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Crazy Brave: A Memoir
by
Joy Harjo (Goodreads Author)
In this transcendent memoir, grounded in tribal myth and ancestry, music and poetry, Joy Harjo, one of our leading Native American voices, details her journey to becoming a poet. Born in Oklahoma, the end place of the Trail of Tears, Harjo grew up learning to dodge an abusive stepfather by finding shelter in her imagination, a deep spiritual life, and connection with the n...more
Hardcover, 172 pages
Published
July 9th 2012
by W. W. Norton & Company
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I have been a follower of Joy Harjo for many years. I have her books and CDs.
Her wisdom is deep, abundant and true. It is born of experience, pain and survival, though she imparts her truths with insight and clarity.
In this memoir, Joy Harjo recalls important aspects of her life. Joy’s journey in life has been a difficult one. Being of Native American heritage (though mixed), her experiences are clearly rooted in tradition and spirit. Yet, she has always felt this “knowing”. It has been her guid...more
Her wisdom is deep, abundant and true. It is born of experience, pain and survival, though she imparts her truths with insight and clarity.
In this memoir, Joy Harjo recalls important aspects of her life. Joy’s journey in life has been a difficult one. Being of Native American heritage (though mixed), her experiences are clearly rooted in tradition and spirit. Yet, she has always felt this “knowing”. It has been her guid...more
Joy Harjo is a fixture among college English majors. Somehow I managed not to read her until now, and I'm sorry I waited. This memoir was touching, realistic and honest. She paints a vivid picture of her life growing up in the American West in the 60s, and no matter your cultural background this book resonates. I was rooting for her on the whole way; I found her both likable and courageous. Harjo takes a hard look at some very difficult, if almost universal, issues (poverty, child abuse, incest,...more
From my small window seat, I can see the left wing of the plane that was taking John and me from Portland, Oregon, to Denver, Colorado. I have just finished reading Joy Harjo’s new memoir CRAZY BRAVE. Painted on the wing tip of the plane are two polar bears. Stenciled in bold white paint on the curve of the jet engine, and on a flimsy metal fin bolted to the engine, are the words NO STEP. The unstated meaning, DANGER, is clear.
If our impending births came with the same warning, LIFE IS DANGEROU...more
If our impending births came with the same warning, LIFE IS DANGEROU...more
Harjo's memoir is as graceful and lovely as the artist herself. The book limns the earliest parts of her life through her early 20s, as she grew up in OK, nurtured her muses at IAIA and UNM, gave birth to 2 children and mothered 3. It is a tale of difficulty and struggle, with only occasional periods of respite.
What distinguishes this volume from most memoirs are the author's shifts into metaphor, dream, and poesy. These lyrical junctures form a lovely collage of image--the fragments apt echoes...more
What distinguishes this volume from most memoirs are the author's shifts into metaphor, dream, and poesy. These lyrical junctures form a lovely collage of image--the fragments apt echoes...more
I erred on the side of giving this one the fourth star because it really is hauntingly beautiful, but I tend to think of it as a 3.5-star book.
Harjo weaves together memory, fantasy, fiction, and poetry like an artist painting with various colors of sand. The lines blur (or are deliberately smeared), creating a narrative that could only have come from the mind of a poet.
Ultimately, however, this blending of narrative becomes one of the book's greatest weaknesses. Harjo doesn't only pull the stren...more
Harjo weaves together memory, fantasy, fiction, and poetry like an artist painting with various colors of sand. The lines blur (or are deliberately smeared), creating a narrative that could only have come from the mind of a poet.
Ultimately, however, this blending of narrative becomes one of the book's greatest weaknesses. Harjo doesn't only pull the stren...more
Joy Harjo is an amazing poet, writer, songwriter, artist and strong Native woman. Her memoir is heartbreaking and full of life at the same time. Heartbreaking because it is the story of so many native persons. Generations of trauma, generations of colonization. She stated it eloquently when she wrote: "As peoples we had been broken. We were still in the bloody aftermath of a violent takeover of our lands. Within a few generations we had gone from being nearly one hundred percent of the populatio...more
I received this book in a goodreads giveaway. I loved the fact that this book wasn't a traditional biography type book. I found it to be inspirational, spiritual and poetic. It was easily read in just a few short hours and I wish it had been a larger book. I especially loved the Eagle Poem and I'm not a big poetry fan. I plan on picking up a few of her poetry books. The only downsides were that I wished the book had been longer and had included more about her music.
