Good Reads - Fiction

Many Voices: A Fictional Exploration of American Cultures

The following annotated booklist is a sampling of multicultural fiction. The books were chosen because, in addition to being first-rate reading, they portray and celebrate the uniqueness of different ethnic and cultural groups in the United States. Most are set in the United States post 1950.

F/ABU-JABER
Abu-Jaber, Diane - Arabian Jazz - 1993, 374p.
Jordanian Americans
Transplanted Jordanians in upstate New York, their children, and their visitors from the old country inhabit this humorous almost fantastical multi-cultural extravaganza. Matussen Ramoud is obsessed by jazz and his two daughters. His sister worries about her nieces and pursues matchmaking with a vengeance. The daughters, Jemora and Melvina, search their memories in an effort to reconstruct their Irish mother who died when Melvina was only two. Everyone seeks a personal niche, a home, and this refrain, which runs through the novel like a jazz riff, underlies each character's voice.

F/ALVAREZ
Alvarez, Julia - How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents - 1991, 290p.
Dominican Republic
Parental and societal values clash when the Garcia family, comprised of Papi, Mami, and their four young daughters, finds itself exiled to the Bronx from its sheltered, well-connected Caribbean island homeland because of Papi's unfortunate political ties. Much of the action takes place in the late 1960's, a time when many U.S.-born teens were uncomfortable with the notion of "being American." This puts a spin on this wonderful coming of age story of four young women set free in a new world of possibilities.

M/BLAND
Bland, Eleanor Taylor - Slow Burn - 1993, 212p.
African American
Marti McAlister is black, widowed and a former Chicago policewoman. Marti has moved to Lincoln Prairie, a large suburb north of Chicago, to escape the memories of her husband's death and to provide her children with a new environment. Although Marti's new partner, Vik, had some difficulty adjusting to a black policewoman, he has now accepted her and her methods. In this mystery, the investigation of a fatal arson grows to include child pornography, drugs, an avaricious doctor, an exploitative pimp, and jurisdictional conflicts with the "Feds." The deeper Marti and Vik dig, the less things fit. Finally, Marti and Vik realize they may be looking at more than one perpetrator although the victims are connected by a common thread.The black author of this book and series has created a town similar to her own in the Chicago area and has realistically portrayed the harmonious integration of the races which can occur in a caring environment.

F/BUTLER
Butler, Robert Olen - A Good Scent From a Strange Mountain - 1992, 249p.
Vietnamese American
This collection of stories recounts the experiences of many Vietnamese citizens as they try to reconcile their cultural, spiritual, and religious beliefs with the changing culture that war brings to their country. For those who immigrate to America, assimilation presents many new and often difficult choices. This was an ALA Notable Books Fiction award winner for 1992.

F/CAMPBELL
Campbell, Bebe Moore - Your Blues Ain't Like Mine - 1992, 332p.
African American
Born and raised in Chicago, Armstrong Todd is a black teenager unfamiliar with the segregation of the Deep South when his mother sends him to spend the summer with relatives in her native rural Mississippi. After speaking a few harmless words to a white woman, Armstrong finds that her husband, father-in-law, and brother-in-law have decided they must teach him a lesson. As each character looks inside and outside himself to examine the forces which propel him, it soon becomes apparent that racism is a crime for which everyone pays. A compelling, yet disturbing, depiction of life in the South during the social upheaval of the civil rights movement.

F/CLEMENT
Clement, Mickey - The Irish Princess - 1994, 254p.
Irish American
This is the story of an Irish American family in the 60's, whose old ways are facing the test of change. Their deep religious faith and ironclad loyalty to their roots conflict with the changes brought on by teens drinking, unmarried pregnancy, and quick weddings. But always a crisis can bring the entire family, including aunts, uncles, and cousins, together in support of those in need. It all makes for good reading of Irish life and family love.

F/DANTICAT
Danticat, Edwidge - Breath, Eyes, Memory - 1994, 234p.
Haitian Americans
Haitian Sophie Caco moves from childhood to motherhood, from Haiti to the United States, and then back to Haiti in this evocative first person exploration of three generations of women and the forces that shaped them. Influenced by two contrasting cultures, rural Haiti and urban America, as well as three strong and diverse women—her grandmother, aunt, and mother—Sophie seeks peace and an understanding of her life. She finds that only when she reconciles herself to her past, its traditions as well as its ghosts, can she pursue her future.

