describe this novel as magical realism and I feel that’s insulting. There is no magic here: there are ceremonies, spirits and medicine. Whether someone believes in them or not does not warrant painting First Nations traditions with a farcical, magical paintbrush. To put it simply, don’t do that.
The only thing that bothered me about the novel itself was pow wow regalia being referred to as a costume numerous times. As someone from Manitoba, I can’t say for sure whats said in the states but that’s incredibly offensive and not acceptable where I’m from.
Overall, I strongly encourage you to read The Grass Dancer if you haven’t already. I hope to see it more on IG because it’s presence is very scarce.
Miigwech!
It took a little while to become fully immersed but once there, I was swept away by Power’s stark and confident prose.
We are gifted a plethora of unique and fully fleshed characters but Mercury Thunder, an elder who uses bad medicine, was written with a particularly brilliant depth and is one of the greatest characters I’ve encountered in years.
This is one of the first fiction novels I’ve read that explores bad medicine and it’s reputation on reservations at length. The fear and danger surrounding it was palpable.
There are many who describe this novel as magical realism and I feel that’s insulting. There is no magic here: there are ceremonies, spirits and medicine. Whether someone believes in them or not does not warrant painting First Nations traditions with a farcical, magical paintbrush. To put it simply, don’t do that.
The only thing that bothered me about the novel itself was pow wow regalia being referred to as a costume numerous times. As someone from Manitoba, I can’t say for sure whats said in the states but that’s incredibly offensive and not acceptable where I’m from.
Overall, I strongly encourage you to read The Grass Dancer if you haven’t already. I hope to see it more on IG because it’s presence is very scarce.
Miigwech!
November 16, 2020
In the acknowledgements at the end of the book, Susan Power thanks her family for passing these folk stories down to her. It was not until then I understood why I was not enjoying this book. I went in expecting a cohesive work of fiction, while this is actually a collection of folk tales. I feel a bit unfair rating this so low because I went in with the wrong expectation, but the truth is, I'm not a fan of folk stories from any culture. I can appreciate the importance of documenting them, particularly for indigenous peoples, but I would not have picked this up had I understood what it was.
Like most folk stories, these focus on fantastical occurrences, cultural artifacts, family legends, etc. There are a lot of characters (the book covers 140 years of history), none of whom is well-developed. The book explores themes including manhood, sexuality, and the influence of Christianity on the Sioux people. I was never sold on Power's authorial voice. She is certainly competent, but not masterful, and never manages to craft a narrative in a way that is engaging. I found the pace rather tepid. I would not consider this a particularly good piece of literature.
For anyone new to indigenous authors, I would recommend Louise Erdrich (Chippewa), who is one of the greatest living American authors.
Like most folk stories, these focus on fantastical occurrences, cultural artifacts, family legends, etc. There are a lot of characters (the book covers 140 years of history), none of whom is well-developed. The book explores themes including manhood, sexuality, and the influence of Christianity on the Sioux people. I was never sold on Power's authorial voice. She is certainly competent, but not masterful, and never manages to craft a narrative in a way that is engaging. I found the pace rather tepid. I would not consider this a particularly good piece of literature.
For anyone new to indigenous authors, I would recommend Louise Erdrich (Chippewa), who is one of the greatest living American authors.
March 10, 2016
Grass Dancer
Susan Powers
March 8, 2016
Read this book with a good friend - you will want to discuss it. The story has some many layers and yet they all work together so well that it is not overwhelming. This is probably a book you can reread many times and find new perspectives with each reading.
Is it a book about:
The contrast between tradition and progress? Yes
The conflict between Native American and mainstream culture? Yes
A coming of age story for adolescents or middle age or old age? Yes
A love story? Yes
A family saga? Yes
A bromance? Yes
Rich with characters you would like to meet for coffee? Yes
All this an more - but you will want to discuss it with a friend.
It may even inspire a vacation to North Dakota.
I do recommend that you keep a table of characters and their connections - I wish I had.
At first the reverse chronology was maddening but hang in there; it makes sense in the end.
Susan Powers
March 8, 2016
Read this book with a good friend - you will want to discuss it. The story has some many layers and yet they all work together so well that it is not overwhelming. This is probably a book you can reread many times and find new perspectives with each reading.
Is it a book about:
The contrast between tradition and progress? Yes
The conflict between Native American and mainstream culture? Yes
A coming of age story for adolescents or middle age or old age? Yes
A love story? Yes
A family saga? Yes
A bromance? Yes
Rich with characters you would like to meet for coffee? Yes
All this an more - but you will want to discuss it with a friend.
It may even inspire a vacation to North Dakota.
I do recommend that you keep a table of characters and their connections - I wish I had.
At first the reverse chronology was maddening but hang in there; it makes sense in the end.
September 23, 2021
I don't think I've ever seen such unbelievable depth and complexity in a novel. Underlying the idea of colonialism by having the text be colonized by Western authors, beyond genius. I look forward to rereading this in years to come, only to discover how much I missed. I think then I will give it 5 stars.
December 9, 2024
A Dance of Soul
Power has captured the essence of her characters, not describing as much as looking within. She reveals their culture better than any other book I have read. I wish my Lakota friend were alive to share this glimpse of a side of her she could never quite reconcile with her life.
