Rock, Ghost, Willow, Deer: A Story of Survival

Rock, Ghost, Willow, Deer is Allison Adelle Hedge Coke's searching account of her life as a mixed-blood woman coming of age off reservation, yet deeply immersed in her Huron, Metis, and Cherokee heritage. In a style at once elliptical and achingly clear, Hedge Coke details her mother's schizophrenia; the domestic and community abuse overshadowing her childhood; and torments both visited upon her--(rape and violence) and inflicted on herself (alcohol and drug abuse during her youth). Yet she...