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Solar Storms
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First published October 1, 1994
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About the author
Linda Hogan
80 books551 followersLinda K. Hogan (born 1947 Denver) is a Native American poet, storyteller, academic, playwright, novelist, environmentalist and writer of short stories. She is currently the Chickasaw Nation's Writer in Residence.
Linda Hogan is Chickasaw. Her father is a Chickasaw from a recognized historical family and Linda's uncle, Wesley Henderson, helped form the White Buffalo Council in Denver during the 1950s. It was to help other Indian people coming to the city because of The Relocation Act, which encouraged migration for work and other opportunities. He had a strong influence on her and she grew up relating strongly to both her Chickasaw family in Indian Territory (Oklahoma) and to a mixed Indian community in the Denver area. At other times, her family traveled because of the military.
Her first university teaching position was in American Indian Studies and American Studies at the University of Minnesota. After writing her first book, Calling Myself Home, she continued to write poetry. Her work has both a historical and political focus, but is lyrical. Her most recent books are The Book of Medicines (1993) and Rounding the Human Corners. (2008) She is also a novelist and essayist. Her work centers on the world of Native peoples, from both her own indigenous perspective and that of others. She was a full professor of Creative Writing at the University of Colorado and then taught the last two years in the University's Ethnic Studies Department. She currently is the Writer in Residence for her own Chickasaw Nation.
Essayist, novelist, and poet, Hogan has published works in many different backgrounds and forms. Her concentration is on environmental themes. She has acted as a consultant in bringing together Native tribal representatives and feminist themes, particularly allying them to her Native ancestry. Her work, whether fiction or non-fiction, expresses an indigenous understanding of the world.
She has written essays and poems on a variety of subjects, both fictional and nonfictional, biographical and from research. Hogan has also written historical novels. Her work studies the historical wrongs done to Native Americans and the American environment since the European colonization of North America.
Hogan was a professor at the University of Colorado at Boulder and the University of Oklahoma. She is the (inaugural) Writer-in-Residence for the Chickasaw Nation in Oklahoma. In October 2011, she instructed a writing workshop through the Abiquiu Workshops in Abiquiu, New Mexico.
(from Wikipedia)
Linda Hogan is Chickasaw. Her father is a Chickasaw from a recognized historical family and Linda's uncle, Wesley Henderson, helped form the White Buffalo Council in Denver during the 1950s. It was to help other Indian people coming to the city because of The Relocation Act, which encouraged migration for work and other opportunities. He had a strong influence on her and she grew up relating strongly to both her Chickasaw family in Indian Territory (Oklahoma) and to a mixed Indian community in the Denver area. At other times, her family traveled because of the military.
Her first university teaching position was in American Indian Studies and American Studies at the University of Minnesota. After writing her first book, Calling Myself Home, she continued to write poetry. Her work has both a historical and political focus, but is lyrical. Her most recent books are The Book of Medicines (1993) and Rounding the Human Corners. (2008) She is also a novelist and essayist. Her work centers on the world of Native peoples, from both her own indigenous perspective and that of others. She was a full professor of Creative Writing at the University of Colorado and then taught the last two years in the University's Ethnic Studies Department. She currently is the Writer in Residence for her own Chickasaw Nation.
Essayist, novelist, and poet, Hogan has published works in many different backgrounds and forms. Her concentration is on environmental themes. She has acted as a consultant in bringing together Native tribal representatives and feminist themes, particularly allying them to her Native ancestry. Her work, whether fiction or non-fiction, expresses an indigenous understanding of the world.
She has written essays and poems on a variety of subjects, both fictional and nonfictional, biographical and from research. Hogan has also written historical novels. Her work studies the historical wrongs done to Native Americans and the American environment since the European colonization of North America.
Hogan was a professor at the University of Colorado at Boulder and the University of Oklahoma. She is the (inaugural) Writer-in-Residence for the Chickasaw Nation in Oklahoma. In October 2011, she instructed a writing workshop through the Abiquiu Workshops in Abiquiu, New Mexico.
(from Wikipedia)
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 305 reviews
October 11, 2024
Solar Storms: A Novel was such a beautiful book by Linda Hogan, the long awaited second novel after Mean Spirit. Ms. Hogan is a Chickasaw poet, novelist, and essayist. Because she is a professor at the University of Colorado, she has served on the National Endowment for the Arts poetry panel. I am fortunate to have quite a few of her books signed and inscribed by the author, although some were published quite some time ago. What is most beautiful in her books is the magical and lyrical prose and the search for truth.
