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The Ghost Dancers: A Novel
Adrian C. Louis’s previously unpublished early novel has given us “the unsayable said” of the Native American reservation. A realistic look at reservation life, The Ghost Dancers explores—very candidly—many issues, including tribal differences, “urban Indians” versus “rez Indians,” relationships among Blacks, Whites, and Indians, police tactics on and off the rez, pipe ceremonies and sweat-lodge ceremonies, alcoholism and violence on the rez, visitations of the supernatural, poetry and popular music, the Sixties and the Vietnam War, the aims and responsibilities of journalism, and, most prominently, interracial sexual relationships. Readers familiar with Louis’s life and other works will note interesting connections between the protagonist, Bean, and Louis himself, as well as a connection between The Ghost Dancers and other Louis writings—especially his sensational novel Skins .
It’s 1988, and Lyman “Bean” Wilson, a Nevada Indian and middle-aged professor of journalism at Lakota University in South Dakota, is reassessing his life. Although Bean is the great-grandson of Wovoka, the Paiute leader who initiated the Ghost Dance religion, he is not a full-blood Indian and he endures the scorn of the Pine Ridge Sioux, whose definition of Indian identity is much narrower. A man with many flaws, Bean wrestles with his own worst urges, his usually ineffectual efforts to help his family, and his determination to establish his identity as an Indian. The result is a string of family reconnections, sexual adventures, crises at work, pipe and sweat-lodge ceremonies, and—through his membership in the secret Ghost Dancers Society—political activism, culminating in a successful plot to blow the nose off George Washington’s face on Mount Rushmore.
Quintessentially Louis, this raw, angry, at times comical, at times heartbreaking novel provides an unflinching look at reservation life and serves as an unyielding tribute to a generation without many choices.
It’s 1988, and Lyman “Bean” Wilson, a Nevada Indian and middle-aged professor of journalism at Lakota University in South Dakota, is reassessing his life. Although Bean is the great-grandson of Wovoka, the Paiute leader who initiated the Ghost Dance religion, he is not a full-blood Indian and he endures the scorn of the Pine Ridge Sioux, whose definition of Indian identity is much narrower. A man with many flaws, Bean wrestles with his own worst urges, his usually ineffectual efforts to help his family, and his determination to establish his identity as an Indian. The result is a string of family reconnections, sexual adventures, crises at work, pipe and sweat-lodge ceremonies, and—through his membership in the secret Ghost Dancers Society—political activism, culminating in a successful plot to blow the nose off George Washington’s face on Mount Rushmore.
Quintessentially Louis, this raw, angry, at times comical, at times heartbreaking novel provides an unflinching look at reservation life and serves as an unyielding tribute to a generation without many choices.
264 pages, Hardcover
First published September 14, 2021
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117 people want to read
About the author
Adrian C. Louis
36 books25 followersAdrian C. Louis is a Lovelock Paiute author from Nevada now living on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. He has taught at Oglala Lakota College. His novel Skins (1995) discusses reservation life and issues such as poverty, alcoholism, and social problems and was the basis for the 2002 film, Skins. He has also published books of poetry and a collection of short stories, Wild Indians and Other Creatures (1996). His work is noted for its realism.
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Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews
May 18, 2021
“Black Lives Matter.” Yet, there is much, much work to be done. Asian Pacific Island people have increasingly come under attack, and the media is only recently broadcasting that fact. Are indigenous people in America the forgotten ones?
I was drawn to The Ghost Dancers: A Novel by the late Adrian C. Louis, hoping to gain insights into Native culture and way of life. The author, who died in 2018 at the age of 70, was a member of the Lovelock Paiute Tribe. He spent his life as a poet, a teacher of writing, and a mentor to young Native writers at Oglala Lakota College on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota and also taught in the English Department at Southwest Minnesota State University in Mankato. I received a complimentary copy of this book from Nevada University Press and NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.
The Ghost Dancers is set in 1988. Lyman Wilson, affectionately – or maybe without affection by some – known as “Bean” is an educated man. A Paiute man who is originally from Nevada, he is a professor of journalism at Lakota University in South Dakota, where he also writes opinion pieces for the local rag. That’s the good stuff. Bean, unfortunately, has fallen into a rut. He is addicted to alcohol, cigarettes, and women. He’s not a good role model for his son, Quanah. He cheats on his woman, Lena. A lot. With a student, no less.
I liked Lena. She was the most likable character in the book; she forgave Bean far more than he deserved. Quanah and Lena’s son Toby are both teenagers, lost, searching, trying to find their way in their world with little guidance from their elders. They seem to have no belief system – neither the traditional ways of their ancestors, nor the modern ideology of white society. Alcohol is available to them, and like normal teenage males, they are preoccupied with sex.
Bean is a descendent of the Paiute religious leader Wovoka, who was instrumental in founding a resurgence of the Ghost Dance movement, a circular dance believed to reunite the living with spirits of the dead. Bean’s Ghost Dancers take a more political stance. He is the only non-Lakota in the group, who come up with some practical ideas as well as some more bizarre, dangerous/illegal plans.
