Winter in the Blood (Penguin Classics)

This short book was very thought provoking but also a well written, entertaining look at the situation of many modern Native Americans. Not only fun to read, but worth reading. I kept thinking about it for weeks after I read it.

Over a year ago, I decided to read all the winners of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. I (unfortunately enough) decided to start from the beginning in 1917 and was immediately mired down in various retellings of the same story involving "rich white people coming to terms with a changing America". To keep my interest, I decided to start from the latest winners and work backwards at the same time. This brought me to 2020's selection "The Nightwatchman" by Louise Erdrich which led me to dig into other Native American stories; a welcome change from books centered around turn-of-the-century galas and formal marriage proposals. The Pulitzer list isn't exactly filled with stories of indigenous people (1929's "Laughing Boy: A Navajo Love Story" being a notable exception) but I stumbled upon a blurb from Erdrich saying this book, Jack Welch's "Winter in the Blood", should have won the 1974 Pulitzer (that year there were no winners for fiction). Her endorsement prompted me to immediately track down a copy.This is another short read but a powerful, well-written story. There isn't much of a plot driving the novel forward, just a young man, ostensibly searching for the woman who left him (though he doesn't really care that much for her anyway), but really looking for some sort of connection to his world with one foot mired in his own past as well as that of his people's and one foot set in an uncertain future. The protagonist lives on a reservation with his mother and grandmother but in an isolated house. The father had tragically passed away years before and we gain fleeting references to a brother who also died in some tragic situation. The main character is constantly pulled out of the 'now' by flashbacks of these events as he travels to various towns looking for his lost woman and meeting a variety of oddball characters. There's not a solid conclusion but we do learn the true stories of what happened in the past to his various family members and the reader is definitely not let down by the end.

For anyone who likes to read great writing. Simple yet beautifully told story of an Indian American’s life. Some might call it bleak. I call it real.

I feel as if I should have liked this book more, but it was bleak. Many of the scenes were strange to bizarre, and I couldn't understand their meaning. Without spoiling it, I will say that some of the clarifications coming toward the end, and the metaphors in what happened, gave me some relief, but ultimately it was just the vivid depiction of a young man's inability to thrive due to grief, and life in an impoverished, difficult world.

Brilliant novel describing the life of a 30 year old American Indian. The writer writes in short clear distinct sentences. It’s a moving and sad story rich with descriptive landscapes and somber Indian life. It will move you. Reminiscent of Hemingway in so many aspects.

Welch's view of the Ft Belnap area is too true and accurate. I grew up in Harlem which is about 4 miles from the rez. He has captured the essence of the people and the countryside. The story is dark and true to life on the rez, and is not a pretty picture, or a feel-good story. I don't know if the conditions are better now, than they were in the fifties, but I doubt it.

I am not a Half bred. I have been breed so much that I am a now a full breed : 1st nation and everything else. I have high hopes this fellow member of the Tribes of the 1st nations; James Welch will be listed along with Mark Twain and Robert Lewis Stevenson as One of the Giants of American Literature

Really enjoyed the weaving the story into a coherent whole at the end. Welch really nailed the story. Highly recommend.

Una piccola gemma, un eccellente romanzo.

James Welchs first novel. A little gem of a book.Loved this story. Not really a story just a poetic meditation on the lives of Native American Indians in North Dakota. Interesting characters and lovely descriptions of the landscape and nature on the reservations in North Dakota. It is a beautiful and thought provoking novel. Although it has no classic storyline and plot it is really a series of sketches and paints a picture of how difficult life was and is for Native Americans on the reservations in 1950s US. No wonder it won the Pullitzer Prize. It is short, captivating and a masterpiece. One of the best novels written by a Native American author on the lives of Native American Indians in postwar America. Beautiful.One of my favourite short novels ever. Classic.

Winter in the Blood de James Welch est un excellent roman. Son histoire est belle et touchante, bien écrite, et si certains y voient une des plus belles oeuvres de littérature américaine qui soit, les autres veront une parfaite histoire à propos de la nature humaine. On ne peut le recommander qu'à tous les lecteurs de romans.

As Advertised

The late James Welch was a Native American writer whose remarkable work deserves a wider audience. This novel is a good place to begin if you don't know his work. Highly recommended.