Solar Storms is the story of five generations of Native American women in the Boundary Waters between Canada and Minnesota. Angel Jensen, the protagonist of the novel, was abused and relinquished by her mother when she was very young, moving from foster home to foster home leaving her a hurt, rebellious and scarred teenager when she sets out to search for her birth family, her mother, and ultimately herself. Finding her way to the remote region where she was born, Angel encounters the brittle and cold world where her ancestors have survived fighting the harsh dangers of nature and the dangers posed by intruders to their way of life. Here she reunites with Agnes, her great-grandmother; Dora-Rouge, her great-great grandmother; and Bush, the woman who adopted Angel’s mother and raised Angel as a young girl. It is decided among the women that they will journey to their ancestral homeland in the far North by canoe, where coincidentally a hydroelectric dam project is underway. It is there that Angel finds herself caught in a conflict confronting two indigenous tribes and their ties to the land. It is against this backdrop that young Angel grapples with her inner turmoil about who she is and where she belongs. Angel describes how she feels thus: “Dora-Rouge was a root and we were like a tree family, aspens or birch, connected to one another underground, the older trees tending the young’s, sending off shoots, growing. I watched and listened. It was an old world in which I began to bloom.”
It is said best with this quotation from the inside cover of my book, as follows:
Solar Storms is the story of five generations of Native American women in the Boundary Waters between Canada and Minnesota. Angel Jensen, the protagonist of the novel, was abused and relinquished by her mother when she was very young, moving from foster home to foster home leaving her a hurt, rebellious and scarred teenager when she sets out to search for her birth family, her mother, and ultimately herself. Finding her way to the remote region where she was born, Angel encounters the brittle and cold world where her ancestors have survived fighting the harsh dangers of nature and the dangers posed by intruders to their way of life. Here she reunites with Agnes, her great-grandmother; Dora-Rouge, her great-great grandmother; and Bush, the woman who adopted Angel’s mother and raised Angel as a young girl. It is decided among the women that they will journey to their ancestral homeland in the far North by canoe, where coincidentally a hydroelectric dam project is underway. It is there that Angel finds herself caught in a conflict confronting two indigenous tribes and their ties to the land. It is against this backdrop that young Angel grapples with her inner turmoil about who she is and where she belongs. Angel describes how she feels thus: “Dora-Rouge was a root and we were like a tree family, aspens or birch, connected to one another underground, the older trees tending the young’s, sending off shoots, growing. I watched and listened. It was an old world in which I began to bloom.”
It is said best with this quotation from the inside cover of my book, as follows:
“Robust and poetic, ‘Solar Storms’ has the feel of a richly woven tapestry. Both as a story of love and family, and as a parable of the Native American quest to reclaim a lost way of life, the novel not only fulfills the enormous expectations raised by Linda Hogan’s previous work, it surpasses it.”
‘Solar Storms’ is a novel that instructs the hearts as it binds its curative spell. With her unparalleled gifts for truth and magic, Linda Hogan reinforces my faith in reading, writing, living.” — Barbara Kingsolver
September 5, 2008
Quite possibly my favorite book ever. It's definitely in the top five. It's an intense story of family, love, change, healing from abuse, and decolonization. Linda Hogan's writing is exquisite--it's obvious that she's also a gifted poet with each paragraph. I remember the first time I finished reading this, I was sitting in the atrium at the public library, clutching the book to my chest and sobbing while total strangers were uncomfortably shooting sidelong glances my way. It's that beautiful.
March 19, 2019
I'm a novel writer who recently found Solar Storms (published in '95) through the local Copperfield Bookstore Club's backlisted picks in Sebastopol, CA where I live.
I was overwhelmed, amazed and entranced as I read Solar Storms especially so since it was written some time ago. I felt a horror of recognition. To my mind, the terrible hydroelectric dam project created in the novel that was challenged by the Native American women echoed the destruction and tragedy that has just recently befallen Japan (and the earth) as a result of the tsunami destroying the Fukushima nuclear plant.
In both I see the stupidity and greed of mankind, the power and revenge of water, the subversion of nature, and the destruction of wildlife.
I imagine the insidious poison of radiation floating over our earth now as paralleling the inhuman aggression of the colonizing government that the Native American and activist characters fight in Linda Hogan's novel.