Crazy Brave reads like part one of what I hope will be a two or three volume series, following Harjo's life from her (to say the least) difficult childhood in Tulsa through her connection with Native aesthetics and cultural traditions at the American Indian Arts Institute in Santa Fe which she attended during the vibrant awakening of the 1960s to her embrace of her poetic (and later musical) vocation. As a result of the cut-off, the book reads as a sort of "prelude," spiced up with excerpts from...more
Joy Harjo does not use language in any new or even especially creative ways. Her writing nevertheless captivates and I'm glad for her story despite the plain prose. The thread holding together this meandering life story is men, abusive alcoholics most of them, and how Harjo overcame these potentially deadly relationships to pursue her many arts (music, theater, painting, poetry.) Those aspects of the story I found most interesting such as the role of women in a very patriarchal 70's Indian polit...more
First, as always, I must thank Goodreads for giving me the opportunity to read this book for free as part of the First Reads giveaway. I'm so glad that I am reading such a wide variety of books.
As you may recall, I am not a fan of memoirs because of my experience with "Eat, Pray, Love." This is another memoir and it presents another reason for me to be wary of the genre: meandering. See, this book is a poet's journey of discovery of language and poetry, specifically. There are many layers to th...more
As you may recall, I am not a fan of memoirs because of my experience with "Eat, Pray, Love." This is another memoir and it presents another reason for me to be wary of the genre: meandering. See, this book is a poet's journey of discovery of language and poetry, specifically. There are many layers to th...more
Joy Harjo is a poet, not a memoirist - this is not your average memoir - and since I hate memoir and love Joy Harjo, that was a good thing. She skims over the facts and dwells in the poetry, and takes us also to those mysterious places the poetry comes from - the moon (I kid you not!) and an underwater place full of alligators ... the other dimensions are as fleshed out, no, more fleshed out, than the narrative thread. She sees everything and everyone with a poet's eye - it's a fascinating look...more
Crazy Brave is one of the best memoirs I've ever read. Joy Harjo has an incredible ability to see to the heart of things. She expresses herself in ways that are woven with the ways of her people, and conveys the sadness of what has happened to Native Americans with hope, renewal, anger, love, compassion, and joy. This book is as multifaceted and diverse as Harjo herself. I felt like I was having a conversation with a friend who was relating her experiences without any self-pity...that is a rare...more
"Every soul has a distinct song," Harjo writes, and she says it was her mother's song that drew her to this life, even as those songs were cut short by abusive and neglectful husbands, chaos and poverty. But Crazy Brave does not simply reenact childhood pain and suffering. Through Harjo's insistence on the interconnectedness of all soul-stories, this memoir becomes a map, a vision, a brave compendium of what is possible in being human. In Harjo's work, her mother's singing lives as songs of heal...more
Aug 10, 2012
Nadia
added it
I didn't want to stop reading, but I had to sleep. Beautiful to see this writer's life unfold. Joy believes in her visions and sees earth and our universe as pulsing entities very much linked in harmony at every level.
Yet in finishing this book, Joy also showed the injustices of a life growing up in the shadow of racial and gender discrimination, alcoholism, poverty, meanness and hautedness, which does not immediately speak of harmony. I think back to her poem, "Reconcilliation" in stanza 2 whe...more
Yet in finishing this book, Joy also showed the injustices of a life growing up in the shadow of racial and gender discrimination, alcoholism, poverty, meanness and hautedness, which does not immediately speak of harmony. I think back to her poem, "Reconcilliation" in stanza 2 whe...more
I love Joy Harjo's poetry, but at first when I started this it felt way too all over the place and stream of consciousness for me--but I'm glad I kept with it, as like some poems it gradually came into more and more focus as Harjo talked about her life after early childhood. The earlier images/stories began to her shape the later images and stories. It ended up feeling like an impressionistic, but vital, depiction of childhood, teenage years, and early adulthood. Not an easy read or life, but Ha...more
I read this in a single sitting. I didn't intend to, I had things to do but all that fell away when I began to read. Even now I have things to do but they don't seem as important; Wal-Mart can wait.
