Edwin Corle (1906–1956)

This is a very interesting novel concerning a few white people who live near a Navajo reservation post WWII. There is a doctor who works at the only clinic available for many miles, his adopted Navajo daughter, an alcoholic dentist, a radio show writer who is visiting to learn about the Navajo, and a host of Navajo people who come to a Christmas Eve BBQ hosted by the owner of the local trading post.

The plot is fairly loose. This is more an observation of the various characters. The doctor's show more adopted daughter and her love interest are torn between their Navajo roots and the white man's world. The wife of the trading post owner, who is much younger than he is and married him on a whim, is dissatisfied with living amongst the Navajo. We relationships develop and fall apart in the brisk 150-ish pages of this book.

From 1949, this book is definitely of its time but it doesn't feel very dated.

A very enjoyable read. show less

This first volume in the American Folkways series of the 1940's and early 50's is a compendium of history, geography, folklore, and natural history relating to the deserts of the American Southwest, especially the Mojave and Sonoran Deserts. There is a special emphasis on Death Valley. It is written in a most engaging, somewhat journalistic style by Edwin Corle, Corle's forte is story-telling, where he excels, and there are a lot of humorous, serious, and suspenseful stories in this book. show more The book also provides a good reminiscence of what this area was like some 70 years ago, though most of the accounts go back a lot earlier than that. I recommend this book for casual reading, but also as a good introduction to the North American deserts and their lore, always realizing that a lot has changed since 1941 when the book was published. I will definitely be searching the second-hand bookshops for more of this series, some of which were contributed by such authors as Gertrude Atherton and Wallace Stegner. show less