F/DORRIS
Dorris, Michael - A Yellow Raft in Blue Water - 1987, 343p.
Native American
As three generations of Native American women tell their stories, each adds insight to the tale told before. Teenage Rayona describes how her mother dumps her on a Montana reservation. Why does Christine leave and where does she go? When Christine tells her story, we discover some of the answers. We find a young woman growing up in two worlds—listening to Elvis one minute and going to a powwow the next. But why is her mother so cool towards her? Aunt Ida's story reveals her own troubling childhood and a terrible secret. Dorris, a Midoc, integrates these contemporary and traditional cultures into a vibrant picture of Native American life in today's world.

F/DOVE
Dove, Rita - Through the Ivory Gate - 1992, 278p.
African American
Puppeteer Virginia King returns to her Ohio hometown as "artist-in-residence" at a local public school. Virginia's growth as an individual is encouraged by her experiences with the school children, her new romantic entanglement, and the revelations about her family that she gains from her growing closeness to her grandmother and an enigmatic elderly aunt. The recollections of her childhood and her passage to adulthood make for a lyric, moving portrait of a young African-American girl in the closing years of the Vietnam war.

F/DOVLATOV
Dovlatov, Sergei - A Foreign Woman - 1991, 113p.
Soviet American
Marusya Tatarovich, the only daughter of Soviet Party-connected intellectual parents, immigrates to the United States on an impulse and must come to terms with the American way of life—Queens, New York style. Through the eyes of the narrator (Dovlatov himself) the reader sees many of the inhabitants of the emigre community, some of whom welcome the chance to assimilate, some of whom clearly do not! A small slice-of-life study of East meets West written with tongue firmly in cheek.

F/EDGARIAN
Edgarian, Carol - Rise the Euphrates - 1994, 370p.
Armenian American
"To make a new life, you must hope for the future, and you must remember what has already been." This legacy is the driving force for Seta Loon, daughter to Araxie and granddaughter to Casard, who as a child narrowly escaped the 1915 Turkish massacre of over one million Armenian men, women, and children. Seta, the child of an odar (an outsider) and Araxie, struggles to come to terms with her Armenian heritage in the factory town of Memorial, Connecticut. Seta searches for her own identity amidst the struggle between generations, cultures, and individuals and finally comes to terms with her Armenian heritage.

F/ERDRICH
Erdrich, Louise - Love Medicine - 1984, 275p.
Native American
Exploring the strong emotional ties of love, jealousy, and loyalty found in all families, this multigenerational saga reveals the strength of the members of an extended Native American family. The characters are developed through gritty, compassionately told short stories. Hushed affairs and awkward relationships are alluded to through gossip in an early tale, then fully explained in a cousin's or sister's story, giving a sense of a real family history.

F/FRAXEDAS
Fraxedas, J. Joaquin - The Lonely Crossing of Juan Cabrera - 1993, 175p.
Cuban
The crossing of the 90 miles of ocean from Cuba and despair to Florida and hope is part sea adventure and part psychological exploration. The guilt of survival and the fear fostered by a repressive government haunt Cuban physics professor Juan Cabrera. He and two friends set out in the middle of the night, not realizing that they are in the direct path of a hurricane. Their escape is marked by tragedy, which also profoundly affects loved ones awaiting their arrival.

F/GOLDEN
Golden, Marita - And Do Remember Me - 1992, 192p.
African American
Fleeing poverty and an abusive home, Jessie Foster, a young African American woman, wonders what will become of her. Involvement with the civil rights movement, a successful acting career, relationships, and addiction all come her way; however, nothing seems to free her from the painful memories of her past. A moving account of what it was to be young, female, and African American during the 60's, 70's, and 80's.

M/HAGER
Hager, Jean - Grandfather Medicine - 1989, 244p.
Native American
Half-Cherokee police chief Mitchell Bushyhead is faced with the baffling murder of a local Indian artist, Joe Pigeon. Bushyhead must discover the motive for the murder, and its relationship to the tso:lagayv:li, or Grandfather Medicine, in order to solve the crime. In doing so, he becomes closer to his Indian heritage. This is one of several of Jean Hager's mysteries involving Native Americans.

