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alisarae's review against another edition
Lately I have been itching for some fiction that isn't MFA-ified. I have been going back to older, 20th century lit, where the language is crisp and colorful and the author's voice is clear and unique. Winter in the Blood fits the bill.
Okay, I know what I'm about to say is unfairly anachronistic, but: imagine Murakami, no magic realism save a couple dream sequences, and add in rural Montana in the 70s. That is how this book felt to me.
A couple things stood out to me while I was listening. First, there were no devices so when people wanted to fiddle, they had to fiddle with other things: keys, random animals in the surroundings, blades of grass. I like how the author includes those moments of downtime. Second, subtle deliniations between cultural insiders and outsiders, so subtle it seems almost unintentional... very gracefully done.
Okay, I know what I'm about to say is unfairly anachronistic, but: imagine Murakami, no magic realism save a couple dream sequences, and add in rural Montana in the 70s. That is how this book felt to me.
A couple things stood out to me while I was listening. First, there were no devices so when people wanted to fiddle, they had to fiddle with other things: keys, random animals in the surroundings, blades of grass. I like how the author includes those moments of downtime. Second, subtle deliniations between cultural insiders and outsiders, so subtle it seems almost unintentional... very gracefully done.
serendipitysbooks's review against another edition
dark
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
A contemporary classic following a young indigenous man attempting to find his place and value in both his indigenous community and in the wider society. A tough read with trauma, grief, violence, alcoholism, sexism and more but it does end on a hopeful note.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal death, Misogyny, and Violence
nosivadnej's review against another edition
medium-paced
5.0
This is a beautiful book. One can tell the author is a poet. Beautiful commentary on the human condition.
bennyandthejets420's review against another edition
4.0
Didn't quite snap together for me until the end, wherein the sort of rambling narrative intercut with crucial backstory flashbacks 'suddenly reveals itself to be a cyclical story of grief and acceptance. The prose relies on spare parataxis and very quick almost insight-like flashes of nature description. Can recall Hemingway or McCarthy without suggesting any sense of mimicry. Love how the landscape description shifts between commenting directly and indirectly on the inner life of the characters without being a direct one to one correspondence. Very strong, condensed stuff!
ruminating_blayne's review against another edition
4.5
An episodic stupor that staggers between dazed drunkenness and poignant, poetic reflection; definitely the ancestor to Joshua Whitehead's Jonny Appleseed.
emiller1018's review against another edition
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
thesaltiestlibrarian's review against another edition
dark
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
heidipolkissa82's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
funny
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
princessfabulous's review against another edition
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Most of this book is hard to read. The main character is aimless, and struggling with the deaths of his father and brother. He is a Blackfeet in Montana in the 1960s and life doesn't resemble anything hos people were accustomed to less than a century before.
I struggled along with him until the very end, when he visits an old neighbor and has a mind altering revelation. I was relieved for him, and happy to revisit some of the tribe we learn so much about in Welch's award-winning novel Fools Crow. The end leaves our narrator in the same physical place he was introduced, but with a sense that he is much more at peace in his soul. It's not a happy story, but I am glad I persisted to the end. It was wonderful writing.
I struggled along with him until the very end, when he visits an old neighbor and has a mind altering revelation. I was relieved for him, and happy to revisit some of the tribe we learn so much about in Welch's award-winning novel Fools Crow. The end leaves our narrator in the same physical place he was introduced, but with a sense that he is much more at peace in his soul. It's not a happy story, but I am glad I persisted to the end. It was wonderful writing.
claireviolet's review against another edition
4.0
this is a deeply lonely and sad story, which only makes the beauty that much more stunning