The long-awaited, profoundly moving, and unforgettable new novel from PEN Award–winning Native American author Mona Susan Power, spanning three generations of Yanktonai Dakota women from the 19th century to the present day.
From the mid-century metropolis of Chicago to the windswept ancestral lands of the Dakota people, to the bleak and brutal Indian boarding schools, A Council of Dolls is the story of three women, told in part through the stories of the dolls they carried….
Sissy, born 1961: Sissy’s relationship with her beautiful and volatile mother is difficult, even dangerous, but her life is also filled with beautiful things, including a new Christmas present, a doll called Ethel. Ethel whispers advice and kindness in Sissy’s ear, and in one especially terrifying moment, maybe even saves Sissy’s life.
Lillian, born 1925: Born in her ancestral lands in a time of terrible change, Lillian clings to her sister, Blanche, and her doll, Mae. When the sisters are forced to attend an “Indian school” far from their home, Blanche refuses to be cowed by the school’s abusive nuns. But when tragedy strikes the sisters, the doll Mae finds her way to defend the girls.
Cora, born 1888: Though she was born into the brutal legacy of the “Indian Wars,” Cora isn’t afraid of the white men who remove her to a school across the country to be “civilized.” When teachers burn her beloved buckskin and beaded doll Winona, Cora discovers that the spirit of Winona may not be entirely lost…
A modern masterpiece, A Council of Dolls is gorgeous, quietly devastating, and ultimately hopeful, shining a light on the echoing damage wrought by Indian boarding schools, and the historical massacres of Indigenous people. With stunning prose, Mona Susan Power weaves a spell of love and healing that comes alive on the page.
Mona Susan Power (Standing Rock Dakota, born 1961) is an Native American author based in Saint Paul, Minnesota. Her debut novel, The Grass Dancer (1994), received the 1995 Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award for Best First Fiction.
My thoughts: This was a fascinating and engaging read, being British, I know very little about the dark and tragic history of the Native American tribes, apart from that what has been done to them over the centuries is cruel and unnecessary. This book brings that terrible history to life through three generations of girls and their dolls.
Charting the racism, institutionalised brutality of the industrial schools and Catholic church, the insistence that they speak only English and reject their inheritance and birth right, becoming more like the white invaders who took their land and killed their people.
Somehow despite the violence and horror, these three young women survive, grow and thrive, clinging on to their identities as proud members of their tribe and family. Scanning over 100 years, these connected stories, told from first their perspective and then from that of their beloved dolls, who have been there through it all, weave a gentle magic, even in the midst of their darkest moments, there is a kind of beauty about the resilience and courage they show.
And it does get very dark, Power does not shy away from the effects the past has on the present, the mental illness, poverty, addiction issues, domestic violence and heartbreak, even murder, that her people have endured, as parts of this are based on members of her own family, are ever present.
It’s a powerful reminder that the past is always with us, we cannot out run or ignore it, the Dakota people have to live with it every day (as I’m sure many others do too) and it is only by confronting it and dealing with it, that you move beyond it.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
ramblingmads 