Featuring three
generations of American Indian women, A Yellow Raft in Blue Water
is told in the first person by each generation, beginning with the
youngest, 15-year-old Rayona; then her mother, Christine; and finally
the mother/grandmother who's known as Aunt Ida. Each character's
perspective fills in and rounds out the reader's understanding of all
three.
Rayona (or Ray, as she is known) is the product of her mother's
on-and-off marriage with a black man. As the story begins, Christine
drives Ray from their home in Seattle to the Montana Indiana
reservation and without explanation leaves Ray with the stern and
taciturn Aunt Ida. Ray runs away and finds temporary work at a
campground until she's discovered and returned to the reservation.
In Christina's chapter, we not only learn why she left her daughter
— she is terminally ill — but also go backward to
her youth on the reservation. We hear about her loss of faith and her
close bond with her brother Lee, whom she prodded into service in
Vietnam and who died there.
Aunt Ida has the final story, and her revelation of a family secret
helps to account for her silence and mysteriousness. Unknown to her
daughter and granddaughter, she quietly sacrificed herself for the sake
of family.
Dorris, who was of Native American descent, offers a rare look at
contemporary life on a reservation, but this is really a universal
story about mothers and daughters and the stages of life. The book ends
with Ida, but the future belongs to Ray, and she is easily the most
likable character. One expects that Ray, brave, smart, and
resourceful, is going to break out of the cycle of secrets and
resentment that debilitated her mother and grandmother.
.
Home
My
reviews
My
friends' reviews