It's all there in Solar Storms. As the water is poisoned and misdirected, so are we and the earth itself. Yet the vision brings me hope. Angel, the young, abused heroine, embodies that hope.
Like the beautiful, disfigured Angel desperate to reimagine her doomed mother, I paddled the canoe of this story into a deep part of my own nature, my own family. I see my own life and my work in a new way--the way Angel's paddle strokes bring her closer to home, the way Dora Rouge finds love as an old woman, the way Bush publishes her fighting words to the world.
This is a brilliant story of long endured injustices that burn like nuclear waste, describing the natural world and the poor, strange, unique women who refuse to give it up.
Margaret C. Murray
writewordspress.com
I was overwhelmed, amazed and entranced as I read Solar Storms especially so since it was written some time ago. I felt a horror of recognition. To my mind, the terrible hydroelectric dam project created in the novel that was challenged by the Native American women echoed the destruction and tragedy that has just recently befallen Japan (and the earth) as a result of the tsunami destroying the Fukushima nuclear plant.
In both I see the stupidity and greed of mankind, the power and revenge of water, the subversion of nature, and the destruction of wildlife.
I imagine the insidious poison of radiation floating over our earth now as paralleling the inhuman aggression of the colonizing government that the Native American and activist characters fight in Linda Hogan's novel.
It's all there in Solar Storms. As the water is poisoned and misdirected, so are we and the earth itself. Yet the vision brings me hope. Angel, the young, abused heroine, embodies that hope.
Like the beautiful, disfigured Angel desperate to reimagine her doomed mother, I paddled the canoe of this story into a deep part of my own nature, my own family. I see my own life and my work in a new way--the way Angel's paddle strokes bring her closer to home, the way Dora Rouge finds love as an old woman, the way Bush publishes her fighting words to the world.
This is a brilliant story of long endured injustices that burn like nuclear waste, describing the natural world and the poor, strange, unique women who refuse to give it up.
Margaret C. Murray
writewordspress.com
April 25, 2008
so fucken well written. a bday present from the cynical stag, i just put it down. cried throughout, breathtaking, just so goddam breathtaking.
October 18, 2020
Más bien es un 2,5.
Se me ha hecho una lectura bastante tediosa y lenta, sobre todo al principio del libro. Aunque el final es más interesante y tiene más ritmo, no lo salva. Además, había un exceso de descripciones largas, que pausaban la narración. No he sentido conexión con la prosa de la autora, aunque está bastante cuidada y trabajada.
Salvaría a los personajes, porque me parecen muy entrañables, sobre todo a Bush, Agnes y Dora-Rouge. También salvaría la denuncia social y la exposición de los problemas de los Nativos Americanos que Hogan expolora.
En definitiva, no lo hubiera leído por mi cuenta, pero aprecio haberlo hecho, ya que nunca había leído un libro escrito por una Nativa Americana. Definitivamente, daré otra oportunidad a estas narraciones, aunque esta no me haya gustado, ya que veo importante deconstruirse y aprender más sobre esta comunidad.
Se me ha hecho una lectura bastante tediosa y lenta, sobre todo al principio del libro. Aunque el final es más interesante y tiene más ritmo, no lo salva. Además, había un exceso de descripciones largas, que pausaban la narración. No he sentido conexión con la prosa de la autora, aunque está bastante cuidada y trabajada.
Salvaría a los personajes, porque me parecen muy entrañables, sobre todo a Bush, Agnes y Dora-Rouge. También salvaría la denuncia social y la exposición de los problemas de los Nativos Americanos que Hogan expolora.
En definitiva, no lo hubiera leído por mi cuenta, pero aprecio haberlo hecho, ya que nunca había leído un libro escrito por una Nativa Americana. Definitivamente, daré otra oportunidad a estas narraciones, aunque esta no me haya gustado, ya que veo importante deconstruirse y aprender más sobre esta comunidad.
April 13, 2012
Awesome!!! Simply a delight to read. It touches on so many themes: nature/ ecology, Native American rights and history, spirituality, feminism, and community. It is deeply lyrical and thought-provoking in a quiet, rumbling way like a distant thunderstorm approaching over the horizon.
