As children many of us enjoyed the "Little House" books with their gentle frontier stories about Ma, Pa, Mary, Laura, Carrie, and little Grace. As adolescents we were thrilled by the courtship of Laura and Almanzo. As adults we bought the entire "Little House" series for our children and sat down with them at night to read aloud from the books. These books have a lovely balance of adventure and excitement blended with an enduring sense of family loyalty and love. The overall themes of resilience and family perseverance remained the same throughout each book. Wilder made life on the frontier exciting and a little dangerous. We learned to believe that families that stick together can overcome any hardship. Hard work and a little luck were all you needed to be successful in the big woods or on the prairie.
These gentle frontier family stories are a startling contrast to Thomas Maltman's The Night Birds. There is no fiddle-playing, fun-loving Pa to ease the monotony of long winter nights. No gentle Ma to lead the children to the right decision. This book focuses on the harsh realities and hardships of pioneer life and how those factors affect family life. It is a book about the consequences of the decisions made while struggling to survive.
The family in The Night Birds must deal with neighbors' prejudices and suspicions when they move from Missouri to Minnesota. They live in constant fear of crop loss and Indian attacks. However, they have moved north to escape the racial prejudices of the south and they are able to forge a tentative relationship with the Indians on the nearby reservation. This relationship will save some of them during the Sioux uprising but it will also be the source of ongoing condemnation of the family by their surviving neighbors.
The narrator of the story is a young boy who does not understand the ongoing prejudices of the people around him. He learns his family history when his Aunt Hazel is released from a mental institution and comes to live with his family. She is the first person willing to share the details of their family settlement in the area and the secrets that continue to fester just below the surface of his life. Slowly the story unwinds to reveal the harsh realities of frontier life and the decisions for survival that continue to impact the characters' lives. There is also an element of mysticism which lends insight into the Native American culture and helps the reader to understand the motivations behind the actions of the Indians. While there's no Nellie Oleson in this book, there are a host of people with continuing resentments and prejudices that contribute to making life lonely and miserable for the narrator and his aunt. In the end, the author allows the reader to see glimpses of hope and acceptance combined with the enduring pioneer spirit as the narrator becomes an adult with clearer understanding of his past.
You may ask, "What shall I read while I wait for Thomas Maltman's next book, Little Wolves?" Willa Cather's My Antonia or O Pioneers! are exceptional examples of pioneer fiction. Perhaps a title like The Round House by Louise Erdrich if The Night Birds has whet your appetite for stories involving American Indians and the impact that reservations have had on their culture. For action and adventure, try an epic like Larry McMurtry's Lonesome Dove saga or the Berrybender narratives. These are excellent reads that will take you back in time and allow the reader to experience a taste of life on the frontier. None of these titles are simple "cowboy and Indian" westerns, they're stories about hardship and life and taking chances with a dash of "western dressing" to add flavor. 
No comments:
Post a Comment