Why I Can't Read Wallace Stegner and Other Essays: A Tribal Voice

""The unfortunate truth is that there are few significant works being produced today by the currently popular American Indian fiction writers which examine the meaningfulness of indigenous or tribal sovereignty in the twenty-first century."" With that statement, it's evident that Cook-Lynn (Dakota Sioux author of From the River's Edge) doesn't feel a need to ingratiate herself to her compatriots. Politically minded and very outspoken, she criticizes everyone from the U.S. Government (for its racist and oppressive policies) to Michael Dorris and Louise Erdrich (for ""the sheer commercialism of Crown of Columbus"" and especially their stance in The Broken Cord) to Stegner (""There is, perhaps, no American fiction writer who has been more successful in serving the interests of a nation's fantasy about itself than Wallace Stegner""). When not fraught with animosity, her essays are so congested with academic prose that they are very difficult to read. Anyone who doesn't share her view is blasted by her vitriolic pen, and the constant pounding is so relentless that it becomes mind-numbing. As to the book's title: ""Stegner's attitude is, without question, the pervasive attitude of white midwesterners whose ancestors marched into a moral void and then created through sheer will the morality that allowed them, much the same way that the contemporary white Dutch South Africans marched into South Africa proclaiming Pretoria, to convince the world that `this is my country.' "" These are essays on important issues that need to be explored, but most readers are likely to find them bitter and overwrought. (Dec.)