R&R: Classics-- Oliver La'Farge

If you’re like me, you’re wondering, “Oliver La-who?”

Before I plucked this book off the shelf, I had no idea who Oliver La’Farge was. I had no idea what this book was about. It was just a thin, almost tiny book, and I thought it’d be a good choice. (If I hated it, well, it was only a hundred or so pages.)

Well, surprise, surprise! It turned out to be a really interesting read!


Laughing Boy
Written May 29, 2010

Read April 22, 2010 (roughly)

In “Laughing Boy,” La’Farge truly shows the beauty of the Navajo Indians in a whole new way. Shockingly innocent, despite their “savagery,” they dance, sing, and laugh with a wildness untamable and unattainable by outsiders—as Slim Girl, the woman who wants nothing more than to be part of that innocence again, knows well.

La’Farge weaves an intricate story about Laughing Boy, who is the very essence of Navajo spirit. Wild and untamed as the horses he rides, strong and brave as can be, he is shockingly, (and endearingly) innocent when it comes to the White Man’s world.

When Laughing Boy is caught up into the modern world of alcohol and secrets, his spirit rebels within him. He doesn’t realize why, but knows that something is wrong. His soul screams, but his attachment to Slim Girl, (his wife), causes him to stay, inching closer and closer to the tainted waters of lost innocence.

If Laughing Boy is innocence, passion, and truth, Slim Girl is innocence lost, disillusionment, and isolation. Taken from her people at an early age, she was exposed to and wise the ways of the white. Willing to do whatever to try to regain her Navajo past and “spirit,” she weaves a net of deception around Laughing Boy, whom she believes can turn her back into a true Navajo. She didn’t mean to fall in love.

The story is a romance, a tragedy, and yet a gorgeous picture contrasting the innocence of freedom and the jaded harshness of lost purity. La’Farge weaves in Navajo words, inserting the culture flawlessly and painting a beautiful picture of Indian life. The sentences he crafts are beautiful to the eyes and pleasing to the ear—and his concluding sentence is so lovely that it made me shiver.

If you want to find out what it was—read the book.