On the plus side, Louis does not sugarcoat life on the reservation. These are not “noble savages.” Sadly, many of these men and boys fit the stereotypes many whites have of our “Indian” neighbors. He does not shy away from the issues of alcoholism, drug abuse, poverty, unemployment, and sexual promiscuity. He also highlights feuds between tribes and racism, which surprised and saddened me, but I don’t know why it was unexpected. We all make assumptions, I suppose.
The down side of this is that these problems sort of take over the entire book. The plot rambles, and the it could have used some editing to make it more cohesive. And story just ends.
My favorite scenes were the lessons that rang true, that the Lakota felt that the Black Hills were a spiritual place; the carving of the faces was a desecration. But my very most favorite part was toward the end, and that, too, was a spiritual scene of sorts. It was the Yuwipi ceremony that Bean participated in with a group of other men. It was a profound experience for him at the time, and the author described it vividly.
Unfortunately, the high points were, for me, few and far between. I laud this book for its honesty and content, but the execution does not quite deliver.
3 stars
I was drawn to The Ghost Dancers: A Novel by the late Adrian C. Louis, hoping to gain insights into Native culture and way of life. The author, who died in 2018 at the age of 70, was a member of the Lovelock Paiute Tribe. He spent his life as a poet, a teacher of writing, and a mentor to young Native writers at Oglala Lakota College on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota and also taught in the English Department at Southwest Minnesota State University in Mankato. I received a complimentary copy of this book from Nevada University Press and NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.
The Ghost Dancers is set in 1988. Lyman Wilson, affectionately – or maybe without affection by some – known as “Bean” is an educated man. A Paiute man who is originally from Nevada, he is a professor of journalism at Lakota University in South Dakota, where he also writes opinion pieces for the local rag. That’s the good stuff. Bean, unfortunately, has fallen into a rut. He is addicted to alcohol, cigarettes, and women. He’s not a good role model for his son, Quanah. He cheats on his woman, Lena. A lot. With a student, no less.
I liked Lena. She was the most likable character in the book; she forgave Bean far more than he deserved. Quanah and Lena’s son Toby are both teenagers, lost, searching, trying to find their way in their world with little guidance from their elders. They seem to have no belief system – neither the traditional ways of their ancestors, nor the modern ideology of white society. Alcohol is available to them, and like normal teenage males, they are preoccupied with sex.
Bean is a descendent of the Paiute religious leader Wovoka, who was instrumental in founding a resurgence of the Ghost Dance movement, a circular dance believed to reunite the living with spirits of the dead. Bean’s Ghost Dancers take a more political stance. He is the only non-Lakota in the group, who come up with some practical ideas as well as some more bizarre, dangerous/illegal plans.
On the plus side, Louis does not sugarcoat life on the reservation. These are not “noble savages.” Sadly, many of these men and boys fit the stereotypes many whites have of our “Indian” neighbors. He does not shy away from the issues of alcoholism, drug abuse, poverty, unemployment, and sexual promiscuity. He also highlights feuds between tribes and racism, which surprised and saddened me, but I don’t know why it was unexpected. We all make assumptions, I suppose.
The down side of this is that these problems sort of take over the entire book. The plot rambles, and the it could have used some editing to make it more cohesive. And story just ends.
My favorite scenes were the lessons that rang true, that the Lakota felt that the Black Hills were a spiritual place; the carving of the faces was a desecration. But my very most favorite part was toward the end, and that, too, was a spiritual scene of sorts. It was the Yuwipi ceremony that Bean participated in with a group of other men. It was a profound experience for him at the time, and the author described it vividly.
Unfortunately, the high points were, for me, few and far between. I laud this book for its honesty and content, but the execution does not quite deliver.
3 stars
September 11, 2021
Definitely not an enjoyable book by the Paiute author Adrian C. Louis, posthumously published.
This is about the life in an Indian reservation (or rather two) with all its violence, poverty and alcoholism, the difficult relationships between people, families, race and nations and the question "Who is a real Indian?". With its swear words, brutality and racist comments it draws a realistic picture of the 80s and early 90s with some Native Americans trying to fight politically, others just to forget their sad life.
The characters though seem flat at times, and the story doesn´t really develop and set off. The language sometimes seems too dry, so a good intention, but not always a good execution.
Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for an ARC ebook in exchange for an honest review.
This is about the life in an Indian reservation (or rather two) with all its violence, poverty and alcoholism, the difficult relationships between people, families, race and nations and the question "Who is a real Indian?". With its swear words, brutality and racist comments it draws a realistic picture of the 80s and early 90s with some Native Americans trying to fight politically, others just to forget their sad life.
The characters though seem flat at times, and the story doesn´t really develop and set off. The language sometimes seems too dry, so a good intention, but not always a good execution.
Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for an ARC ebook in exchange for an honest review.