October 3, 2020
this is probably the most i’ve cried reading a book. breathtakingly beautiful storytelling and a heartbreaking story. also, the last chapter just made a sobbing mess of me
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 6, 2020
3'75/4 actually.
it is soooooo lyrical and beautifully written *sigh*
still, there are several plot holes in the book and the second part was a bit slow -especially that loooooong chapter in their journey-.
it is soooooo lyrical and beautifully written *sigh*
still, there are several plot holes in the book and the second part was a bit slow -especially that loooooong chapter in their journey-.
October 25, 2021
I discovered Linda Hogan with this novel, and I am sure I will read more novels from her some day.
Although I believe that many several passages are beautiful, I have not found the novel as great as I thought owing to the slow rythm that it has on some occasions. Despite this, something that I should underline is the dedication that the author gives to numerous interesting topics, such as fairness and love; she is so descriptive and accurate that she enables us to reflect on these issues at all times.
Without a doubt, I have got attached to the main characters, but I have to admit that the novel has not captivated me as I expected and, therefore, it has not lived up to my expectations. Even so, I encourage everyone to give it a try since Nora deals with numerous interesting and relevant topics! :)
Although I believe that many several passages are beautiful, I have not found the novel as great as I thought owing to the slow rythm that it has on some occasions. Despite this, something that I should underline is the dedication that the author gives to numerous interesting topics, such as fairness and love; she is so descriptive and accurate that she enables us to reflect on these issues at all times.
Without a doubt, I have got attached to the main characters, but I have to admit that the novel has not captivated me as I expected and, therefore, it has not lived up to my expectations. Even so, I encourage everyone to give it a try since Nora deals with numerous interesting and relevant topics! :)
July 10, 2015
This is one of those books just reached into the inner passages of my heart and rang all the walls. Truly wonderful. There are elements of magical realism inside a story that reads like biography. The writing is so lyrical and so spot-on, you gasp with the truth and beauty of it.
October 27, 2017
What a gorgeous book! I cannot remember when I have ever underlined so many passages in a book just because they were so beautifully written that I wanted to be able to find them again easily.
October 12, 2020
Se me ha hecho pesado en ciertas partes, sobre todo en los capitulos que narraban el viaje pero aun asi y todo me ha parecido una historia preciosa y triste con personajes inolvidables
September 9, 2022
thank you vicki for giving me this book for my birthday back in march🤓a true legend
4 stars for now. first off, really enjoyed this book and would definitely recommend. at its core, the story was a powerful and heartbreaking one. the author does a good job of making you just look at the world around you differently, if only through a temporary, superficial lens. it’s also just a good reminder of the horrific consequences of colonialism that are ongoing and that we partake in daily. the characters were definitely rich and detailed, even if they did feel a little cliche at times. i really loved the focus on generations of women here. 5 generations and each one felt very unique and singular. through the main character, angel, the author was able to tell a beautiful coming of age story, so universal while still being very specific to the struggles of indigenous people around the world. the descriptions about the land changing because of the dams and the utter destruction became very vivid in my mind. this is the kind of book that, even when i wasn’t reading it, stayed on my mind throughout the day and it’s where my mind strayed to while walking outside to and from class.
of things i wasn’t crazy about, i do think some of the writing was a little overkill and kind of redundant. it seemed like angel referred to herself as being reborn or evolving into something new so many times, which would be fine if the writer discussed how this evolution was ongoing and didn’t make it seem like this was her first time experiencing such a thing, but i digress. i also thought some parts of the book were a bit slow, especially once they got up north. and then so many important events surrounding the protesting were kind of glossed over as if a memory. also, i wish agnes would’ve played a larger part in the second act of the book. she was just kind of forgotten, which felt unnatural since she was the first of the women angel met at adam’s rib but again! i digress. also why the hell did angel want bush to get together with la rue like 😭 clearly that would not work. bush isn’t that lonely that she needs to be with someone so opposite to her. anyway most of these things are nitpicks and don’t take away from my enjoyment of the story that much.
anyway, even if i didn’t love every second of this book i think that it could’ve used another round of edits, it is very much worth the read and is deserving of the praise its gotten. it’s impossible for me to do this book justice by its strengths because i am not that gifted of a writer or reviewer, so just trust me on this one thank you.
