Follows the life of Ever Geimausaddle, a young Native American, through the multigenerational perspectives of his family as they face policy corruption, threats of job loss, constant resettlement and the pent up rage of centuries of injustice. 30,000 first printing. - (Baker & Taylor)
A moving and deeply engaging debut novel about a young Native American man finding strength in his familial identity, from a stellar new voice in fiction.
Told in a series of voices, Calling for a Blanket Dance takes us into the life of Ever Geimausaddle through the multigenerational perspectives of his family as they face myriad obstacles. His father’s injury at the hands of corrupt police, his mother's struggle to hold on to her job and care for her husband, the constant resettlement of the family, and the legacy of centuries of injustice all intensify Ever’s bottled-up rage. Meanwhile, all of Ever’s relatives have ideas about who he is and who he should be. His Cherokee grandmother urges the family to move across Oklahoma to find security; his grandfather hopes to reunite him with his heritage through traditional gourd dances; his Kiowa cousin reminds him that he’s connected to an ancestral past. And once an adult, Ever must take the strength given to him by his relatives to save not only himself but also the next generation of family.
How will this young man visualize a place for himself when the world hasn’t given him a place to start with? Honest, heartbreaking, and ultimately uplifting, Calling for a Blanket Dance is the story of how Ever Geimausaddle found his way to home. - (Workman Press.)
Oscar Hokeah is a citizen of Cherokee Nation and the Kiowa Tribe of Oklahoma from his mother's side and has Mexican heritage through his father. He holds an MA in English with a concentration in Native American Literature from the University of Oklahoma, as well as a BFA in Creative Writing from the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA), with a minor in Indigenous Liberal Studies. He is a recipient of the Truman Capote Scholarship Award through IAIA and is also a winner of the Native Writer Award through the Taos Summer Writers Conference. His short stories have been published in South Dakota Review, American Short Fiction, Yellow Medicine Review, Surreal South, and Red Ink Magazine. He works with Indian Child Welfare in Tahlequah. - (Grand Central Pub)
Booklist Reviews
*Starred Review* Hokeah's highly anticipated debut novel tells the story of Ever Geimausaddle, the son of a Cherokee mother and a Kiowa father, as he navigates life across Native lands in Oklahoma. Told through the perspectives of 12 different Native American and Mexican family members, this is a seamlessly woven tale portraying several generations. Each narrator's point of view provides new angles on Ever's life, which is repeatedly marked by violence and instability. As a very young child, Ever witnesses his father's nearly fatal beating by police. Poverty and his mother's job insecurity follow. Alcoholism and domestic abuse are never far removed. But Ever's ancestral heritage surfaces in ways that prove vital to finding his path, as in the Gourd Dances his cirrhotic grandfather shares with him and a healing blanket emblazoned with Bird Clan imagery quilted by his grandmother. Hokeah peppers his quick, punchy prose with untranslated indigenous vocabulary, which invites readers into the storytelling and binds the chapters in a shared vernacular. The result is a profound reflection on the ways familial and cultural trauma can threaten every generation while those very connections can also promise salvation. Copyright 2022 Booklist Reviews.
