A Yellow Raft in Blue Water

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Summary: A great tale, filled with secrets.
Review: In this unusual layering of story about three generations of native American women, Michael Dorris reveals his remarkable ability to write convincingly in three distinct female voices. The stories of Rayona, Christine, and Ida begin as each is coming of age, each confronting her sexuality, and each struggling to confront and handle her relationship to her native American culture. The story works backwards, beginning with the granddaughter and ending with her grandmother.

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Summary: HORRIBLE
Review: I had to read this book for school and I first thought it was ok. But the story refused to start and I was stuck with no suspense to keep me reading. My advice is not to read this book

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Summary: it all depends on who's the narrator
Review: Three women, a granddaughter, Rayona, mother, Christine, and grandmother, Ida, tell the story of their lives, and at times refer to the same events, quite differently, as their perspectives are influenced by their past, their fears and experiences. Awesome awesome narrative; it is terrible that Dorris will not write again. Memorable book with a surprising ending.

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Summary: A fascinating story of three generations.
Review: Dorris tells the story of three generations of native American women. In addition to strong and interesting characters, he tells the story backwards, so to speak. First, the story is told from the point of view of a 15 year old, then from the point of view of her mother, and finally from the grandmother's viewpoint. Naturally, the same important events in the familiy's history are quite different in each of these three viewpoints. You'll love the surprise ending

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Summary: Yellow Raft in Blue Water -- audio cassette version
Review: This book is in 3 parts -- each told from a view point of a a different generation from the same family. This story is very poignant, for teenagers, mothers and grandmothers who often are too wound up in the present to appreciate the past. Each person's narrative gives a new perspective on why the character acts the way she does. It lends an uncommon depth to the story. I never thought that Ida's harshness could be justified but after hearing her version of the story, I understand her view. It is a melancholy story with illness, death and despair. But it is worth the time.

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Summary: A unique personal history spanning three generations.
Review: I read this book, "Yellow Raft on Blue Water" by Michael Dorris, for my High School US Literature class. At first I was skeptical, I thought it would just be another one of those 'cultural struggle' books, that I've read enough of. I was wrong, this book is about understanding. The characters each go through life's journey to understand where their mothers and daughters are coming from. The book is uniquely formatted, going backward in time, retelling the same story from each character's point of view. You learn each character's past, the way they lived their lives and the way others saw them live it. "I never grew up, but I got old. I'm a woman who's lived for fifty-seven years and worn resentment like a medicine charm for forty. It hung heavier on my neck after each brief rest I took." p. 207. The language used in this book is beautiful, the story is touching, and the characters are amazing. I highly reccomend this book.

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Summary: A seminal work
Review: "A Yellow Raft in Blue Water" is one story, a single epoch, but told three times, each telling by one of the three women who shared it: the grandmother, Ida, the mother, Christine, and the daughter, Rayona. But, this book is not just about a single story seen through three different pairs of eyes. It's really a story of the forces that compel each of us to do the things we do, frequently against our own intuition or better judgement ---- and, all of them ring true. Dorris, the author, had incredible insight into human behavior when he wrote this book. Tragically, I understand that he ended his own life by suicide. Although this is fiction, it's a poignant revelation into the consequences of embracing cultural belief systems that have little basis in reality. Ruined or miserable lives are often the result. The daughter, Rayona, like many teenagers, trashes the moors of her elders and shows promise of breaking out of the cruel cycle that held her mother and grandmother captive to an miserable life. This book is a plea: it asks how we know for sure, what we think we know for sure. Granted, that's a bit heavy, but certainly worthwhile for anyone who wonders where happiness lies.

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Summary: If you like your characters flawed . . .
Review: I read this as an unabridged audio book and it's a good thing too because if I were reading this in its paperback format I do believe I would've put it down unfinished after the first few chapters. Admittedly, I'm easily bored these days but this story was just too slow paced and peopled with characters that are (more often than not) difficult to sympathize with for me to anxiously continue turning its pages with any sort of enthusiasm. However, being trapped as I am in my vehicle for long stretches of time I'm content to listen to most anything if it distracts me from the tedium of driving and thus I finished every CD until I reached the bitter end.