4 stars for now. first off, really enjoyed this book and would definitely recommend. at its core, the story was a powerful and heartbreaking one. the author does a good job of making you just look at the world around you differently, if only through a temporary, superficial lens. it’s also just a good reminder of the horrific consequences of colonialism that are ongoing and that we partake in daily. the characters were definitely rich and detailed, even if they did feel a little cliche at times. i really loved the focus on generations of women here. 5 generations and each one felt very unique and singular. through the main character, angel, the author was able to tell a beautiful coming of age story, so universal while still being very specific to the struggles of indigenous people around the world. the descriptions about the land changing because of the dams and the utter destruction became very vivid in my mind. this is the kind of book that, even when i wasn’t reading it, stayed on my mind throughout the day and it’s where my mind strayed to while walking outside to and from class.
of things i wasn’t crazy about, i do think some of the writing was a little overkill and kind of redundant. it seemed like angel referred to herself as being reborn or evolving into something new so many times, which would be fine if the writer discussed how this evolution was ongoing and didn’t make it seem like this was her first time experiencing such a thing, but i digress. i also thought some parts of the book were a bit slow, especially once they got up north. and then so many important events surrounding the protesting were kind of glossed over as if a memory. also, i wish agnes would’ve played a larger part in the second act of the book. she was just kind of forgotten, which felt unnatural since she was the first of the women angel met at adam’s rib but again! i digress. also why the hell did angel want bush to get together with la rue like 😭 clearly that would not work. bush isn’t that lonely that she needs to be with someone so opposite to her. anyway most of these things are nitpicks and don’t take away from my enjoyment of the story that much.
anyway, even if i didn’t love every second of this book i think that it could’ve used another round of edits, it is very much worth the read and is deserving of the praise its gotten. it’s impossible for me to do this book justice by its strengths because i am not that gifted of a writer or reviewer, so just trust me on this one thank you.
October 4, 2020
read for school (2020)
engaging and interesting characters but terrible pace, full of plot holes and vague resolutions
engaging and interesting characters but terrible pace, full of plot holes and vague resolutions
October 23, 2023
Este libro se queda para siempre conmigo ❤️🩹
April 8, 2024
ouch hurt my heart in a tender swollen way... the whole time reading felt like being submerged in a deep dark cold pool. truly one of the most heartbreakingly beautiful books ive ever read
November 12, 2024
acadec is a scam
December 29, 2021
This was such a beautifully written book. I often find myself zoning out when I read a lot of description, but in this case it resonated. It was dense, but so atmospheric and mystical even. I really felt like I got a mood out of it. Picking this book up after reading a not-so-good book was so refreshing.
I loved all the characters. It took me a bit to get a handle on the multiple generations of women, but they were all distinct people that I grew to love.
My absolute favorite chapter is the one when Angel is first on Fur Island with Bush. It was just gorgeously written. Second up would be the canoe trip.
My one complaint would be that the first part of the book and the second part almost felt like different books. The story shifts to the political/environmental concerns of a community, and the personal story of Angel kind of fades. I didn’t enjoy that as much. I also always find it frustrating when “technology” is portrayed as inherently evil, and I think she edged close to that. But I loved how she assessed the White workers and the young Indigenous men. It was so compassionate but truthful.
Really impressive storytelling!
“Some people see scars, and it is wounding they remember. To me they are proof of the fact that there is healing.”
I loved all the characters. It took me a bit to get a handle on the multiple generations of women, but they were all distinct people that I grew to love.
My absolute favorite chapter is the one when Angel is first on Fur Island with Bush. It was just gorgeously written. Second up would be the canoe trip.
My one complaint would be that the first part of the book and the second part almost felt like different books. The story shifts to the political/environmental concerns of a community, and the personal story of Angel kind of fades. I didn’t enjoy that as much. I also always find it frustrating when “technology” is portrayed as inherently evil, and I think she edged close to that. But I loved how she assessed the White workers and the young Indigenous men. It was so compassionate but truthful.
Really impressive storytelling!
“Some people see scars, and it is wounding they remember. To me they are proof of the fact that there is healing.”
June 19, 2021
I've been reading through all the books mentioned in the course descriptions for classes I might take next semester and this was a really, really great way to end that with a bang.
Solar Storms is stunningly harrowing. Following a Native American girl who's just left foster care and trying to find her family, Solar Storms details the much larger family she ends up finding instead (both found and blood) and the journey they take to try and find her deeply troubled birth mother.
I don't really know how to describe it, but something about the narration here felt so, so personal that it's impossible to not get really invested in these characters and their story.
Solar Storms is stunningly harrowing. Following a Native American girl who's just left foster care and trying to find her family, Solar Storms details the much larger family she ends up finding instead (both found and blood) and the journey they take to try and find her deeply troubled birth mother.
