Sun Dancer: A Novel

By David London

Book Overview

The story of an American Indian community and how it is transformed through the vision quest of an alcoholic-turned-spiritual-leader, Clement Blue Chest. It is a novel which explores man's relationship with the land, the nature of sacredness, and historical justice.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0684814587
• ISBN13: 9780684814582
• Release Date: July 1996
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 1.41 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.8" x 1.3" x 6.3"

Customer Reviews

Wow!

I had come across a very strong review of Sun Dancer in the Portlandia Book Review (Portland, Oregon) in which the reviewer compared Sun Dancer favorably to Sherman Alexie's Indian Killer, which he also liked. So, I decided to give it a try. Wow! This is a fast-moving book, yet thoughtful and spiritual. It's full of beauty, pain, humor and pathos--no mere action-adventure. There is also a crushing love story in here, yet I wouldn't categorize Sun Dancer as a romance. It seems to defy genre.Perhaps what I loved most about this book is how real it felt. You actually forget you're reading. You're there. And the voice of the narrator is mesmerizing.Without effort, you absorb a great deal of Lakota culture while ripping through the story. (And what a beautiful culture it is!) Never, though, do you feel like you're reading ethnology, for you're too busy caring about these sympathetic characters and wondering what happens next, and will they succeed at regaining their Black Hills.At the heart of this book, it seems to me, are profound spiritual questions, and equally serious questions about justice.I loved it. Many scenes in Sun Dancer have stayed with me a long time--as have the haunting characters. London has a way of burning things into your eye and into your mind. The book was definitely fun to read, but it may also change the way you see things.

An Overlooked Gem

I came across Sun Dancer only by accident, and was completely taken with it from page one. The plight of the Lakota Sioux has been on many people's minds over the past several years, and this book lets the reader revisit some of the complex issues surrounding the history of the Sioux within the context of a captivating, well-written novel. As an author myself, I was particularly impressed by the fine craftsmanship of Mr. London's prose, and thoroughly enjoyed the cast of quirky, but entirely believable characters who serve to manifest the various facets of contemporary life on the reservation. I was further impressed to learn that Mr. London is not a Native American himself, but spent several summers living and working with the Lakota. This book is clearly an inspired tribute to a group of Americans that the author has great respect for; it is keenly observed, and a wonderful first novel that deserves nothing but praise.

Thought-provoking and compelling

I picked up this book expecting just a good story - and ended up unable to put the book down until I finished. The concommitant devotion and pain that the characters share; the complexity of their relationships with one another and their predicament; the author's straightfoward style coupled with a hawk's eye for detail; and his acute sense of the pathos of the historical and cultural territory that this book covers all make this book one of the best I've read for a long time. I think the issue of whether a writer is "qualified" to write about another culture is a thorny one. Certainly there's the whole "it's a thing, you just don't understand" is valid in certain respects. However, I can't help but think that the act and process of trying to understand (and write about) a culture or experience that is "other" is admirable and is what, ultimately, enables people to rise above their own small worlds and begin to make sense of that raging ether we call the human condition. I applaud London's sensitive and educated attempt - as well as what I would say is his successful result. That is, if you can claim to distill the ability to capture and empathize with pain, exhilaration, the will to survive, etc - all of that - something as simple as "successful." Perhaps a work such as Sundancer is better labled with a word such as "humilty" rather than "successful."

An exciting, realistic adventure

I have spent a good deal of time in South Dakota, on and off the res., working more with Lakota than whites. I thought London's book did a fantastic job of capturing the moods, attitudes, tragedy, frustrations and magic of that amazing locale. I liked the characters; they felt right and I wanted to follow their story, which had lots of nuance and no condescension. A really good read!

extremely poignant

I bought this book purely on a whim. As it turns out I wish I could "whimsically" find more works by Mr. London. His grasp of the plains indians and their life conditions from past to present is far better than the "big four" of indian fiction... i.e. Tony Hillerman, etc. (and I love Hillerman's works). The historical accuracy of events is eclisped only by his graphic portrayal of the on-going struggle of the modern day indians trying so desperately to regain lands and "promises" that our government so blatantly tricked them out of. Moving back and forth between fact and fiction so smoothly kept my interest piqued several nights into early a.m. Strong characters and physical descriptions kept me spellbound. It's a fantastic read!