This book has been lauded as one of the best in Western American literature, expressing accurately the perspective of Native American Plains tribes, specifically the Blackfeet. I think relating to historical accuracy that praise is deserved, but in terms of quality storytelling this book didn't work for me. Consider soggy oatmeal. Sure its healthy, and really it doesn't taste too bad; but no one is going to walk into their favorite breakfast joint, slap down a twenty, and ask for world class soggy oatmeal. We don't do this because we go in expecting something better. Ultimately, that's how I felt about Fool's Crow. The novel was historically accurate, and Welch admirably painted a detailed portrait of the complex and wide-range of perspectives that shaped the Native American point of view. Nevertheless, I didn't feel like the story was well crafted. The primary characters are incredibly reactive, that is, they spend the entire novel reacting to problems instead of showing initiative and actively trying to solve them. For me this created a sense of "all this is happening to the characters" instead of "this is the journey the characters are taking." I found it difficult to enjoy the story when I couldn't relate to any but the most superficial of motivations. I never understood the driving force behind any of the protagonist's personalities, and whenever it seemed like they were feeling something they never did anything to act on it. Contrastingly, the antagonists to peace were doing their thing without the slightest opposition.Other than being frustrated with characterization, I thought the writing was concise and clean. I just expected more from a book that was specifically chosen for my Western American Literature Class because it is "one of the best" books ever written in the genre. Easily the worst book of the semester thus far. 4/10As of the end of the semester Fool's Crow has solidified it's position as the pitiable leper of our reading list. Sure, I might acknowledge having known him, but if he comes near me I'm still going to run away.
An amazing book that makes you realize just how much sympathetic, realistic, humanizing portraits of Native Americans are lacking in American fiction. This book tells the story of Fools Crow, a young Blackfoot warrior, and his village in the late 1800s as US soldiers are encroaching on their territory. However, white people loom at the very outer periphery of the story. This book is not the usual Requiem for the Noble Savage that you might have read before. Most of the book deals with the daily trials and dramas of the Blackfeet-- political intrigues, siblings' jealousy, broken friendships, young love and coming-of-age. It does not romanticize Blackfeet culture, nor exoticize it. It takes a while to get into-- though it's written in English, it's as if it was written in the Blackfeet language and then translated into English. But that's its genius, because once you begin to understand the strange turns of phrase, you are able to relate to and identify with characters who lived in a totally different world, and who subscribed to a totally different set of values and beliefs about how the world works. And while it is sad to think about all that was destroyed over several centuries of genocide, the fact that the book was written by a modern Blackfeet tribemember, James Welch, shows that not all was lost.
Do You like book Fools Crow (1987)?
Fool's Crow is the story of a man who becomes a mature leader in his Native American tribe. Fool's Crow has to deal with the white men who are invading his tribe and spreading sickness to his people. I loved this book because I have always been very interested in the Native American culture and spirituality, and this book really allowed me to see inside it from the perspective of a tribe member. This book also explored the theme of the white man/European man as a "taker", doing what he wants, like killing all the buffalo, and disrupting the delicate balance of nature in order to get what he wants. This theme has been close to me all my life as I have been a strong advocate for environmental protection and seeing the world not as "ours" to have and dispose of at our leisure, but instead seeing humankind as a small part of the bigger universal picture.
—Abbie
A very interesting book for me, and one I am very glad to have read. The "native-indian" style of writing (in which days are counted in terms of sleeps, months in terms of moons, seasons in terms of the expected arrival of Cold Maker, and so on) plunges the reader immediately inside the Lone Eaters camps, and there are so many little details that provide a very vivid picture of what life was like for the Indian Blackfoot Tribes at the end of the 19th century, how they felt, what made their society click and turn. For this alone I think Welch well deserved all the praise he got for this novel. But in terms of narrative, to me it felt perhaps too preoccupied with using the characters to provide the information, and in this way they come around somewhat flat. Many of the characters are wisdom and patience personified, and in this the novel seems to perpetuate the mith of the "good savage" which I find hard to swallow especially as what is portraied is a society in which superstition is so engrained. In many ways this novel reminds me of Achebe's Things Fall Apart, which is however much more edgy and convincing.
—Paola
One of the elders of the literary American Indian, Welch wrote a book that was simultaneously strong handed with its dealings with American and American Indian relations, and subtle in the narrative weavings of the Whites and Indians. Welch was careful, and I believe rightfully so, to show not just stereotypes, or what we would consider common images and interactions of Indians and whites but their opposites as well. There are good Indians and bad Indians. There are Indian lovers and Indian haters, and they are showed equally. That in itself is hugely important. Welch very consciously decided to break stereotypes by writings others. He is himself a refusal of a stereotype, and that is excellent.
—August Sanchez