F/HIJUELOS
Hijuelos, Oscar - The Fourteen Sisters of Emilio Montez O'Brien - 1993, 484p.
Cuban/Irish American
In 1898, Nelson O'Brien was an Irish immigrant to America, traveling to Cuba as a photographer during the Spanish-American war when he met his future wife, Mariela Montez. They married and together raised fourteen daughters and one son. Narrated mainly by the eldest daughter, Margarita, the Montez O'Briens are brought vividly to life. As Margarita reflects on her life, the novel reveals the joy, tragedy, and love of the Cuban Irish family and their complex relationships with one another.

M/HILLERMAN
Hillerman, Tony - Sacred Clowns - 1993, 305p.
Native American (southwest)
Tony Hillerman has written many mysteries featuring (mostly separately) two officers of the Navajo Tribal Police. Jim Chee is young, impulsive, intuitive, and traditional with a desire to become a shaman/healer to his people. Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn is coolly analytical, a legend in his department. These books beautifully portray the Southwest, its climate and geography, and the cultures it embraces, particularly the Navajo. It also shows the jurisdictional wrangles between Federal, tribal, and local law enforcement that make criminal investigation especially challenging. In this outing, Chee is working for Leaphorn and must find a missing half Navajo/half Hopi boy who may know something about the murder of a mission school teacher. Instead he finds himself on the scene of another murder at a Pueblo ceremonial. Two "useful" men are dead, at opposite ends of the reservation, and the Tribal Police have jurisdiction only in marginal aspects of the cases. But the loose threads soon seem to tie the two together. This investigation and Chee's growing relationship with Janet Pete, a "city" Navajo, illuminates the contrasts between contemporary and traditional Navajo life, and between white and Navajo justice.

F/HOROWITZ
Horowitz, Eve - Plain Jane - 1992, 261p.
Jewish American
The tale is told by "Plain Jane," the younger sister who questions why her formerly promiscuous sister abandons her bohemian ways to marry an Orthodox Jewish doctor, why her younger brother lies all the time, why her mother doesn't stand up for herself when her cooking and judgment are criticized, why she herself is engaged to a man she doesn't love, and, why, after graduating at the top of her class, she took a secretarial job near her former psychiatrist. Jewish family life and the pain and turmoil of growing up are told frankly, with wit and humor and characters you can care about. An entertaining novel that suggests that one not take the business of life too seriously.

F/KADOHATA
Kadohata, Cynthia - The Floating World - 1989, 196p.
Japanese American
Set in the 1950's, this story is told by a 12-year-old Japanese American girl, Olivia. The floating world is the world of this transient family, following the trail of jobs from California to Oregon to Arkansas. The term also refers to life changes in this world. Her grandmother, or Obasan, influences the lives of the growing children with her cruelty, and her memories, even after her death. This was a first novel by the author.

M/KELLERMAN
Kellerman, Faye - The Ritual Bath - 1986
Orthodox Jewish
Detective Peter Decker of the Los Angeles Police Foothills division is called to "Jewtown," an orthodox Jewish Yeshiva, in response to a brutal rape. He is immediately drawn to Rina Lazarus, a young widow who teaches at the yeshiva and tends the mikvah, the ritual bathhouse. When it begins to appear Rina is the rapist's intended victim, her dependence on Decker and his attraction to her grow. The Ritual Bath portrays life in a deeply religious community surrounded by secular and suspicious neighbors, and threatened by criminal behavior that had previously left them untouched. That portrayal, likable characters, a good enough mystery, and a happy ending make this enjoyable and enlightening. This book was the first in an ongoing series featuring Rina Lazarus and Peter Decker and the only one set this close to the yeshiva.

M/KEMPRECOS
Kemprecos, Paul - Death in Deep Water - 1992, 360p.
Greek American
Greek private investigator Aristotle Plato (Soc) Socarides is hired to work undercover at Oceanus Aquatic Park to prove that a suspect is innocent of murder—the suspect being a ten-ton killer whale. Picketing by animal rights groups, cruel methods to train animals, sensationalist publicity, and business buy outs complicate his investigation. The reader learns about Greek family life as well as the creatures of the sea and the people who care for them in this witty and entertaining mystery.

F/KINCAID
Kincaid, Jamaica - Lucy - 1990, 164p.
Caribbean
Lucy (short for Lucifer) has come to the United States from the Caribbean to work as a nanny for a prosperous family with problems of its own. Young and strong-willed, courageous and unforgiving, she wants to leave her old life and never return. As she makes a new life for herself, she shares her unique perspective of our society. Her vision of our accepted ways is new and startling. Her character, diamond hard and sparkling. She is a stranger, fast becoming one of us.