May 7, 2021
The Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. I have personal experience working there, and with the citizens of the reservation. The author does a good job of capturing the bleak hopelessness that pervades the area. The poverty, the alcohol and drug abuse, the lack of jobs, the attempts to "improve" the situation by the BIA. He also manages to expound on the unbreakable spirit of the Native Americans.
The author writes a somewhat confusing tale. The main character is Bean, a Native American man from the Paiute tribe of Nevada, who finds himself following work to teach in a Pine Ridge university. I'm not sure if I'm supposed to like Bean or not, but I found him to be a rather repulsive character. I really could not find any good qualities about him.
The underlying story, of a group of Native men who form an underground society to take justice into their own hands, is not very well fleshed out. It seems the author was more concerned with the carousing and cheating of Bean than in advancing the story itself.
The ending was confusing. To be honest, I don't know what happened. It just kind of petered out. Disappointing, because it could have been told much better.
I do like some of the points the author made. About the fact that 80% of the people there being unemployed, with no real prospects for work.
Of the alcohol abuse. And that alcohol sales are banned on the reservation, yet just across the reservation boundary, in White Clay, Nebraska, was a main source of alcohol. White Clay, population 50, sold more beer than Nebraskan urban centers like Lincoln or Omaha. And not one cent of that money went to the reservation! That the arrest total for one year equaled 65% of the 20,000 population, and that 95% of those arrests were alcohol-related.
Of the overbearingness of the BIA. Hiring white people to run the colleges. White people who tell the Native population "how to be Indian". As the author calls it, "a college run for Indians by White outsiders. A colonial structure".
The author summed up his feelings toward White people in the following statement, "The landless scum of Europe, in the name of their cruel God, had gutted the land and trod upon the Indian. And made a country called America". Rather bleak, but yet somehow accurate.
I liked the author's descriptions of life on the reservation. Of his insights into the Native person's minds. I thought the story behind all this, of the secret society "the ghost dancers" was a great idea. It's just too bad that it was handled so poorly.
The author writes a somewhat confusing tale. The main character is Bean, a Native American man from the Paiute tribe of Nevada, who finds himself following work to teach in a Pine Ridge university. I'm not sure if I'm supposed to like Bean or not, but I found him to be a rather repulsive character. I really could not find any good qualities about him.
The underlying story, of a group of Native men who form an underground society to take justice into their own hands, is not very well fleshed out. It seems the author was more concerned with the carousing and cheating of Bean than in advancing the story itself.
The ending was confusing. To be honest, I don't know what happened. It just kind of petered out. Disappointing, because it could have been told much better.
I do like some of the points the author made. About the fact that 80% of the people there being unemployed, with no real prospects for work.
Of the alcohol abuse. And that alcohol sales are banned on the reservation, yet just across the reservation boundary, in White Clay, Nebraska, was a main source of alcohol. White Clay, population 50, sold more beer than Nebraskan urban centers like Lincoln or Omaha. And not one cent of that money went to the reservation! That the arrest total for one year equaled 65% of the 20,000 population, and that 95% of those arrests were alcohol-related.
Of the overbearingness of the BIA. Hiring white people to run the colleges. White people who tell the Native population "how to be Indian". As the author calls it, "a college run for Indians by White outsiders. A colonial structure".
The author summed up his feelings toward White people in the following statement, "The landless scum of Europe, in the name of their cruel God, had gutted the land and trod upon the Indian. And made a country called America". Rather bleak, but yet somehow accurate.
I liked the author's descriptions of life on the reservation. Of his insights into the Native person's minds. I thought the story behind all this, of the secret society "the ghost dancers" was a great idea. It's just too bad that it was handled so poorly.
October 10, 2021
This had a great premise, but really just spun in place. I think that's some of the point. Any kind of plot or character development begins happening and something dramatically halts it - violence and alcohol, yes, but really just lack of direction and purpose. When a character has those - to whatever end - then the story works well. But those are brief glimpses surrounded by frustration and grief. So, the point in many ways is not much character development.
That doesnt make it a better read. I felt like I knew more at the beginning of the book than the end, and the end never made it back to the beginning. Was this an unfinished unpublished novel? Missing chunk of manuscript? I kept waiting for the end to wrap it up and bring a payoff of some sort and it just didnt happen. I also didnt find out really how the character Bean made it to where he was in the beginning of the book.
That doesnt make it a better read. I felt like I knew more at the beginning of the book than the end, and the end never made it back to the beginning. Was this an unfinished unpublished novel? Missing chunk of manuscript? I kept waiting for the end to wrap it up and bring a payoff of some sort and it just didnt happen. I also didnt find out really how the character Bean made it to where he was in the beginning of the book.
May 11, 2021
Native American grit lit at its best! There are no totally lovable characters in this book, but their humanity really shines as they tackle their difficult lives. I really enjoyed reading this and getting a view of life on Pine Ridge Reservation. There's nothing pretty here, but if you want a more realistic view of life on the reservation, this is your book.
July 11, 2021
This was a disappointment. A bleak story that rehashes the common problems Native Americans face. There is an loosely constructed theme of an underground
movement afoot but it doesn’t engage.
