It was written in 1977 when yours truly was buried under freshman woes at college. It escaped me, until now.
At its core, it is about one man’s journey to deal with often brutal repercussions of change. He might very well be an Everyman, but in this case he is a disenfranchised native American veteran eviscerated by his experiences in WWII and unable to function when thrown back to the ostracized reality of post-war reservation life.
Ultimately, he turns to the stories of his native culture that he had turned away from and which society had shamed him into forsaking.
The spiritual journey that he takes to get back in touch with his place in the world is a transformational, if harrowing, adventure. The imagery of his reality as well as of the epiphanies he reaches are memorable and beautifully drawn.
It is tough love all the way through; not tuning your back on the real world, but establishing what “real world” means and realizing “it is not easy” to maintain.
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