The Reason for Crows: A Story of Kateri Tekakwitha

by Diane Glancy

The story of a seventeenth-century Mohawk woman's interaction with her land, the Jesuits, and the religion they brought.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Native American, Catholic

106 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 1, 2009

About the author

(Helen) Diane Glancy is a Cherokee poet, author and playwright.

Glancy was born in 1941 in Kansas City, Missouri. She received her Bachelor of Arts (English literature) from the University of Missouri in 1964, then later continued her education at the University of Central Oklahoma, earning her a Masters degree in English in 1983. In 1988, she received her Master of Fine Arts from the University of Iowa.

Glancy is an English professor and began teaching in 1989 at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota, teaching Native American literature and creative writing courses. Glancy's literary works have been recognized and highlighted at Michigan State University in their Michigan Writers Series.

(from Wikipedia)

Reviews

[Fergus, Weaver of Autistic Webs · Rating 4 out of 5]

LOVED this one! It's a literal Murder of Crows.

It’s a veteran American author's early venture into the retelling of the story of the last days of Kateri Tekakwitha, a Catholic saint, and somewhat of an anomaly to her fellow native people.

Diane Glancy paints her as exactly that, an anomaly.

When Kateri was canonized, in recent memory, it was a proud moment for North American Catholics.

Of course, Andre Bessette was the first CANADIAN-born saint, but Kateri was special for indigenous fans and believers - to which company Glancy, though agnostic, belongs.

This book bears no Imprimatur. For it raises more questions than it can answer.

But it has a MASTERFUL inner dynamic.

Kateri is swathed in dark mystery, her own story interlaced with her vague inborn mistrust of the Black Fathers (Jesuit missionaries).

And there are her own deep dreams and visions - when she contracts a fever, they become almost hallucinatory.

But she desperately clings to the cross, a symbol of refuge from the rejection suffered under the alienating attitudes of her native friends and family.

For Kateri has been afflicted with a white man’s disease: smallpox. Her scarred face is a mark of shame.

Hers is a lonely journey.

So her own process of atonement must cover half-understood guilt and resentment - feelings that make no sense from her own limited perspective, which is primarily and solely intuitive.

Her daily life is spent in anguish.

But she is determined to hold tightly till death onto her newfound faith.

She is a wonderfully brave young woman. And hers is one of the first documented journeys of an indigenous woman along a Western spiritual path.

She truly BELIEVES in the Gospel’s promise of eternal peace after the Storm.

Four stars for this wonderful short read.

A VERY good book.

[Tiffany]

This book is a lyrical prose-poem (don't expect a straight forward history) exploring of a vital set of questions about Christian conversion and theodicy through the story and imagined voice of Kateri Tekakwitha, 17th-century Mohawk saint. Glancy dares to ask HOW, HOW could it happen, the work of the Christ in the years of European/Native contact, through cycles of devastating epidemic illness, loss, migration, intercultural violence and generally disappointing mission work, etc. etc.? A daring question, to think beyond Christianity as stumbling block. How does a saint come through all this? With echoes of Julian of Norwich, and Wallace Stevens, Glancy registers through shifting symbols multiply meaningful approaches to thinking about a religious experience that could be real, could be more than colonial coercion. Glancy offers us both a non-reductive morphology of conversion (to use the term we sometimes do in Early American studies) and a powerful assertion of experience with God.

[Craig Werner · Rating 4 out of 5]

It would have been very easy to reduce the complexity of the central question concerning the relationship between Christianity and Native Americans in the service of one or another ideologies. Montaging voices around the experience of Saint Kateri Tekakwitha (who hadn't yet been canonized when Glancy wrote) and using Ezekiel as scriptural touchstone, the lyrical novel neither avoids the horrors of some missionary activity nor the brutalities of some Native life. For me, the thematic center revolves around the images and visions in this passage (in Kateri's voice):
"I belonged to darkness. Not evil, but the light of heaven I could not see was a holy darkness in which I lived and had my being.
"God is watchful as a crow. He squawks.
"The Mystery wrapped in blackness. Did he have smallpox too? And could not be seen? Is that why he would only show Moses his backside of the wilderness?