Thanks to NetGalley, the publisher and author for the arc.
3*
movement afoot but it doesn’t engage.
Thanks to NetGalley, the publisher and author for the arc.
3*
June 5, 2021
Thank you to University of Nevada Press and NetGalley for providing an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. The book will be published on September 14th, 2021.
Writing: 4.5/5 Characters: 4.5/5 Plot: 4.5/5
A posthumous publication by the author of Skins, this is a raw story of Indian life in late 80s / early 90s. Bean Wilson is an educated Indian — a well known poet and journalist. Born and raised a Paiute in Nevada, he now lives and works with Lakota Sioux on the Pine Ridge reservation in South Dakota. The events in the book follow Bean, his son Quanah, and his girlfriend’s son Toby. Wilson’s interior and verbalized rants permeate the pages on topics ranging from Indians (and himself in particular) being their own worst enemies to harangues on White oppression. While he tries to honor the old ways, he grapples with alcoholism and his womanizing tendencies. The writing depicts his internal struggles and the male culture in which those are common and even respected traits. This is extremely well done. It’s often crude, but feels real and does an excellent job of fleshing out each of the primary male characters — their experiences, their interactions with friends, family, and those who are “other” and the impact on their personal development. Oddly enough, while plenty of bad things happen, I didn’t find it depressing the way I do most Louise Erdrich books. The tone is not as emotional, or maybe it is more angry and less hopeless. Perhaps this is because the real focus is on men? The women characters have depth, but the real magnifying glass is on the men.
I have no insight into why this was not published when it was written — probably in the late 80s or early 90s according to the Forward. That was the only frustrating bit — the world was so well-depicted and I have no clue how things may or may not have changed since then.
The writing is powerful, insightful, and supports the complexity required of any real story. Some quotes below demonstrate both the writing and some of the rants. I loved the first line (which is also the first quote) — somehow it just completely grabbed me.
“The Cancerous burrito of Los Angeles summer seemed to have no effect upon the rambunctious innocence of yelling Chicano kids.”
“Bean looked from the two warriors in the painting to the two Pine Ridgers and repressed an urge toward epiphany.”
“American was a cannibalistic society. There was no true freedom in America. The White man thought he was free. The Black man thought he had been freed. The Indian knew he had been corn-holed.”
“…that garish monument to White greed, carved out of the mother earth, gouged out of the sacred Black Hills, and stolen from the Indians despite the treaties promising no intrusion.” (About Mount Rushmore)
“He despised the rhetoric of contrition that AA and its kindred organizations espoused. He despised the self-righteous reformed drunks who made their various programs for alcoholics a large industry on the Pine Ridge reservation.”
“It’s depressing to the max around here. I hate to say it, but you Sioux live like Black people in ghettos. No pride. No hope. Just booze, drugs, and violence. Pregnant teenagers and commodity cheese.”
“And as educated Indians, we know who our worst enemies are. Some of the worst are our own people. They must be re-educated, those that are the rip-offs. And the other bad enemy is the White liberal who lives on the reservation and purports to help our people. They are bloodsuckers. But that is a different matter.”
Writing: 4.5/5 Characters: 4.5/5 Plot: 4.5/5
A posthumous publication by the author of Skins, this is a raw story of Indian life in late 80s / early 90s. Bean Wilson is an educated Indian — a well known poet and journalist. Born and raised a Paiute in Nevada, he now lives and works with Lakota Sioux on the Pine Ridge reservation in South Dakota. The events in the book follow Bean, his son Quanah, and his girlfriend’s son Toby. Wilson’s interior and verbalized rants permeate the pages on topics ranging from Indians (and himself in particular) being their own worst enemies to harangues on White oppression. While he tries to honor the old ways, he grapples with alcoholism and his womanizing tendencies. The writing depicts his internal struggles and the male culture in which those are common and even respected traits. This is extremely well done. It’s often crude, but feels real and does an excellent job of fleshing out each of the primary male characters — their experiences, their interactions with friends, family, and those who are “other” and the impact on their personal development. Oddly enough, while plenty of bad things happen, I didn’t find it depressing the way I do most Louise Erdrich books. The tone is not as emotional, or maybe it is more angry and less hopeless. Perhaps this is because the real focus is on men? The women characters have depth, but the real magnifying glass is on the men.
I have no insight into why this was not published when it was written — probably in the late 80s or early 90s according to the Forward. That was the only frustrating bit — the world was so well-depicted and I have no clue how things may or may not have changed since then.
The writing is powerful, insightful, and supports the complexity required of any real story. Some quotes below demonstrate both the writing and some of the rants. I loved the first line (which is also the first quote) — somehow it just completely grabbed me.
“The Cancerous burrito of Los Angeles summer seemed to have no effect upon the rambunctious innocence of yelling Chicano kids.”
“Bean looked from the two warriors in the painting to the two Pine Ridgers and repressed an urge toward epiphany.”
“American was a cannibalistic society. There was no true freedom in America. The White man thought he was free. The Black man thought he had been freed. The Indian knew he had been corn-holed.”