I don't really know how to describe it, but something about the narration here felt so, so personal that it's impossible to not get really invested in these characters and their story.
January 10, 2025
stunning
April 22, 2024
An affecting portrait of a young girl growing up and finding her place in the world. Solar Storms wants us to come to learn how separate we've grown from the natural world. Angel discovers that it's possible to learn how to live in harmony with the Earth, and as she does, she comes to understand her connectedness to animals, ancestors, and future generations. It's a thoughtful and impassioned novel. Looking forward to spending the next year picking over the finer details with the AcaDec gang.
February 25, 2024
I loved this book. The writing is so detailed it felt like I was watching a movie. The story is beautiful yet tragic. I’m so glad I randomly found this book.
August 7, 2020
this was really two books in one, and both were equally stunning, compelling, and emotional. despite the intensity of everything this book tackles, there was a persistent warmth and gentleness to it. i love stories that feel kind, where the love the author poured into their story is palpable. and no story has ever felt as kind as this one. there is so much pain here, so much evil, and yet there is so much hope, so much goodness. the narrator, angel, is truly a special one, and all of the relationships she forms with her newly found family are incredibly beautiful. and, god, the ending--i re-read the last few paragraphs five times after finishing. i have not felt this way in a long time. just in awe of what this book managed to accomplish in only 350 pages.
here’s two quotes that i think sum up the two central stories:
“I only knew that I and my many mothers had been lost in sky, water, and the galaxy, as we rested on a planet so small it was invisible to the turnings of other worlds.”
“For my people, the problem has always been this: that the only possibility of survival has been resistance. Not to strike back has meant certain loss and death. To strike back has also meant loss and death, only with a fighting chance. To fight has meant that we can respect ourselves, we Beautiful People. Now we believed in ourselves once again. The old songs were there, come back to us. Sometimes I think the ghost dancers were right, that we would return, that we are still returning. Even now.”
anyway, i want to swallow this book whole.
here’s two quotes that i think sum up the two central stories:
“I only knew that I and my many mothers had been lost in sky, water, and the galaxy, as we rested on a planet so small it was invisible to the turnings of other worlds.”
“For my people, the problem has always been this: that the only possibility of survival has been resistance. Not to strike back has meant certain loss and death. To strike back has also meant loss and death, only with a fighting chance. To fight has meant that we can respect ourselves, we Beautiful People. Now we believed in ourselves once again. The old songs were there, come back to us. Sometimes I think the ghost dancers were right, that we would return, that we are still returning. Even now.”
anyway, i want to swallow this book whole.
August 10, 2016
A slow read, largely in part due to all that is crammed into each sentence. The author is a poet, which makes this understandable--but if each sentence can have two or three meanings, each paragraph several meanings, you can see where it gets to be something you must trudge through. The story itself can be "boring" at times but "exciting" at others. I did not connect to any of the characters as I have in other works by Hogan. All in all, just "so-so" for me as a reader. Not something I see myself going back to or recommending.
If you like Linda Hogan's work, or are considering reading her, I would start with People of the Whale and then move on to this if you're interested.
If you like Linda Hogan's work, or are considering reading her, I would start with People of the Whale and then move on to this if you're interested.
September 5, 2016
Solar Storms is one of the deepest and most transcendent books I have ever read. Hogan's writing is pure poetry. The inner experience her characters have of the world, the earth, of our lost connection to "place" has changed the way I see and feel my connection to those things as well. Her characters live on inside you long after you have read the last page. I couldn't recommend it more highly. It is now my "favorite" book.
January 26, 2009
Multi-leveled story that goes so deep into the setting and culture and yet leaves you feeling like you never got to know the main character. Sticks with you. After reading it twice, I think I'll have to take a half a dozen more looks at it before I descend into all the levels on which this book thinks and works.
October 25, 2019
This is a wonderful, beautiful, painful book with fascinating well drawn characters. A peek into what it is like to have your home and your culture under attack.
August 14, 2021
This novel was beautifully written, heart breaking and inspiring. I will definitely read more by this author.
August 10, 2024
Tell me again why this was selected as source material for the 2025 United States Academic Decathlon?
April 8, 2018
Fighting for Nature and Finding Family
Self-discovery is a struggle that many individuals deal with. This proved to be the case for the main character of Solar Storms by Linda Hogan. Growing up in the system, Angel bounced from home to home, longing for a deeper connection to her family. She relentlessly searched for her biological mother, Hannah Wing. What her search procured was more than she could have hoped for; she found three loving grandmothers, a supportive community, a land of natural wonder, and a sense of belonging like she had never known.