F/KINGSOLVER
Kingsolver, Barbara - Animal Dreams - 1990, 342p.
Mexican and Native American
When Codi Noline returns to her home town of Grace, Arizona, ostensibly to be near her estranged and ailing father, she must confront emotional parent-child issues, political and environmental threats, and her own fragile sense of identity. Some of the most powerful themes woven through the story draw upon Native American legends both ancient and recent. This device serves as a multi-cultural touchstone with which the characters in the novel are enriched. A thought-provoking book with a strongly realized plot the reader will be sorry to see end.

F/LEE
Lee, Gus - China Boy - 1991, 332p.
Chinese American
Kai Ting held a unique position in his family—he had been born in America after his family fled China during World War II, he was the youngest, and he was the only son. Because of this, his mother fiercely protected him. When his mother died of cancer, Kai acquired a new blonde, Caucasian stepmother who resented not having her new husband to herself. He found himself out on the street, totally unprepared for life on the streets of his multi-racial low income neighborhood, and actually locked out of his house until suppertime. Kai became the punching bag for the neighborhood bullies until he was befriended by a Hispanic garage owner who convinced Kai's father that Kai needed to learn to stand up for himself. Thus began Kai's acquaintance with the YMCA and the art of boxing. It took a lot of hard training and numerous additional bumps and bruises before Kai was able to stand up for himself, not only against the neighborhood bullies, but also against his stepmother. Through it all, Kai is supported by his Y coaches, his best friend's mother (a black woman), and the staff of the garage. Gus Lee tells a story of changing countries, changing fortunes, and changing neighborhoods with warmth and wit.

F/MCDERMOTT
McDermott, Alice - At Weddings and Wakes - 1992, 213p.
Irish American
Set in Brooklyn during the 1960's, this novel tells the story of an extended Irish American family observed primarily through the eyes of the children—a son and two daughters. During their weekly visits with their mother to their grandmother's apartment in Brooklyn, the children are drawn into and enveloped in a world of drama and melodrama, dissatisfaction, and affection. This bittersweet novel captures the spirit of the family, transforming their everyday experiences into the universal.

F/MCMILLAN
McMillan, Terry - Waiting to Exhale - 1992, 409p.
African American
A contemporary novel about four African American professional women friends in their middle thirties. They are successful in their careers, living in Phoenix, Arizona and still looking for "Mr. Right." In the past, Savannah, Robin, Gloria, and Bernadine have each shown bad judgment in choosing men and each is at a critical point in her professional and personal life when the novel begins. Only two will find love at the end; however the friendship among the four women is strengthened and will last forever.

F/MONARDO
Monardo, Anna - The Courtyard of Dreams - 1993, 289p.
Italian American
Giulia Di Cuore is struggling to grow independent and be a typical American teenager under the strict eye of her Italian immigrant father, aunt, and grandparents. When, in an attempt to give Giulia respect and appreciation for her Italian roots, her father sends her to his family in Calabria, father and daughter discover that time has not stood still, even in the "old" country.

F/MOSLEY
Mosley, Walter - Black Betty - 1994, 255p.
African American
In this mystery, set in Los Angeles in 1961, Easy Rawlins finds himself in so deep a financial hole that he accepts $200 from a white private eye to locate Elizabeth Eady—subject of his childhood adoration. His search lands him in jail, beaten by police officers, and ends with others dying. Life is hard; Martin Luther King marches in the background; and Easy is full of justifiable rage. This is a gritty, sometimes uncomfortable mystery and the whodunit is less important than the locale, atmosphere, and dialogue.

F/MUKHERJEE
Mukherjee, Bharati - Jasmine - 1989, 241p.
Indian American
Jasmine begins life in rural India. Her name is Jyoti (light) and under a banyan tree, an astrologer tells this seven-year-old girl of her coming widowhood and exile. Jyoti marries, becomes Jasmine, and fulfills the prophecy of her youth. She begins her odyssey by carrying her dead husband's ashes to Florida. By the time we catch up with her in the present, she has become Jane and lives in rural Iowa. This tale of the young widow's adventures as an immigrant in America is almost unimaginable and reads like a myth or fairy tale. The heroine meets ever greater challenges and survives, if not unscathed, at least surviving.

