ANCIENT CHILD, THE

Rating:
Summary: go slowly into his heart-Momaday comes out with yours
Review: His mind is the atelier.The depicted soul of the young woman, Grey, Koi-ehm-toya, was hauntingly perfect. Entwined with notoriety, she grew to an assured love, preserving the heart of a Kiowa man, Loki. Man or mythological God? Distant, the sublime power draws into the solar plexis of humanity, and remains. As if two souls, autoecious azygos, encompassed all characters; Kope'mah, the grandmother earth, 'anomalous cohesion and disintegration of form...motion...color at once.' 'A timeless rejoicing entered into their veins...', (pg35), Grey the elements within, water and root, '"You are Set-angya, the chief of dog soldiers...best of warriors, of battles...enemies."', (pg258), 'Here are weeds about his mouth...', (pg234), the elements above earth, air and fire, introspection and preparation create a watercolor backdrop. Grey, '...a question of control, coordination, mastery: how to bring her body and the body of the horse into concert...', (pg185), eradicated, effectively, Billy the Kid, from the vines of youth, and those who harmed her bodily nature; with hoyden grace. J. Jaederland ([e-mail])

Rating:
Summary: A wonderful and beautiful novel about the American West
Review: Momaday, as you probably know, won the Pulitzer Prize in 1969 for his first novel, "House Made of Dawn." In that book, the hero, torn between the Native American world and modern America, and deeply affected by his Vietnam war experiences, finally disintegrates, unable to continue fighting the forces trying to destroy him.

Twenty years later, Momaday published his second book, "The Ancient Child," and it's just as powerful, just as beautifully written, as his first.

The premise is similar to the first book. A man is torn between two worlds, tormented by nightmares, and finds himself drawn to the desert. He finds his destiny, and it too is disintegration. But whereas the disintegration in "House Made of Dawn" is a violent, tragic event, in "The Ancient Child" it comes across as a process of spiritual resolution and healing, rather than destruction.

That's why I regard this book as superior to its Prize-winning predecessor. Momaday's vision seems more holistic, more encompassing in this book. His first novel's tragic vision leaves you haunted and a little horrified. This book will leave you equally haunted, not in horror, but in quiet awe of the inevitable metaphysical reckoning we all must undergo when we leave this world, and the paths we take to get there.

Read it.

Rating:
Summary: not so good
Review: While it is somewhat interesting to read a novel in which dreams and reality meld together, I found *this* novel to be vastly uninteresting. The main characters don't hold my attention at all. The storytelling is poor since the issues and themes are buried under a haphazard narration. My suggestion: don't invest time or money in this book.