Full name: The Truth About Stories: A Native Narrative

Author: Thomas King Year: 2003 Rank: Rating: Original Rating: Pop Rating: Genres/categories: Award winners, Non Fiction, Essays Culture: Canada Purchase/reserch links: Amazon Goodreads LibraryThing ISBNs: 9780816646272 0816646279

"Stories are wondrous things. And they are dangerous." In The Truth About Stories, Native novelist and scholar Thomas King explores how stories shape who we are and how we understand and interact with other people. From creation stories to personal experiences, historical anecdotes to social injustices, racist propaganda to works of contemporary Native literature, King probes Native culture's deep ties to storytelling. With wry humor, King deftly weaves events from his own life as a child in California, an academic in Canada, and a Native North American with a wide-ranging discussion of stories told by and about Indians. So many stories have been told about Indians, King comments, that "there is no reason for the Indian to be real. The Indian simply has to exist in our imaginations." That imaginative Indian that North Americans hold dear has been challenged by Native writers - N. Scott Momaday, Leslie Marmon Silko, Louis Owens, Sherman Alexie, and others - who provide alternative narratives of the Native experience that question, create a present, and imagine a future. King reminds the reader, Native and non-Native, that storytelling carries with it social and moral responsibilties. "Don't say in the years to come that you would have lived your life differently if only you had heard this story. You've heard it now." Similar books: A Mind Spread Out on the Ground by Alicia Elliott Hugging the Shore by John Updike White Girls by Hilton Als Tests of Time by William H. Gass Sightlines by Kathleen Jamie The Geek Feminist Revolution by Kameron Hurley A Private History of Awe by Scott Russell Sanders The Art of Death by Edwidge Danticat The Great Cat Massacre by Robert Darnton Coming Home Crazy by Bill Holm Literature and the Gods by Roberto Calasso Finding a Form by William H. Gass Following Fish by Samanth Subramanian Fervent by Priscilla Shirer We Are the Ship by Kadir Nelson I Feel Bad About My Neck by Nora Ephron The Control of Nature by John McPhee United States by Gore Vidal Amazing Grace by Jonathan Kozol Dakota by Kathleen Norris