F/NARAYAN
Narayan, Kirin - Love, Stars, and All That - 1994, 311p.
Indian American
Before Gita left India, her astrologer foretold the month and year she would meet her love. As the month slips away, her panic and anticipation grow. Alternating between Berkeley, California, and India, this refreshingly fun tale relates the comic romantic entanglements of an Indian graduate student. Point of view jumps from Gita to her friends in the U.S. to her relatives in India offering them all a rebuttal to her assessment of their motives and actions.

F/NG
Ng, Fae Myenne - Bone - 1993, 194p.
Chinese American
When Ona Leong commits suicide, her parents and two remaining sisters must cope with her death. Leila, the oldest sister, moves back to San Francisco's Chinatown to stay with her mother after Leon, her stepfather and Ona's father, moves out. The responsibility falls on Leila to lay the bones of the family's collective guilt to rest. Insight into Ona's decision and the family's attempts to deal with their guilt and their future are the crux of this novel.

F/O'CONNOR
O'Connor - All in the Family - 1966, 434p.
Irish American
Jimmy Kinsella, a wealthy Irish American, is proud of his three charismatic sons. When Kinsella decides one member of his family should enter politics, the youngest son is chosen to run, first for mayor, then governor. Read in conjunction with O'Connor's The Last Hurrah, these two novels portray the change from old time patronage to the more sophisticated, no less self-serving politics of a new breed of lace curtain Irish.

F/OLAFUR
Olafur, Johann Olafsson - Absolution - 1991, 259p.
Icelandic
The memoirs, translated by a countryman after his death, of Icelandic expatriate businessman Peter Peterson who may have committed a crime of passion as a student. The story records his youth in Reykjavik, his college years in Nazi-occupied Denmark, and his immigration to the United States, followed by his rise to power as a ruthless businessman in New York City, his problems with his grown children and his final decline into ill health, racked by guilt from the past. Past and present are woven together into a seamless whole.

F/PEI
Pei, Meg - Salaryman - 1992, 296p.
Japanese
Jun Shimada, a Japanese executive, is a company man who has been trained to follow orders. When his firm transfers him and his family to the United States, he never questions this decision. But while he is absorbed at work all day, his wife feels isolated in the suburbs since she doesn't speak English or drive a car. Her despair causes a rift in their marriage and Shimada drifts into a series of affairs with American women. Only later does he question his belief in "maintaining face" and avoiding confrontations. Pei gives a vivid portrait of a family that has been forced to emigrate and live in a foreign culture.

F/PETRAKIS
Petrakis, Harry Mark - Ghost of the Sun - 1990, 262p.
Greek American
Matsoukas, hobbled by beatings he received in a Greek prison, returns to Chicago eight years after his young son's death. His wife, Caliope, thinking him dead, has remarried. Matsoukas befriends a young, lonely single mother and her infant son. He finds Caliope and becomes reacquainted with his daughters. Caliope's wealthy husband idolizes him and becomes his patron. Then, at a Greek-American social gathering, Matsoukas sees the prison guard who tortured him, and vows to revenge his brutal treatment.

F/PLANTE
Plante, David - The Native - 1988, 122p.
French-Canadian American
The three women in Phillip's life each evoke a different emotional response in him. Reena, his darkly religious French Catholic mother, symbolizes a life which had always been too oppressive. When he meets Jenny and the modern, secular life she leads, he finds hope and happiness. Finally, Antoinette, his daughter, is tragically torn between the two worlds. Her inability to cope confirms Phillip's worst fears and causes him to withdraw from her. It is only when a crisis erupts that family relations are soothed. The Native is one in a series focusing on the Francoeur family and the French Canadian community in Rhode Island.

F/POWER
Power, Susan - The Grass Dancer - 1994, 300p.
Native American
Linked stories and stories within stories, moving mostly backward in time, unfold layer by layer to reveal the past and present of a group of Sioux Indians on a modern day North Dakota reservation. Each story offers new insights into the growing cast of characters—from Harley Wind Soldier, haunted by the ghosts of his ancestors, and Anna (Mercury) Thunder, who uses magic ("bad medicine") to attract a constant stream of men, to Pumpkin, the girl who dares to be a Grass Dancer, and aging Herod Small War, who seeks to share the old ways with the next generation. Stories, dreams, and visions add an element of mystical otherness to this lyrical and often humorous novel of contemporary Indians confronting their pasts.

F/PROSE
Prose, Francine - Primitive People - 1992, 227p.
Haitian
A mother who doesn't listen, a father who acts like a child, children who are preoccupied by death—is this why Simone left Haiti? Simone lived among squalor, violence and fear in Haiti, but it wasn't until her boyfriend dumped her that she illegally immigrated to the States. Now, she feels trapped working as an au pair for a family of misfits. With her education and experience working at the Embassy, she is less a primitive than the people she works for.