The story is told from the point of view of its three main characters starting with fifteen year old Rayona and working backwards through events which are told by her mother Christine and finally by Christine's mother "Aunt" Ida. This technique makes one sit back and say "ahhh, so that somewhat explains why "so and so" was such an unlikable witch earlier in the book" but it also makes for tough reading because it's difficult to sympathize with Christine and "Aunt" Ida for long stretches of the novel. Once we learn their motivations for certain actions they often turn out to be the ones who made poor choices resulting in their current miserable situations.

The novel begins when Rayona is unceremoniously abandoned by her mother Christine at "Aunt" Ida's home on an Indian reservation who (if this possible) is even less caring and nurturing than selfish Christine. Christine hitches a ride and doesn't look back leaving Rayona to deal with grumpy Ida who takes her in but leaves her to fend for herself. Rayona, friendless, lonely and finding it difficult to fit in becomes a "project" to the local preacher who hovers over her in a somewhat creepy way (if'n you ask me). This is only a small snapshot of what appears to be a long stretch of instability in Rayona's young life. Rayona tells the story for roughly 1/3 of the book and, in my eyes, was the most sympathetic of the three and showed a lot of guts for a kid on her own.

The focus then switches to her mom Christine who shows us a bit of her past. We experience the ups and downs of her wild days as a single gal living on her own after she's escaped the confines of life on the reservation. Her secret heartache is revealed and we relive her love affair with Rayona's faithless father. Still, despite all of her pain she always remained a selfish "me, me, me" type of person who I couldn't warm up to and a lot of her troubles were of her own making, in my opinion. Next up the story switches to Ida, whose past I found the most interesting. She fills in many gaps and her past answers a lot of questions that cropped up while I was reading Rayona & Christine's point of view. Again, though, in the end Ida is too brusque and difficult to warm up to despite the painful choice thrust upon her as a youngster.

Overall this story manages to be both depressing and compassionate but the bleakness left me in a very melancholy mood when I finished. Two of the three characters love deeply but show it in all the wrong ways and I fear the third may follow their footsteps with such guidance. . .


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Summary: Layered accounts save YR from pure mediocrity
Review: I read this book along with my son for his summer reading in Honors English. It is the three braided stories of a mom, her daughter and her own mother told from their own points of view.

The characters were not terribly sympathetic since each was self-centered, unlike, for example, Stephen in Gail Tsukiyama's book Samurai's Garden. Each character seemingly could ascertain their choices, but often made selfish ones and paid the consequent price. No tragedy of gender or ethnicity and few genuine complications due principally to being a native american, black or a woman.

I think most kids will leave this book with negative stereotypes about native americans, blacks, middle-aged Catholic priests and poor people reinforced rather than appreciating the perplexing complexity of ordinary life.

More interesting is the scandal of Michael Dorris' own life in which he reportedly committed suicide just before being criminally indicted by the Hennepin County attorney's office on sexually abusing his own biological daughters. He failed to have his son, Sava, convicted of attempted felony theft from him, while others remarked that the Dorris' push for prosecution was his attempt to silence or discredit his children's stories of repeated sexual abuse.

There is good evidence Dorris cared more about his image and position as founder of the Native American Studies program at Dartmouth and as a literary voice for his quarter-blooded Medoc background than in honesty about his own life's experiences, as reflected in his work.

I recommend N. Scott Momaday, Maya Angelou, Ralph Ellison or Elie Weisel instead.

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Summary: A Delightful End to a Long Journey
Review: Ok, here's the thing (and it's a trend I've noticed among all Dorris's reviews, you need to have faith that the read will be worth the time spent. It took me a couple months of looking at it in my bookshelf before I got around to reading, and even then I found the language easy and the plot somewhat entertaining. The thing you will notice is that its quite a long read and the book, broke into 3 sections, will most likely scare you away when you find tedium in some of the passages. I stuck with it (out of respect for Erdrich's choice of husband) and found that the last two sections really sold my interest into the story, as all the loopholes are backfilled and twists in plot are revealed. My first cynical impressions at the beginning were all destroyed and I found the characters more sympathetic and relatable. Give the book a chance, it was a wonderful finish, and it was nice to read fiction that taught me something valuable.