cover image Ghost Dancing

Ghost Dancing

Anna Linzer. Picador USA, $21 (192pp) ISBN 978-0-312-19548-9

Linzer draws upon her experience living on the Suquamish Indian Reservation in Washington State for her heartfelt, informative but rather pallid first collection. These 11 interconnected stories concern Jimmy One Rock, a Lenape (or Delaware) Indian, and shift back and forth between Washington, where he now lives, and his childhood spent in Oklahoma--to which the Delaware were removed from the Northeast more than a century ago. The pieces reflect Jimmy's journey of self-discovery as he learns about his people, his identity and the harsh reality of being a Native American in the contemporary U.S. The impact of Christianity upon Native cultures also figures centrally. Although Linzer captures certain aspects of modern Native life and history, her account lacks nuance, relying instead on sentimental regret and hackneyed images of loss, alcoholism, suffering and death. Compared to her eye for the surface details of reservation life, Linzer's grasp of the heart is tentative and inexact. Author tour; U.K. translation and dramatic rights to Sobel Weber. (Oct.)