“…that garish monument to White greed, carved out of the mother earth, gouged out of the sacred Black Hills, and stolen from the Indians despite the treaties promising no intrusion.” (About Mount Rushmore)
“He despised the rhetoric of contrition that AA and its kindred organizations espoused. He despised the self-righteous reformed drunks who made their various programs for alcoholics a large industry on the Pine Ridge reservation.”
“It’s depressing to the max around here. I hate to say it, but you Sioux live like Black people in ghettos. No pride. No hope. Just booze, drugs, and violence. Pregnant teenagers and commodity cheese.”
“And as educated Indians, we know who our worst enemies are. Some of the worst are our own people. They must be re-educated, those that are the rip-offs. And the other bad enemy is the White liberal who lives on the reservation and purports to help our people. They are bloodsuckers. But that is a different matter.”
June 28, 2021
Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with a digital ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review!
The Ghost Dancers is a posthumous release of a novel written decades ago by Adrian Louis (as noted in the foreword and as is important to keep in mind while reading). Outlining life on Pine Ridge Reservation, it follows Bean and his family legacy as they experience the ins and outs and truths of reservation life.
Truly gritty with no flowers to cover up what happens or to make the taste in your mouth more palatable, this novel provides a glimpse into the stressors, the hopelessness, and the experience of living on a reservation. Exploring alcoholism, politics, violence, racism, family life, and societal viewpoints amongst other things, it is real and raw to the bone.
This was an extremely tough read at points for two reasons. The first being the incredible outdated (and truthfully inexcusable regardless of the date it was written) language that revealed itself in homophobia, racism, and misogyny (which is what is preventing me from giving it a higher rating, it was more disgusting than it was gritty at times). The second being the point of the novel which is that reservation life is no picnic. It is incredible hard to read the stories of the Indigenous communities who are living with such hardships, such stigma, such poverty. But it is important to do so, to form a well-rounded viewpoint on what day-to-day life can, has, and does looked like for Indigenous Peoples.
There is nothing pretty in this book, it will make you want to close it but I implore you not to. Keep reading it if you pick it up, keep walking the streets of Pine Ridge Reservation. If you’re interested in reading from the point of view of someone who is sharing realistic experiences of reservation life, this is a book you should pick up (just be warned that it can absolutely be triggering at times).
3.5 stars rounded down (and only knocked down due to the nature of some of the language that is used).
The Ghost Dancers is a posthumous release of a novel written decades ago by Adrian Louis (as noted in the foreword and as is important to keep in mind while reading). Outlining life on Pine Ridge Reservation, it follows Bean and his family legacy as they experience the ins and outs and truths of reservation life.
Truly gritty with no flowers to cover up what happens or to make the taste in your mouth more palatable, this novel provides a glimpse into the stressors, the hopelessness, and the experience of living on a reservation. Exploring alcoholism, politics, violence, racism, family life, and societal viewpoints amongst other things, it is real and raw to the bone.
This was an extremely tough read at points for two reasons. The first being the incredible outdated (and truthfully inexcusable regardless of the date it was written) language that revealed itself in homophobia, racism, and misogyny (which is what is preventing me from giving it a higher rating, it was more disgusting than it was gritty at times). The second being the point of the novel which is that reservation life is no picnic. It is incredible hard to read the stories of the Indigenous communities who are living with such hardships, such stigma, such poverty. But it is important to do so, to form a well-rounded viewpoint on what day-to-day life can, has, and does looked like for Indigenous Peoples.
There is nothing pretty in this book, it will make you want to close it but I implore you not to. Keep reading it if you pick it up, keep walking the streets of Pine Ridge Reservation. If you’re interested in reading from the point of view of someone who is sharing realistic experiences of reservation life, this is a book you should pick up (just be warned that it can absolutely be triggering at times).
3.5 stars rounded down (and only knocked down due to the nature of some of the language that is used).
June 3, 2021
This gritty, funny and at times brutal book is about life on the rez, or reservation. It is modern Native American life, unvarnished, with all its dysfunctions and absurdities, but also its love and joy. Bean is going through difficult times with his current wife; her son and Bean get on, but her son is going through a difficult age; Bean's ex-wife lives on a different reservation and is angry that his mother is dating a black person. Finally, and the thread that binds the book, Bean's father is dying.
What I liked about the book was the energy and fearlessness of the writing. The hatred and rivalries between different tribes, the humour and discrimination, the alcohol abuse and the fact that just about everyone smokes, are all depicted without glamourising or demeaning. It is not a social comment - it was just the way things are. Yet, of course, it is a social comment, because things are in a pretty bad way. Unemployment and violence are rampant and, although Bean, his wife, ex-wife and her boyfriend are employed, and although they have sons who are doing well at school, they are the exceptions in a bleak environment.
Much of that could be said of any disadvantaged people; what sets the book apart is the subtle fabric of native American tradition and worldview that runs through the novel. There are sweat baths and shamans, spirits who walk abroad and totems. The use of words from various languages is illuminating without ever being intrusive.
