Summary and Reviews of On The Rez by Ian Frazier

Media Reviews

The New York Times - Tracy Kidder Readers who expect straightforward storytelling might call ''On the Rez'' disjointed, but most of the joints are in fact well made. It is only that the book is scattered in time. My experience of reading it went on occasion from wondering, ''What does this have to do with Pine Ridge?'' to thinking, ''All right, it's still interesting'' and finally to feeling, ''Oh, I see.'' I can't imagine another way in which Frazier could have written this book. It has a quality of necessary expression.

Library Journal His narrative tips at times between writing about his Pine Ridge friends and some Universal Indian, but the story always veers nicely back to specifics on the rez, a landscape "dense with stories." It's the seemingly casual artistry of his descriptions--of evocative prairie junk, a highway snow squall, a summer powwow in a field full of hoppers, the pure experience of roaming--from which Frazier's book gains its resonant strength. Highly recommended for all collections.

Publishers Weekly Probably no book since Evan S. Connell's Son of the Morning Star has so imaginatively evoked the spirit of the American Indian in American life; like Connell's tours of the Little Bighorn battlefield, Frazier's visits to Pine Ridge and Wounded Knee, and to the descendants of Red Cloud and Black Elk, frame a broad meditation on American history, myth and misconception. Funny and sad, but never bleak, his meandering narrative is, in fact, the composite of many voices and many kinds of history.

 Evan S. Connell Frazier's account of Pine Ridge and of his uncommon friendship with Le War Lance is engaging, resonant, and funny.

 Martin Cruz Smith A wonderful, painful guidebook to a bitter, beautiful land. It all rang true to me.

 Tony Hillerman No citizen interested in reservation life - of in human kindness and human troubles - should fail to read Ian Frazier's gripping story.