About this ebook
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize: “A romantic idyll played out in the rhythms and meanings of a vanished Navajo world.” —The Denver Post
Laughing Boy is a model member of his tribe. Raised in old traditions, skilled in silver work, and known for his prowess in the wild horse races, he does the Navajos of T’o Tlakai proud. But times are changing. It is 1914, and the first car has just driven into their country. Then, Laughing Boy meets Slim Girl—and despite her “American” education and the warnings of his family, he gives in to desire and marries her.
As Laughing Boy and Slim Girl settle away from traditional villages—their different upbringings clashing within both their relationship and the ever-encroaching culture around them—each of their worlds are thrown into a heart-wrenching turmoil of love, honor, hope, and heritage.
“Compelling in its strength and simplicity, and its fidelity to the deepest impulses of human nature,” Laughing Boy is an unprecedented look at both the Navajo culture and the enduring legacy of tradition and loss that all Americans share (The New York Times).
Laughing Boy is a model member of his tribe. Raised in old traditions, skilled in silver work, and known for his prowess in the wild horse races, he does the Navajos of T’o Tlakai proud. But times are changing. It is 1914, and the first car has just driven into their country. Then, Laughing Boy meets Slim Girl—and despite her “American” education and the warnings of his family, he gives in to desire and marries her.
As Laughing Boy and Slim Girl settle away from traditional villages—their different upbringings clashing within both their relationship and the ever-encroaching culture around them—each of their worlds are thrown into a heart-wrenching turmoil of love, honor, hope, and heritage.
“Compelling in its strength and simplicity, and its fidelity to the deepest impulses of human nature,” Laughing Boy is an unprecedented look at both the Navajo culture and the enduring legacy of tradition and loss that all Americans share (The New York Times).
Ratings and reviews
4.3
3 reviews
Darlene Melcon
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July 22, 2019
This was a beautiful, lyrical book......full of poetic descriptions of the area and of the two lovers. It's more than a love story.....it is how two people found themselves in each other.
About the author
Oliver La Farge (1901–1963) first traveled to Navajo territory on a Harvard archaeological dig. Laughing Boy was his first novel.
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