Power has captured the essence of her characters, not describing as much as looking within. She reveals their culture better than any other book I have read. I wish my Lakota friend were alive to share this glimpse of a side of her she could never quite reconcile with her life.
September 13, 2025
I cried when this book was over—I didn’t want it to end. The Grass Dancer has easily taken its place in my top 10 favorite books. Ms. Power is such a powerful writer and storyteller; thank you for sharing your talent with the world.
July 29, 2019
Beautifully crafted novel about Sioux culture.
July 6, 2009
Native American tales told in reverse chronological order. Lots of myth and mysticism. Very interesting. I enjoyed it very much. I think it might make for a good book-group discussion.
May 29, 2021
This book weaves the stories of young and old, living and dead beautifully. It is lovely, sad, tragic, loving, hating.
May 20, 2024
Very twisty story, but the connections become clearer as you go on! Great characters, exciting adventures and mystery. I Loved It!
I Gotta Say, I LOVE Chuck Norris!! 8*)
I Gotta Say, I LOVE Chuck Norris!! 8*)
November 27, 2025
The Grass Dancer is a beautifully layered novel where every character and every timeline folds into the next, creating a story that feels alive with history and spirit. It moves seamlessly between decades—from the 1800s to the late 20th century—showing how the lives, choices, loves, and losses of earlier generations echo forward into the present. What seems at first like a set of separate stories soon reveals itself to be a single, interconnected web.
One of the most remarkable aspects of the book is how deeply entwined all the characters are. A small detail in one chapter becomes a revelation in another. A character’s mysterious personality suddenly makes sense once we’re pulled into their ancestor’s past. Relationships that appear simple on the surface stretch across time in complicated, emotional, and often spiritual ways. These connections never feel forced—they feel inevitable, as though the threads were always there waiting to be uncovered.
The novel also carries a palpable sense of magic—not fantasy, but the spiritual, cultural, and ancestral magic rooted in the traditions of the Sioux people. Visions, dreams, spirits, and sacred presences move through the story naturally, shaping events and guiding characters across generations. Power treats this spiritual world as inseparable from daily life, giving the novel an enchanted, powerful atmosphere. It feels like the past is close enough to touch, and the ancestors never stopped speaking.
Ultimately, The Grass Dancer is more than just a multigenerational novel—it’s a circle of stories that reveal how the living are shaped by those who came before. It’s haunting, magical, and deeply meaningful, especially for readers who love rich generational sagas with a strong spiritual heartbeat.
One of the most remarkable aspects of the book is how deeply entwined all the characters are. A small detail in one chapter becomes a revelation in another. A character’s mysterious personality suddenly makes sense once we’re pulled into their ancestor’s past. Relationships that appear simple on the surface stretch across time in complicated, emotional, and often spiritual ways. These connections never feel forced—they feel inevitable, as though the threads were always there waiting to be uncovered.
The novel also carries a palpable sense of magic—not fantasy, but the spiritual, cultural, and ancestral magic rooted in the traditions of the Sioux people. Visions, dreams, spirits, and sacred presences move through the story naturally, shaping events and guiding characters across generations. Power treats this spiritual world as inseparable from daily life, giving the novel an enchanted, powerful atmosphere. It feels like the past is close enough to touch, and the ancestors never stopped speaking.
Ultimately, The Grass Dancer is more than just a multigenerational novel—it’s a circle of stories that reveal how the living are shaped by those who came before. It’s haunting, magical, and deeply meaningful, especially for readers who love rich generational sagas with a strong spiritual heartbeat.
October 8, 2019
The writer moves through multiple generations of several families in the Dakota Sioux. She also moves backward from the present day to the start of the story a century earlier. Then, she moves back to the present day to wrap it up in a very satisfying manner.
A few of the transitions felt very jarring, which led me to dropping it from five to four stars. The overall story is quite good, but getting knocked out of the storyline is never good, and it happened several times.
That said, Susan Power's characters are excellent, and I definitely want to see them in more stories. While The Grass Dancer ends on a good note, there are plenty of other plotlines that spun out of the story which I'd love to see followed up.
FIND IT! BUY IT! READ IT!
A few of the transitions felt very jarring, which led me to dropping it from five to four stars. The overall story is quite good, but getting knocked out of the storyline is never good, and it happened several times.
That said, Susan Power's characters are excellent, and I definitely want to see them in more stories. While The Grass Dancer ends on a good note, there are plenty of other plotlines that spun out of the story which I'd love to see followed up.
FIND IT! BUY IT! READ IT!
September 7, 2024
read on a rec from a buddy - just beautiful, looping stories. the structure of the book reminded me so much of the structure of tommy orange’s writing. beautiful on a sentence level ����🌀
“I prefer to watch the present unravel moment by moment than to look close behind me or far ahead. Time extends from me, flowing in many directions, meeting the horizon and then moving beyond to follow the curve of the earth. But I will not track its course with my eyes. It is too painful. I can bear witness to only a single moment of loss at a time. Still, hope flutters in my heart, a delicate pulse.“
“I prefer to watch the present unravel moment by moment than to look close behind me or far ahead. Time extends from me, flowing in many directions, meeting the horizon and then moving beyond to follow the curve of the earth. But I will not track its course with my eyes. It is too painful. I can bear witness to only a single moment of loss at a time. Still, hope flutters in my heart, a delicate pulse.“
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