How a Mountain Was Made: Stories - Hardcover

Sarris, Greg

4.36

53 ratings by Goodreads

9781597144148: How a Mountain Was Made: Stories

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1597144142 ISBN 13: 9781597144148

Publisher: Heyday, 2017

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In the tradition of Calvino's Italian Folktales, Greg Sarris, author of the award-winning novel Grand Avenue, turns his attention to his ancestral homeland of Sonoma Mountain in Northern California. In sixteen interconnected original stories, the twin crows Question Woman and Answer Woman take us through a world unlike yet oddly reminiscent of our own: one which blooms bright with poppies, lupines, and clover; one in which Waterbug kidnaps an entire creek; in which songs have the power to enchant; in which Rain is a beautiful woman who keeps people's memories in stones. Inspired by traditional Coast Miwok and Southern Pomo creation tales, these stories are timeless in their wisdom and beauty, and because of this timelessness their messages are vital and immediate. The figures in these stories ponder the meaning of leadership, of their place within the landscape and their community. In these stories we find a model for how we can all come home again. At once ancient and contemporary, How a Mountain Was Made is equally at home in modern letters as the ancient story cycle. Sarris infuses his stories with a prose stylist's creativity and inventiveness, moving American Indian literature in a new and emergent direction.

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About the Author:

Greg Sarris is currently serving his thirteenth term as Chairman of the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria. He holds the Graton Rancheria Endowed Chair in Writing and Native American Studies at Sonoma State University, and his publications include Keeping Slug Woman Alive: A Holistic Approach to American Indian Texts (1993), Grand Avenue (1994), and Watermelon Nights (1999). Greg lives and works in Sonoma County.

Review:

“Charming and wise stories, simply told, to be enjoyed by young and old alike—'stories need us if they are to come forth and have life too.'” --Kirkus Reviews

“Stunning.... Neither an arid anthropological text nor another pseudo-Indian as-told-to fabrication. Instead, Sarris has breathed new life into these ancient Northern California tales and legends, lending them a subtle, light-hearted voice and vision.” --Scott Lankford, Los Angeles Review of Books

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