Synopses & Reviews
A New York Times Notable Book
A searing book as powerful as the life experience that inspired it, The Blood Runs Like A River Through My Dreams transports readers to the majestic landscapes and hard Native American lives of the desert Southwest. Born to a storytelling Native mother and a roughneck, song-singing father, Nasdijj has always lived at the jagged-edged margins of society, yet hardship and isolation have only brought him greater clarity a gift for language and a voice of searching honesty. "In a prose style that could almost be chanted" (New York Magazine), Nasdijj writes of his adopted son, Tommy Nothing Fancy, and of his own chaotic childhood; of his struggles between two cultures and his pursuit of the writing life as a lifeline. A powerful, unforgettable memoir, The Blood Runs Like A River Through My Dreams will "wash over readers and often take them by surprise" (Fort Worth Star-Telegram).
Review
"The symbols he molds....cohere into a unique voice, whether...recounting his adventures on the periphery of white America, musing over the continued impoverishment of the Navajo, or lamenting the loss of his adopted son." Publishers Weekly
Review
"A memoir of survival...the flat-out best nonfiction writing of the year."
Minneapolis Star Tribune
Review
"An authentic, important book...unfailingly honest and very nearly perfect." Esquire
Review
"Mesmerizing, apocalyptic...a powerful American classic...[that] doesn't just catch your breath, it stops yor souls progress in mid-stride." Rick Bass
Review
"Riveting...fascinating...unlike anything you are likely to read." New York Times Book Review
About the Author
Nasdijj is told he was born in a Navajo hogan in 1950. His mother was a Navajo, his fahter a cowboy. He now lives in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
Table of Contents
Contents
1. I Hate Mary Potato 1
2. My Son Comes Back to Me 16
3. Runaway Horses 21
4. Emergency Landing 28
5. Chahash'oh 40
6. Reservation Rocks and the
Long Walk Home 48
7. Tenderloin 62
8. To the Drum 72
9. Half-and-Half 79
10. The Blood Runs Like a River
Through My Dreams 85
11. And the Dreams Come Down
Like Thunder in the Rain 96
12. On Being Homeless 102
13. Michif's Tape 120
14. Oñate's Foot 140
15. A Movie Lives Inside My Head 157
16. Navajo Rose and the Codetalker 161
17. Go Fish 168
18. Invisibility 175
19. Flying Solo 192
20. My New Wife Is a Teacher 211