The Blood Runs Like a River Through My Dreams

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Summary: The Blood Runs Like a River Through My Dreams is enthralling
Review: Into the majestic desert landscape of the American Southwest, among the hard life of a Navajo reservation & into this angry man's life comes a baby boy with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome & an unrelenting & mystical would-be mother. With Tommy Nothing Fancy's arrival, the heart of this dry & sorry man is cracked open & out floods memories & all the love of the world & a father is born.

Yes, this is an angry book - there is no escaping the heartache of a people severed from their ancestry, confined to welfare misery & generations of intentional abuse by government & do-gooders. Children wrenched away to boarding schools where everything that made them who they were was systematically & brutally erased. Adults proscribed from eking out a living off their land & that ubiquitous & invidious palliative for all that pain. That assuager which brings the dread disease that destroys their children before they are born.

Read The Blood Runs Like a River Through My Dreams for the story Nasdijj has to tell, then read it again for his lyrical language. Like paintings of sunsets over desert mountains, Nasdijj's essays are fulgent with passions, paronomasias & revelations.

I could not put this book down until I'd read the last word & even then I sat, astonished & breathless with Nasdijj's thoughts & images. I urge you to check out my eInterview with this author & my full review at: [my website].


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Summary: Sustaining Hope, Love, Life - Despite the Odds
Review: Nadijj writes his memoirs with tenderness, compassion, insight, and matter of fact clarity. He writes stark naked sentences that speak volumes of truth in very few words about difficult life situations. The author recalls tangible things that remind him of his 6 year old adopted son, who we learn had died of fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS). The baby had acquired this disease from a mother who drank alcohol while pregnant. The author reveals the challenging social and economic conditions of growing up in a Native American culture without harshness or bitterness. The author "walks between two worlds", the Native American and White culture. He inherited the physical features of his father who was White yet he does not identify with the White culture. He absorbed the spirit and soul of his mother who was a Navajo (American Indian) which is evident by his use of imagery, descriptions of nature and wild life, and use of language. This book reveals how the author developed and transformed his life, despite poverty, and within the chaotic and often harsh circumstances of migrant work. His parents traveled all over the country working on ranches or farms. It is amazing how he maintained a sense of inner balance and harmony while the outside conditions were anything but that. The author describes a situation where his work with high school youth disillusioned him and yet later he was able to salvage one young Indian teenager's life through sustained interaction and discipline. We also are shown the seedy and underside of life for Native American teenagers when interventions are unsuccessful. In the midst of so much sadness and hardship one senses the hope and dreams upon which to build a better future. Past Native American defeats by the dominant culure and subsequent humiliations have permeated the mind-set of many Native Americans. While many aspects of the Native American culture have disintegrated there is a reawakening to traditions which is helping to revive the spirit and renew the dignity of the culture. This author describes heart-breaking life events of vulnerable people with understanding and compassion. His writing style, choice of words, and imagery are exceptional. I read this book in one sitting - unable to put it down. One learns about the shadow side of life but one also learns how the light of love and caring make even the most difficult situations bearable. This book is highly recommended. Erika Borsos (erikab93)

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Summary: Brought Home With Nasdijj's Words
Review: While viewing books in a bookstore in Boise, ID, Nasdijj's memoir caught my eye. The title drew me in, since I am a poet. The first chapter made me sit down. Chapter three brought me to tears, as he writes of Mariano Lake, which is home. I am Navajo and live next to the school. The wild horses Nasdijj wrote about are my uncles'. They are still there, running and creating dreams and fantasies in boys' eyes. And the goats and sheep are my grandmother's, my mother's and mine, they still graze around the school and in the baseball field. The school officials always tell us not to graze them there, but we tell them the goats were there before we permitted the school to be built. They leave us and the goats alone now, until new administrators arrive. My grandmother (the old lady in the book) died September 11th. My mother took her place with the goats and sheep.
I read the whole book in the bookstore, then I bought it. Now, the children in Mariano Lake are reading the book. I have to send five new copies, soon. Nasdijj has literally painted a picture of my community and Navajo life, in general, with words which is hard to do. This book is more than a treasure. The simple sight of it reminds me of home, with Nasdijj's empowering colorful words.