The book is about identity. Bean's is under pressure: he teaches a white curriculum at a school dominated by whites. He edits the magazine, always trying to put a positive spin on events, but the events can get very nasty. He is angry yet intelligent, and also sexually frustrated. The result is a comedy that never degenerates into farce because it's just too real. Altogether, a very good read.
What I liked about the book was the energy and fearlessness of the writing. The hatred and rivalries between different tribes, the humour and discrimination, the alcohol abuse and the fact that just about everyone smokes, are all depicted without glamourising or demeaning. It is not a social comment - it was just the way things are. Yet, of course, it is a social comment, because things are in a pretty bad way. Unemployment and violence are rampant and, although Bean, his wife, ex-wife and her boyfriend are employed, and although they have sons who are doing well at school, they are the exceptions in a bleak environment.
Much of that could be said of any disadvantaged people; what sets the book apart is the subtle fabric of native American tradition and worldview that runs through the novel. There are sweat baths and shamans, spirits who walk abroad and totems. The use of words from various languages is illuminating without ever being intrusive.
The book is about identity. Bean's is under pressure: he teaches a white curriculum at a school dominated by whites. He edits the magazine, always trying to put a positive spin on events, but the events can get very nasty. He is angry yet intelligent, and also sexually frustrated. The result is a comedy that never degenerates into farce because it's just too real. Altogether, a very good read.
August 27, 2021
This was a difficult book to read. Published posthumously by American Indian author and poet Adrian Louis, the Ghost Dancers is a family living on Pine Ridge Reservation and the family that connects them to other reservations and other areas. The book provides an unflinching look at reservation life, race relations, substance use, and family dynamics in the 80s.
One of the things that I appreciated about this book is it's real and hard look at these incredibly difficult topics. Louis does not shy away from having characters express racist and destructive views of themselves and others. This book does not give you a positive takeaway, which I think is the point. The Ghost Dancers also talks about what it means be Indian in many different contexts and depicts characters' feelings about Black, White, and Latinx people. I am glad that I read this perspective and I feel like I have a wider view of differing experiences within the American Indian community.
That being said, the Ghost Dancers is incredibly brutal. There is a lot of death, violence, and physical abuse in this book. It also portrays substance use and sexual assault. I understand that this is part of the unflinching look at life from the author's perspective, but it was certainly unpleasant for me to read. Some of the descriptions will stay with me forever and I would much prefer that they did not. If you are at all sensitive to any of these topics, do not read this book.
Overall, I am glad that I read this book but I did not enjoy reading it, which I understand is the part of the point. I recommend it if you were not phased by my description and if you know what you are getting into.
Thank you to University of Nevada Press and NetGalley for providing an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review!
One of the things that I appreciated about this book is it's real and hard look at these incredibly difficult topics. Louis does not shy away from having characters express racist and destructive views of themselves and others. This book does not give you a positive takeaway, which I think is the point. The Ghost Dancers also talks about what it means be Indian in many different contexts and depicts characters' feelings about Black, White, and Latinx people. I am glad that I read this perspective and I feel like I have a wider view of differing experiences within the American Indian community.
That being said, the Ghost Dancers is incredibly brutal. There is a lot of death, violence, and physical abuse in this book. It also portrays substance use and sexual assault. I understand that this is part of the unflinching look at life from the author's perspective, but it was certainly unpleasant for me to read. Some of the descriptions will stay with me forever and I would much prefer that they did not. If you are at all sensitive to any of these topics, do not read this book.
Overall, I am glad that I read this book but I did not enjoy reading it, which I understand is the part of the point. I recommend it if you were not phased by my description and if you know what you are getting into.
Thank you to University of Nevada Press and NetGalley for providing an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review!
July 3, 2021
**I received a digital ARC of this book through Netgalley**
This is the first thing I've read by Adrian C. Louis, so I went in with few expectations. I knew from the blurb I was getting a "realistic" view but that doesn't mean much unless you've lived the reality. And I wasn't sure how I felt about The Ghost Dancers at first. The casual racism. The derision (both for others and the self). The violence. It started out as a tough read and never got any easier to get through. But that is the entire point.
The "noble savage" trope (which feels gross just typing it) is just that...a trope. While it can feel good to read about any oppressed people rising above the oppression, poverty, and racism they face, it's rarely a clear-eyed look at reality. This story was gritty, messy, violent, and chaotic -- and having read just a small bit about Louis's background and writing before he died, I can believe it's the reality that many American Indians on the reservation face.
Much of what I read shocked me as both a modern reader and as a White person who can never know and understand. But, even in the most surprising details -- the casual alcohol consumption by teenagers, the (sometimes) fervent faith, the galling violence -- it was a riveting read that made me also understand how and why there was still small glimmers of hope and joy to be found, even if it was in something as wild as blowing the nose off George Washington's face or something as small as writing in a journal like Quanah regularly did.
This is a challenging read, but that's what made it so damn good.