Without a family or a known past, Angel spent her time trying to track down her mother and searching for a connection to something meaningful in life. Meeting Agnes Iron, Dora-Rouge, and Bush, her grandmothers, and experiencing life at Adam’s Rib and Fur Island, Angel recognized that she had found what she had spent her life searching for, “this older world…only [her] body remembered” (Hogan 79). She had always felt a connection to the land of her people, but she did not understand what it meant until she entered the world of her grandmothers. As the land that she and her matriarchal family fought to save continued to be ripped apart by the western world, Angel was able to piece herself together. The more time spent with her people, the more Angel felt accepted as she learned of her plant-dreaming abilities and began to embrace her soul-deep connection to the land. Throughout the journey, readers witness Angel develop into a young woman with an unshakeable sense of belonging in this matriarchal world of origin.
The story is told in a first-person point of view with Angel as the main character and narrator. The point of view allows for a more intimate look into Angel’s self-discovery journey. As the reader is introduced to this new world, so is the narrator. This allows the story to be authentic and inviting, which makes readers more invested in the lives of the characters. The first-hand account of the story also allows for a better understanding of how Angel develops and matures.
The setting in Solar Storms is a driving force for Hogan’s storyline. What better way to advocate for environmental conservation than to write an entire book that revolves around it. Land and nature were pivotal parts of the people’s lives. This was most evident when Dora-Rouge returned to her home land and witnessed the despair and lifelessness of the land and the Fat-Eaters. Because the people lived in harmony with the land, they suffered when the land suffered. The land, however, was not easily destroyed. It downed the developers’ precious light poles, swallowed the structures that defiled its surface, and melted the road that threatened to suffocate it. As Angel said, it was a native survivor, like herself and her community (Hogan 224). Throughout the course of the book, the humans’ lives reflected the seasons and the state of the land. Autumn was busy with preparation, winter was frozen still, spring was buzzing with wild excitement, and as the land itself became beaten down, so did its inhabitants.
An over-powering theme in Solar Storms is that humans possess a special connection to nature. This theme is heavily tied to the story’s setting, which is why at times it seems that the story is more about the land than it is about the women. Nonetheless, without this strong family of women, the story and theme would not be able to hold its own. This unexplainable connection to nature was the reason that the women decided to embark upon their journey, and at the end of the journey, Angel realized that “something beautiful lives inside us” (Hogan 351). This beautiful, or special, thing that she uncovered was her soul-connection to the life-force of nature.
Like the land itself, the people relied on and respected the creatures of the land. According to the elders in the community, beavers were the creators of the land, continuing to shape the land by changing the course of water with their dams. Hogan includes beavers again when the women sell beaver pelts for money to procure supplies for their canoe trip. Beavers are a motif because in the same way the elders believed they created, shaped, and cared for the land, beavers also provided for Bush, Agnes, Dora-Rouge, and Angel on their trip to save the same land that the beavers had made. Wolves are also a motif because they were present at important moments in the book, such as surrounding the place where the beaver pelts were kept, which foreshadowed the importance of the beaver pelts, and Angel hearing their howls at the introduction of electricity, when Tulik’s house began being used as a headquarters. Wolves are also representative of the people because they thrive in packs, like the community, yet a lone wolf was taken down by a soldier, just as the Native Americans would have been if they did not stick together (Hogan 328).
Two impactful motifs are water and the book’s namesake, solar storms. Water is symbolic of rebirth. This rebirth symbolism was present when Agnes said that Angel is “water going back to itself” by coming back to Adam’s Rib, and Angel acknowledged this when she called her grandmothers the lake that she was falling back into (Hogan 55). After piecing information together, I came to understand that solar storms refer to the northern lights, as explained in a passage from the book, “I heard the sound of the northern lights…the shimmering of ice crystals, charged by solar storms” (Hogan 119). The northern lights brilliantly reflect the theme because Angel explained that many things in nature seem to twist, in the same way a double helix of human DNA twists, and “the northern lights were part of this” (Hogan 129). The title reveals that the lives and love of the individuals that live on the land below are as intricate and mesmerizing as the solar storms above.
