Rating: 
Summary: Some questions answered, some forever left...
Review: When I read "Yellow Raft on Blue Water," I was riveted. I was amazed that a man could capture the spirit of a 16 year old, mixed race girl so seemingly effortlessly, and also so well. Coming away from the novel, my only questions were centered around Rayona's father, Elgin. It seemed to me that if there were reasons for Christine's bizarre behavior, there ought to be some for Elgin's as well. My favorite part of reading "Cloud Chamber" and discovering the roots of Elgin's insecurities. I could feel myself relaxing in my anger for his neglect of his daughter as I read of his own neglect and pain. Elgin remains a mystery to me, but at least some questions were answered. The other characters in the novel ranged from amusing and frustrating, Marcella, to downright infuriating, Rose. However, my all- around favorite remains Rayona, the brave young heroine who inspired me as a neglected misfit in "Yellow Raft." I was struck by the sub! tle change wrought in Rayona's relationship with her maternal grandmother, which seems somewhat less adverserial in "Cloud Chamber." Overall, I find Dorris' sequel somewhat less satisfying than the first installment, but still well worth the read. I mourn for the loss of a talented writer, one I have emulated since first reading about his Rayona.
Rating: 
Summary: Prelude and Postlude
Review: `Cloud Chamber' is the follow-up novel to his earlier `A Yellow Raft on Blue Water'. To say follow-up, however, is somewhat misleading. It is actually both a prequel and a sequel to that novel. Whereas in YRBW we are presented with the history of three generations of women in a backwards progression, in `Cloud Chamber' we begin several generations prior, leading one to speculate (even unto the last quarter of the book) why exactly is one reading this, and what relationship it truly has to YRBW?The patient will be rewarded in her or his reading. We begin in Ireland, with a tale of passion and betrayal (as only the Irish under English-domination could seem to muster). This account, almost unrelated to the rest of the story save as the seed of the action, actually provides an undertow of passion and betrayal felt by the family's succeeding generations. When the young, best-prized son becomes a priest, and then dies tragically in a rather stupid accident, both the mother and the woman-in-love (who marries his brother, ironically, to stay close to him) get angry with the entire world, to no good end. Men, when they figure in the story at all, are usually distant characters, not fully developed, and the full implication is that the literary character is not very developed because the human character is likewise undeveloped. That being said, this is not feminist-philosophy here; as happened so often, women often had a very different psychological and personality development, given cultural mores, and perhaps the view of the men could never be complete given this societal-enforced distance. We come up on Rayona's lineage from the other side this time, through her father, but in this, it is very much the matriarchal line. We learn that, even given strong women of intelligence and passion, the wisps of reality still can make for a struggle for survival. Chronic disease runs through the family; great need (most often unacknowledged) contrasts and conflicts with great strength. The story ends in hope, and renews the hope at the end of YRBW. Rayona has a history and prehistory of tension and passion and difficulty, but also one of love and hopefulness, and this is the conclusion. This is a truly intriguing way of introducing an entire new cultural element into the storyline, and an innovative way of following up a great novel.
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