F/SANTIAGO
Santiago, Danny - Famous All over Town - 1983, 284p.
Chicano
The novel is the story of growing up Mexican American in a Los Angeles barrio. Told in flashback, Rudy (Chato) Medina recalls the year he was 14. That year was a time of turmoil and change for him, his family and his neighborhood. His parents break up, his neighborhood street is about to be bulldozed by the Southern Pacific Railroads, and after a night of joyriding Rudy's buddy is shot dead by an overeager cop. The stories end with Rudy making himself famous by covering the Bank of America with graffiti and ending up in "Juvy Hall."

F/SAPIA
Sapia, Yvonne V. - Valentino's Hair - 1991, 157p.
Puerto Rican American
Fecundo Nieves, an aged Puerto Rican barber, often had custody of his young son Lupe. Lupe's mother was a young American who was helplessly drawn to Fecundo through his use of the magical hair clippings of Rudolph Valentino. Fecundo had cut Valentino's hair about a month before he died and saved the clippings, which were a powerful aphrodisiac. Lupe, the outcome of his unnatural relationship, was born with a club foot. Fecundo's stories taught Lupe much about his Puerto Rican heritage and gave him the courage to deal with his physical deformity.

F/SHEA
Shea, Suzanne Strempek - Selling the Lite of Heaven - 1994, 275p.
Polish American
A thiry-something woman still living at home and working at the Fast Foto believes her life will be transformed by marriage to Eddie Balicki. But when Eddie decides, a month before the wedding, to become a priest, he leaves his ex-fiancee with an expensive ring and a Penny Saver ad that brings a string of potential buyers to her door, each one giving a different view of love and marriage.

F/SINCLAIR
Sinclair, April - Coffee Will Make You Black - 1994, 239p.
African American
A realistic coming of age novel set on the South Side of Chicago in the mid to late 1960's. Jean "Stevie" Stevenson clashes with her mother about everything, as Stevie, who longs to be cool and hang with the right crowd, navigates her way through puberty and finds that black is beautiful during the turmoil and rapid changes of the civil rights movement.

F/SMITH
Smith, Lee. - Black Mountain Breakdown - 1980, 228p.
Appalachian
Crystal Spangler's ties to her Appalachian childhood bring her home from her adventures in the outside world to Black Mountain to deal with her emotional legacies of unfulfilled ambitions and demanding love.

M/STABENOW
Stabenow, Dana - A Cold-Blooded Business - 1994, 231p.
Aleut Indians
Kate Shugak is an Aleut Indian who has abandoned a career as an investigator with the DA's office and moved to a homestead in an Alaskan National Park. She agrees, reluctantly, to work for PetCo, one of the two companies pumping oil into the Trans Alaska pipeline. Kate is hired as a roustabout, but her real purpose is to locate drug dealers who are operating in the Prudhoe Bay Base Camp of PetCo. Although the company believes the drugs are coming in through one of the contractors, Kate soon has reason to doubt this. She also discovers that native artifacts are being stolen from a nearby archaeological dig and shipped for sale to museums in the Lower 48 at unbelievable prices. When Kate's cover is broken, she finds her life in danger and realized it may be old acquaintances who are responsible. Kate respects her native heritage, but rebels against her grandmother who militantly tries to maintain the native ways in her family and her village. After discovering the theft of the artifacts, Kate is brought in closer agreement with her grandmother and those archaeologists who truly care about the preservation, in situ, of the items they uncover.

F/WELCH
Welch, James - The Indian Lawyer - 1990, 349p.
Native American
Sylvester Yellow Calf, lawyer and member of the Montana parole board, is a Blackfoot Indian practicing law in a white world. Having grown up in poverty on the Blackfoot Reservation in Montana, he is trying to rise above his high school basketball career where he was singled out for adulation to the exclusion of his equally deserving teammates. Now, he is being courted to run for Congress and at the same time he is being secretly manipulated by Jack Harwood, a convict terrified of the Indian inmates and needing help with his parole. This novel is well-plotted and atmospheric, worth reading. It seductively grabs your attention and holds it throughout the book. It gives a matter-of-fact portrayal of the modern Indian way of life.

Prepared by members of the Adult Reading Round Table, a group of librarians from various library systems in Illinois.