This is the first thing I've read by Adrian C. Louis, so I went in with few expectations. I knew from the blurb I was getting a "realistic" view but that doesn't mean much unless you've lived the reality. And I wasn't sure how I felt about The Ghost Dancers at first. The casual racism. The derision (both for others and the self). The violence. It started out as a tough read and never got any easier to get through. But that is the entire point.
The "noble savage" trope (which feels gross just typing it) is just that...a trope. While it can feel good to read about any oppressed people rising above the oppression, poverty, and racism they face, it's rarely a clear-eyed look at reality. This story was gritty, messy, violent, and chaotic -- and having read just a small bit about Louis's background and writing before he died, I can believe it's the reality that many American Indians on the reservation face.
Much of what I read shocked me as both a modern reader and as a White person who can never know and understand. But, even in the most surprising details -- the casual alcohol consumption by teenagers, the (sometimes) fervent faith, the galling violence -- it was a riveting read that made me also understand how and why there was still small glimmers of hope and joy to be found, even if it was in something as wild as blowing the nose off George Washington's face or something as small as writing in a journal like Quanah regularly did.
This is a challenging read, but that's what made it so damn good.
October 11, 2021
I believe there is a strong place for this book in Native American Literature as it is razor edged mid 1980s NA fiction at it more extreme. I do have issues of people thinking oh this is the rez everywhere or a good representation of anywhere. That would be wrong as it shows the underbelly of desperation & the easiest fell & none of the beauty. Especially when it comes to ceremony & the goodness of way People can be & act. It does touch on the pathos, pain & even sometimes the always humor regardless of how black that is intrenched in everything, that is something that will never change. Nothing is better or more purifying than a Lakota Sundance AIM sweat providing you can make it through. You have been able to feel the Creator & see & are cleansed. The energy is very much AIMie of the mid 80s the characters were meant to make you question things & shock & horrify not like. It was a different place in time with different ways of projecting ideas to make people think & act than now. It approached things in a hard manner brought up worst taboos to see if people would talk about them that had to or process their own trauma. I can understand the author holding it back instead of publishing it before he went on as he saw it no longer was the crash vehicle needed to navigate into future waters imo. His writing is visceral & brought back that period so strong but time are so very different now.
January 3, 2022
Adrian C Louis (1946-2018) was from Nevada, a member of the Lovelock Paiute tribe, and lived on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. He wrote both prose and poetry about Native American life, and this novel, The Ghost Dancers, written 30 years ago, is now published for the first time posthumously. Louis’ writing is not widely known, but on the evidence of this novel deserves to be. The story focuses on Bean Wilson, a middle-aged professor of journalism at Lakota University, who constantly reassesses and re-evaluates his life and beliefs whilst struggling with his personal relationships and his drinking. It’s a no-hold-barred examination of reservation life and an unflinching exploration of the ills that beset Native American communities: alcohol, violence, drugs, abusive relationships, violence of all kinds, and self-destructive behaviour. It’s a graphic depiction of dysfunction and insightful about what has led to it, namely US colonialism and its culpability towards Native Americans. The writing is good, if not great, the characterisation authentic and the descriptions of daily life vivid. It’s hard to feel sympathy for the characters but their plight seems real and believable. An interesting, thought-provoking and powerful read.
June 26, 2021
The Ghost Dancers is a previously unpublished novel by American Indian poet, Adrian Louis. Louis takes a frank look at life on the rez through the eyes of Lyman "Bean" Wilson, a Nevada Indian and professor of journalism at Lakota University in South Dakota. Bean is suffering an identity crisis of sorts. He is the great grandson of Wovoka, the creator of the Ghost Dance religion. But Bean is not full-blooded Indian and therefore not accepted by the Pine Ridge Sioux, even though he's a member of the secret Ghost Dance Society. Bean stumbles through his life, making bad choices and trying to fit in. Like Louis's other works, this is a stark. realistic look a life on the reservation and a life where the choices are limited. Thanks to Net Galley for the ARC.
July 16, 2021
Firstly, sorry for the late response. I had a personal situation that is still ongoing. I just want to say that "The Ghost Dancers: A Novel" is a heartbreaking yet, at times, comical novel. It gave me insight to Indigenous culture and way of life (of course, a touch of it as I have so much to learn). The underlying story, of a group of Native men who form an underground society to take justice into their own hands, is hard to explain. I enjoyed it as it is full of ramblings and confusion that is so human, it is human. People make mistakes. People grow. Some don't. Humanity really shines through - gritty and raw.
Thank you so much, NetGalley and University of Nevada Press for the ARC for my honest review.
Thank you so much, NetGalley and University of Nevada Press for the ARC for my honest review.
May 27, 2021
The Ghost Dancers: A Novel is about a Native American man named Bean and his life on Pine Ridge Reservation. Bean is a middle-aged professor of journalism at Lakota University in South Dakota and the great-grandson of Wovoka, the Paiute leader who initiated the Ghost Dance religion. He drinks a lot and is very blunt. He is written so well, at times I really loved the character and his insight, and others could not stand him. The story deals with alcoholism, political groups, racism, and violence. I thought it was fantastic except for the end which kind of abruptly ended. I would have loved to see what happened next.
