Synopses & Reviews
A powerful story of a Vietnam veteran torn between his war experience and his Native American community.
Raised in a remote seaside village, Thomas Witka Just marries Ruth, his beloved since infancy. But an ill-fated decision to fight in Vietnam changes his life forever: cut off from his Native American community, he fathers a child with another woman. When he returns home a hero, he finds his tribe in conflict over the decision to hunt a whale, both a symbol of spirituality and rebirth and a means of survival. In the end, he reconciles his two existences, only to see tragedy befall the son he left behind.
Linda Hogan, called our most provocative Native American writer, with "her unparalleled gifts for truth and magic" (Barbara Kingsolver), has written a compassionate novel about the beauty of the natural world and the painful moral choices humans make in it. With a keen sense of the environment, spirituality, and the trauma of war, People of the Whale is a powerful novel for our times.
Review
"Hogan's style is both dreamlike and realistic, with a nonlinear narrative that loops back on itself as more and more is revealed. While filled with heartbreaking events, the novel has a life-affirming spirit that makes the journey worthwhile. Highly recommended." Library Journal
Review
"Deeply ecological, original, and spellbinding, Hogan ascends to an even higher plane in this hauntingly beautiful novel of the hidden dimensions of life, and all that is now imperiled." Booklist
Review
"Don't miss this beautiful novel." Charlotte Observer
Review
"[A] fascinating look at how the traditions of native Northwest peoples intersect and collide with 20th-century America, issues still very relevant and important to us today." Oregonian
Review
"[A] fine story that embraces the worthy subjects of modern American Indians, the Vietnam War and the importance of family." Rocky Mountain News
Synopsis
A powerful story of a Vietnam veteran torn between his war experience and his Native American community.
Synopsis
Raised in a remote seaside village, Thomas Witka Just marries Ruth, his beloved since infancy. But an ill-fated decision to fight in Vietnam changes his life forever: cut off from his Native American community, he fathers a child with another woman. When he returns home a hero, he finds his tribe in conflict over the decision to hunt a whale, both a symbol of spirituality and rebirth and a means of survival. In the end, he reconciles his two existences, only to see tragedy befall the son he left behind.
Linda Hogan, called our most provocative Native American writer, with "her unparalleled gifts for truth and magic" (Barbara Kingsolver), has written a compassionate novel about the beauty of the natural world and the painful moral choices humans make in it. With a keen sense of the environment, spirituality, and the trauma of war, People of the Whale is a powerful novel for our times.
About the Author
Linda Hogan was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for her novel Mean Spirit. Her other honors include an American Book Award and a Guggenheim Fellowship. She teaches English at the University of Colorado in Boulder and lives in Idledale.