Three Plays: The Indolent Boys, Children of the Sun, the Moon in Two Windows

In House Made of Dawn and The Way to Rainy Mountain Momaday interwove oral and literary traditions to connect not only members of his own Kiowa nation but all those who understood that sometimes you are the Sun, and sometimes you marry it. In two plays and one screenplay, Momaday explains why runaways from the Kiowa Boarding School froze to death while trying to return to their families in 1891, how First Nations relate to the sun, and why children were expected to assimilate in off-reservation boarding schools. These pieces are not gentle. They place blame where it is due, and they also explore the ways in which people can delude themselves on both sides of an issue. But they are also lyrical, mythical, and accessible. Annotation 穢2008 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)