A Yellow Raft in Blue Water by Michael Dorris
#40 in my 2007 book challenge was A Yellow Raft in Blue Water, credited to the late Michael Dorris. It was written at a time when he and then-wife Louise Erdrich were collaborating on everything they each wrote, and it has many of Erdrich’s hallmarks: Native American female characters; difficult and disappointing parental figures; interwoven, overlapping narratives; and family secrets. The only Erdrich-ian characteristic I didn’t see was dreamy, magical realism.
The book is divided into three sections, each narrated by a different character: Rayona, Christine (Ray’s mother), and Ida, (Christine’s mother). These three strong characters are what elevate this novel. They are complex and flawed, yet still easy to like, even though some of their choices are hard to understand, especially as they relate to family secrets and emotions.
If you like Erdrich’s work and have never read this, it’s an interesting addition to her oeuvre, whatever role she played. While Dorris may have done bad things, and he came to a tragic end, this book is about the redemptive power of family and love.
If you haven’t read Erdrich, I recommend her Blue Jay’s Dance: A Birth Year, and The Antelope Wife.
September 24th, 2007 at 8:42 am
I just read Love Medicine (an old Erdrich I somehow hadn’t read), and found it extremely powerful. One of those books that makes me stop reading for a couple of days while I think about it.