Self-discovery is a struggle that many individuals deal with. This proved to be the case for the main character of Solar Storms by Linda Hogan. Growing up in the system, Angel bounced from home to home, longing for a deeper connection to her family. She relentlessly searched for her biological mother, Hannah Wing. What her search procured was more than she could have hoped for; she found three loving grandmothers, a supportive community, a land of natural wonder, and a sense of belonging like she had never known.
Without a family or a known past, Angel spent her time trying to track down her mother and searching for a connection to something meaningful in life. Meeting Agnes Iron, Dora-Rouge, and Bush, her grandmothers, and experiencing life at Adam’s Rib and Fur Island, Angel recognized that she had found what she had spent her life searching for, “this older world…only [her] body remembered” (Hogan 79). She had always felt a connection to the land of her people, but she did not understand what it meant until she entered the world of her grandmothers. As the land that she and her matriarchal family fought to save continued to be ripped apart by the western world, Angel was able to piece herself together. The more time spent with her people, the more Angel felt accepted as she learned of her plant-dreaming abilities and began to embrace her soul-deep connection to the land. Throughout the journey, readers witness Angel develop into a young woman with an unshakeable sense of belonging in this matriarchal world of origin.
The story is told in a first-person point of view with Angel as the main character and narrator. The point of view allows for a more intimate look into Angel’s self-discovery journey. As the reader is introduced to this new world, so is the narrator. This allows the story to be authentic and inviting, which makes readers more invested in the lives of the characters. The first-hand account of the story also allows for a better understanding of how Angel develops and matures.
The setting in Solar Storms is a driving force for Hogan’s storyline. What better way to advocate for environmental conservation than to write an entire book that revolves around it. Land and nature were pivotal parts of the people’s lives. This was most evident when Dora-Rouge returned to her home land and witnessed the despair and lifelessness of the land and the Fat-Eaters. Because the people lived in harmony with the land, they suffered when the land suffered. The land, however, was not easily destroyed. It downed the developers’ precious light poles, swallowed the structures that defiled its surface, and melted the road that threatened to suffocate it. As Angel said, it was a native survivor, like herself and her community (Hogan 224). Throughout the course of the book, the humans’ lives reflected the seasons and the state of the land. Autumn was busy with preparation, winter was frozen still, spring was buzzing with wild excitement, and as the land itself became beaten down, so did its inhabitants.
An over-powering theme in Solar Storms is that humans possess a special connection to nature. This theme is heavily tied to the story’s setting, which is why at times it seems that the story is more about the land than it is about the women. Nonetheless, without this strong family of women, the story and theme would not be able to hold its own. This unexplainable connection to nature was the reason that the women decided to embark upon their journey, and at the end of the journey, Angel realized that “something beautiful lives inside us” (Hogan 351). This beautiful, or special, thing that she uncovered was her soul-connection to the life-force of nature.
Like the land itself, the people relied on and respected the creatures of the land. According to the elders in the community, beavers were the creators of the land, continuing to shape the land by changing the course of water with their dams. Hogan includes beavers again when the women sell beaver pelts for money to procure supplies for their canoe trip. Beavers are a motif because in the same way the elders believed they created, shaped, and cared for the land, beavers also provided for Bush, Agnes, Dora-Rouge, and Angel on their trip to save the same land that the beavers had made. Wolves are also a motif because they were present at important moments in the book, such as surrounding the place where the beaver pelts were kept, which foreshadowed the importance of the beaver pelts, and Angel hearing their howls at the introduction of electricity, when Tulik’s house began being used as a headquarters. Wolves are also representative of the people because they thrive in packs, like the community, yet a lone wolf was taken down by a soldier, just as the Native Americans would have been if they did not stick together (Hogan 328).
Two impactful motifs are water and the book’s namesake, solar storms. Water is symbolic of rebirth. This rebirth symbolism was present when Agnes said that Angel is “water going back to itself” by coming back to Adam’s Rib, and Angel acknowledged this when she called her grandmothers the lake that she was falling back into (Hogan 55). After piecing information together, I came to understand that solar storms refer to the northern lights, as explained in a passage from the book, “I heard the sound of the northern lights…the shimmering of ice crystals, charged by solar storms” (Hogan 119). The northern lights brilliantly reflect the theme because Angel explained that many things in nature seem to twist, in the same way a double helix of human DNA twists, and “the northern lights were part of this” (Hogan 129). The title reveals that the lives and love of the individuals that live on the land below are as intricate and mesmerizing as the solar storms above.
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