July 5, 2021
Published posthumously, this novel takes place in the late 80s between two families and two reservations. The families deal with loss, violence, addiction, and the continuing effects of American colonialism, all while healing pasts, dreaming futures, and always questioning identity and belonging. As a non-indigenous reader, I am hesitant to critique the characters' decisions or motives. I will say that there is an ending that some may find doesn't resolve the many threads the book tangles up, and that may be a good thing or not.
May 31, 2021
I liked that the author presented varied points of view and that they present connected and divergent paths. There’s Bean, his son Quanah, and his girlfriend’s son Toby. The style of writing was not the most engaging especially at the beginning because there’s a lot of backstory and not much action. But if you stick it out, it improves. It provides insight into life on a reservation and I thought that was invaluable.
April 6, 2022
Not an easy read.
Adrian Louis paints a pretty grim picture of life for Native Americans - authentic, raw and hard to look at.
There's a "stoic despair" all around the people in this story - it sticks with you for days afterward.
You might question the choices or judgement of his characters, but Louis didn't just pull this story out of the ether.
I have no doubt it mirrors some real life conditions even today.
Adrian Louis paints a pretty grim picture of life for Native Americans - authentic, raw and hard to look at.
There's a "stoic despair" all around the people in this story - it sticks with you for days afterward.
You might question the choices or judgement of his characters, but Louis didn't just pull this story out of the ether.
I have no doubt it mirrors some real life conditions even today.
July 19, 2021
This is a tough read, but probably an important book about Native American life and the struggles Native Americans face, often caused directly by white colonialism and interference. There are no heroes here, and no easy or hopeful stories. The casual brutality and willingness to use people and nihilism made this hard for me to read.
Read
October 3, 2021I couldn't finish it. I have been trying for weeks. I just couldn't bring myself to go back into this at this time right now.
Is it a bad book? No. Poorly written? No. Hard and heavy...YES.
I do plan on making myself get through it in the future, I just can not do it right now.
I am going to try another book by Louis though.
Thank you NetGalley for the read.
Is it a bad book? No. Poorly written? No. Hard and heavy...YES.
I do plan on making myself get through it in the future, I just can not do it right now.
I am going to try another book by Louis though.
Thank you NetGalley for the read.
June 23, 2021
I was sent a ARC by the publisher in exchange for an honest opinion,
Having saif and reading this material i still do not feel that i would have a say in this matter. Happy to read being written about matters that matter. was difficult at times to follow.
Having saif and reading this material i still do not feel that i would have a say in this matter. Happy to read being written about matters that matter. was difficult at times to follow.
January 7, 2022
Every Ghost Dancer review tried to rationalize the cruelty and ugliness of this novel. I should have heeded their implicit warnings. There is a reason this story wasn't published before Louis's death: it's self-indulgent dreck liberally laced with misogyny. Blech.
June 7, 2022
A raw, realistic telling of life in a reservation. You can feel the frustration and helplessness as you read through.
Thank you NetGalley and University of Nevada Press for giving me the opportunity to read this.
Thank you NetGalley and University of Nevada Press for giving me the opportunity to read this.
December 3, 2023
Excellent book that captures the emotions and challenges of a particular period in time, that speaks to so much of the racism at the foundation of our country. Human condition is key and served with warmth and humility.
Want to read
July 29, 2021This is a maybe....
From a summer fiction list from Edelweiss
From a summer fiction list from Edelweiss
Want to read
January 29, 2024813.54 Lou
June 26, 2021
I received NetGalley copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
The Ghost Dancers was written in the late 80’s and is being published posthumously. This is an important point as a lot of the gritty and real language is going to trigger some readers. The author’s characters are free speaking with homophobic, misogynistic, racist language. At first I was repelled by the dialogue, but I stuck with it and ended up greatly appreciating the novel.
This novel presents an extremely dark side of reservation life. I would love to hear more opinions from native readers. No sugar coating res life here.
This book adds to the Native American voice in literature and is a good companion to Louise Erdrich and Tommy Orange, among others. I’m glad it is being published. Watch for it in September.
The Ghost Dancers was written in the late 80’s and is being published posthumously. This is an important point as a lot of the gritty and real language is going to trigger some readers. The author’s characters are free speaking with homophobic, misogynistic, racist language. At first I was repelled by the dialogue, but I stuck with it and ended up greatly appreciating the novel.
This novel presents an extremely dark side of reservation life. I would love to hear more opinions from native readers. No sugar coating res life here.
This book adds to the Native American voice in literature and is a good companion to Louise Erdrich and Tommy Orange, among others. I’m glad it is being published. Watch for it in September.
July 4, 2021
I learned a lot from this book it was an interesting story from multiple perspectives. The continuous use of racial slurs was a big turn off for me. It was a coming of age story and a reflective story. Overall, I liked the book.
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