Laughing Boy (1929)

Pulitzer Prize winner for fiction in 1930.

Tony Hillerman’s books featuring the Navajo policemen Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee certainly popularized Navajo culture, presenting it in a sympathetic light; Hillerman was formally made a Friend of the Navajo People by the tribe’s leaders. Almost unknown, as far as I can tell, is La Farge’s equally sympathetic book published at least 40 years before Hillerman came on the literary scene.

Laughing Boy, a young Navajo man in 1915, meets, during a religious healing dance, Slim Girl, who was taken from the reservation at a very young age to a school in California that did its best to erase her identity as a Navajo and make her into an American. However, she returns to the reservation, but is under a cloud as there are whispers about her conduct. Laughing Boy falls in love with her and the two move away from his area on the Northern Reservation to a small town in the southern section.

The story of Laughing Boy and Slim Girl and the life that they forge together is beautifully told in concise prose with a rhythm that may or may not reflect the Navajo language but certainly gives the appearance of authenticity. LaFarge weaves Navajo customs, activities, and religion into the story in a completely endemic way, all of it forming a complete whole, as is the ideal of Navajo life. LaFarge brings in US-Navojo relations in an objective way; his intent, as he says in the prologue, is not to criticize but to amuse. He more than succeeds, although “amuse” is not the word I would use for this tale, such as the Navajos themselves might tell for the edification of their children. It is short, it wastes no words, and stays in the memory, inviting reflection. White American he may have been, but LaFarge wrote with great sensitivity, especially for his time. Highly recommended. ( )

Laughing Boy was published in 1929, and is billed on the cover as "the first authentic novel of the Navajo Indians." Oliver LaFarge was something of an authority on Native Americans, working as an activist most of his life. So I expected an account of day-to-day Native American life, describing customs and rituals that are more widely understood today. LaFarge does this in a surprisingly eloquent, lyrical way, such as this passage describing the start of a horse race:

Arrows from the bow -- no other simile. At the tearing gallop, flat-stretched, backs are level, the animals race in a straight line; all life is motion; there is no body, only an ecstasy; one current between man and horse, and still embodied, a whip hand to pour in leather and a mouth to shout. Speed, speed, but the near goal is miles away, and other speed spirits on either side will not fall back. (p. 56)

But this book is much more than cultural education. It is also a beautiful love story. Laughing Boy, a Navajo brave, meets Slim Girl at a dance and is instantly taken with her. She was raised by whites, so their relationship is controversial within Laughing Boy's family & tribe. She also has a bit of a reputation that he is blissfully unaware of. He helps her reconnect to her roots and learn traditional crafts; she helps him discover the wider world beyond his tribe. Their relationship evolves as they come of age themselves. LaFarge is far less lyrical when writing about relationships, and yet he manages to convey each person's deepest feelings of love, and of fear of failing the other. This book gets a 3-star rating because while it was good, it lacked a certain depth. It almost earned another half or full star because of its very moving ending. Recommended. ( )

Wonderful book... so interesting, revealing the Navaho way of thinking, romantic, beautifully written ( )

Laughing Boy is the story of the clash of Navajo and American societies in the early 1900s. The title character, Laughing Boy, marries Slim Girl, a young orphaned Navajo who was sent to American schools as a child. LaFarge explores the deep love that Laughing Boy has for the Navajo way and the bitterness that Slim Girl experiences as a result of her time spent in the American school where she was forced to take on the American ways and forget her own. Slim Girl seeks revenge on the Americans by marrying a Navajo, but ultimately finds a link to her people that she never expected.

While I often struggled with the flowery language used to describe Navajo society, mythology, rituals, and even everyday living, I was interested to read a story that is different from any Pulitzer winners I have read to date. Having lived as a child in New Mexico and spending time there most summers of my life since, I was able to visualize LaFarge's descriptions of the outpost towns, landscape, and Navajo dwellings and art. I know I would have never read this book on my own and I'm not sure that I will read it again, but it did expose me to some unfamiliar Navajo ideas and traditions which always make a reading worthwhile. ( )

At a ceremonial dance, the young, earnest silversmith Laughing Boy falls in love with Slim Girl, a beautiful Anglo-educated Navajo. Laughing Boy has a strong sense of self. He knows who he is and is happy. The woman he loves knows two worlds, that of the Navaho and that of the Anglos. She is attracted to both and despises both.This book describes the old time Navahos' way of life and how it is insidiously being destroyed by the superimposing Anglo culture. The couple begin their life amidst this change and encounter other obstacles on their road to total happiness. Laughing Boy is a traditional Navajo and has yet to realize the world outside the reservation and this "innocence" could be Slim Girl's salvation. Slim Girl is out of harmony with herself and with her people. The novel does an excellent job conveying that harmony is the ultimate goal for Laughing Boy and especially, Slim Girl.
I lived on the Navaho reservation about fifty-five years after LaFarge wrote this book. I found the struggle to be a continuing one. Many Navahos are struggling to observe the ‘old’ ways in a world that makes this increasingly difficult. In my personal opinion the sad thing is that many of 'The People' have chosen to acquire some of the least desirable traits of The Anglos. In a tribe where the land, the beauty path, and the traditions have ensured survival for centuries, many are embracing the ‘throw-away’ culture of 20th Century America, to the detriment of us all. ( )