[John Benson · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is Diane Glancy's 3rd book in a series of recreations of the lives of young Native historic heroines. The other two deal with the Trail of Tears and Sacajawea on the Lewis and Clark Expedition. This person was new to me. Kateri Teakakwitha was a convert to Christianity in the the late 1600s, and died very young, at age 24. Her story is told through journal-like interior dialogues from her and the priests who worked with her and continue on after her death. The book is very short, less than 90 pages, but I found it hard to still understand her short life. I was not acquainted with her before, but after reading the book, I am still not sure how much more I understand her life and importance.

[Olean Public Library · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found this book hard to read. There are interesting historical facts mixed with the thoughts of the characters but for me it jumped around too much.

[Vishwam Gurudas Heckert · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a powerful book, though not an easy one. Very poetic, it touched my heart and helped me connect with a great soul. My gratitude to the author 🙏❤️

[Constance · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a frightening account of Saint Kateri Tekakwitha's journey 1656-1680. Thank You Diane Glancy. God blesses.

[Cate · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.8/5 stars. full review coming soon :)

[Ben Ricketts · Rating 2 out of 5]

What

[Hockey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Living in upstate New York, I’ve grown up surrounded by the history of the Haudenosaunee (the Iroquois Confederacy). Always fascinated by the history of this area’s native people, over the years I have heard bits and pieces of Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha’s life. I’ve driven past the shrine dedicated to her. My sister even has friends who are working to promote Katheri’s canonization by the Roman Catholic Church. Even without that background, I would have enjoyed “The Reason for Crows” by Diane Glancy. It is a fascinating, though fictional, introduction into the world of Mohawks and Jesuit Missionaries through the eyes of Kateri and the priests surrounding her. Often reading more like poetry than prose, the short highly descriptive thoughts and imaginative dreams of Kateri have an air of reality about them. They feel as if they could have been the thoughts of someone learning a foreign language and learning to love a foreign god. As the story moves from ,what is known today as New York, to Quebec along the St. Lawrence River, you can’t help but feel that you are gaining genuine insight into her culture, her physical challenges and her spiritual journey. I highly recommend “The Reason for Crows” to anyone with an interest in Kateri Tekakwitha, the Haudenosaunee, or Jesuit Missionary interactions with Native Americans.

[Rachel · Rating 2 out of 5]

This story is told in a very free form, focusing primarily on the fluidity of the feelings and thoughts of the narrators.

If you prefer your stories to have plot and structure- as I do- this is not the book for you. I found the choppy sentences distasteful, and although the idea behind the book fascinated me, I found the whole thing difficult to continue reading. Quite frankly, I was bored.

For those who enjoy a more stylized look into the mind of a young Native woman, this book will probably suit well.

I received this book for free through the LibraryThing Early Reviewers program.

[Michelle Boyer · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a short read. But that being said, it failed to really strike me as more than just an average book. I really wanted to enjoy the Mohawk history that was presented here, but there are so many gaps, jumps, and very boring areas that I just couldn't fully appreciate this.

There was enough history for me to give this 3 stars, but it wasn't something that I could actually use in my Ph.D. studies (despite the fact that this is listed as a source that should be 'credible' enough to use in literary studies).

Overall, kind of average. I may read other novels by this author to get a better sense of her work, but it won't be at the top of my list for awhile.

[Ferree · Rating 3 out of 5]

Historical fiction that captures the inner voice of this young Mohawk/Algonquin woman as she comes to Christ. The metaphorical language of crows and trees and Indian thought as it merges with Christianity via the book of Ezekial and angels is pure art. I thought the voices of the priests could have been more distinct--to me they sounded very much like Kateri, but the author might have been trying to show that they were being affected by the Indian culture as much as the culture was being affected by them. All in all, it's a unique connection with history and thought artistically embodied.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

This history-based novella is intriguing and odd -- in a good way, from the perspective of several characters but especially Kateri Tekakwitha, a young Mohawk and Algonquin woman who lived during the 1600's in what is now Upstate New York and near Montreal. She converted to Christianity and has recently been declared a saint by the Catholic church. This book attempts to imagine her life and her voice and does so quite convincingly.

[M Christopher · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lovely little poem of a book. Clocking in at 89 pages, some of which are bibliography, etc., this slender volume is a beautiful recreation of the world of one of the early converts to Christianity in North America. Kateri Tekakwitha was the first Native American to be beatified and has now been canonized. Glancy achieves remarkable insight into the sickly saint as well as into the thought process of the "crows" that converted her. Well worth a read.