In his first novel, A Yellow Raft in Blue Water, Michael Dorris tells the entwined stories of three generations of American Indian women. The first section is told by 15 year old Rayona, the second by Rayona’s mother Christine, and the third by Christine’s mother Ida.

The theme is the braiding together of the lives of these three headstrong women and their extended families. Parts of each story show up in the others, with the same scenes told from a different perspective at the same time new material is brought in by each narrator. While not a unique approach, Dorris handles it well.

The problem is . . .

Read the rest of the review posted on Rose City Reader.

When my mother asked for some books to read, I added this book to the stack. I read it in high school, having picked it from a reading list, and 15 years later I can still remember a few scenes, frozen in place. When you think about it, it’s amazing how quickly it appeared on our high school reading list.

My mother was probably drawn to A Yellow Raft in Blue Water - as I was - by the theme of modern Native American life, something we can identify with. Now that she’s finished, I’m starting to reread the book. The structure of the book reminds me of Lee Smith’s Oral History which appeared a few years earlier. I would be surprised if Dorris had not read Oral History before writing A Yellow Raft… not that it matters to the worth of the book. But I do think they make good companions.