Laughing Boy

LAUGHING BOY
by Oliver La Farge

 Award: Pulitzer Winner 1930

 Dates Read: June 4, 2009 & September 26, 2017

 Laughing Boy, a young Navajo man who is eager to prove himself among his tribe, is skilled in jewelry making and has a passion for racing horses. The Navaho tribe is at an interesting juncture of preserving their historic rituals and culture in a time of profound influence of white ways. At a Navajo event, Laughing Boy meets and is drawn to Slim Girl, a questionable woman that others in his tribe warn him about. His tribe is wary of her because she has attended a white school, funded by the federal government. After what we would call eloping, Laughing Boy is ultimately betrayed by Slim Girl, yet he is unable to let go.

 Laughing Boy is a beautiful novel that captures the conflict between an ever-encroaching American way of life due to western expansion and the rituals and customs of the Navajo people. Rich imagery and a sensitivity to the changing landscape of the Navajo people creates an engrossing narrative of love, loyalty to tradition and a vanishing way of life.

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