I plan to buy and give copies of this book to my sisters and a couple of friends. There is so much truth, pain, beauty and humor in this tiny book. I found myself laughing out loud at some paragraphs, outraged at others and feeling the same sadness Harjo recalls in others. She writes simply and beaut...more
I plan to buy and give copies of this book to my sisters and a couple of friends. There is so much truth, pain, beauty and humor in this tiny book. I found myself laughing out loud at some paragraphs, outraged at others and feeling the same sadness Harjo recalls in others. She writes simply and beaut...more
*Check out http://www.infinitereads.com for other reviews and sundry thoughts!*
Mvskoke (Creek) Nation citizen Joy Harjo (She Had Some Horses) has given us poetry with a lyrical Native American voice for decades, keeping the narrative of the contemporary native world alive in American literature. With Crazy Brave, Harjo's memoir of her journey to becoming a writer, her fans can learn the story behind the voice.
Born in Tulsa, Okla., where the Trail of Tears forced her ancestors to settle, Harjo s...more
Mvskoke (Creek) Nation citizen Joy Harjo (She Had Some Horses) has given us poetry with a lyrical Native American voice for decades, keeping the narrative of the contemporary native world alive in American literature. With Crazy Brave, Harjo's memoir of her journey to becoming a writer, her fans can learn the story behind the voice.
Born in Tulsa, Okla., where the Trail of Tears forced her ancestors to settle, Harjo s...more
The recently released memoir is beautifully written but very brief. It is not much on
names and details, but instead concerns her spiritual path, dreams, the drunks in her
life, and native customs. Being a poet and musician and artist, she includes several
poems, but I was disappointed that she does not discuss how she learned to play the
saxophone and started her group, Poetic Justice. Much is left unsaid. Maybe another book
is forthcoming. I very much did enjoy what little she gave us.
names and details, but instead concerns her spiritual path, dreams, the drunks in her
life, and native customs. Being a poet and musician and artist, she includes several
poems, but I was disappointed that she does not discuss how she learned to play the
saxophone and started her group, Poetic Justice. Much is left unsaid. Maybe another book
is forthcoming. I very much did enjoy what little she gave us.
Reading Joy Harjo’s memoir Crazy Brave is a lot like dreaming. or maybe, more like dreaming another person’s dream. The first few pages seemed abstract and indistinct to me. Then I caught the underlying poetry and the events began to make their own sense.
“This is my heart” she writes, “it is a good heart.” Then she breaks it open for us and pours its contents into our hands.
The rest of my review can be found here:
http://wanderlustandlipstick.com/blog...
i have recently become a follower and fan of joy harjo's work. i can relate to her life on many levels and her struggles and braveness inspire me immensely in my own pursuits.i for one thank her for bearing her truths so that for those of us who wish to touch the stars yet who havent the means of a ladder can find away to build our own steps, thank you joy for truly being the brave woman you are.
A memoir of survival against all odds, the instinct to save yourself. I found this book compelling firstly as a glimpse into the Native American world with its many layers and complexities. It also shines as a personal account of how creativity through music, art, writing can keep a person going. The dream sequences that are woven through this book are beautifully done.
Not a memoir in any traditional sense of the word. More a set of impressions and conclusions about her life, told in non-linear fashion. Still, Harjo is not a conventional person. Even though I wished there had been more specificity in the telling of the story, I gleaned a lot of inspiration out what she had to say. And in the end, I suspect that was her goal in writing it.
I have followed Harjo since the early 1990s. I enjoy her poetry and re-read her poetry books from time to time. I like how she writes in a mythic style where all life is more than it appears on the surface. This memoir, for me, never drew me into her personal story -- solid but uninspiring.
I love the way she covers traumatic incidents in her life briefly and matter-of-fact-ly but dwells lovingly on her visits to the spirit world and relationships with ancestors and guides. Hers has been a triumphant and successful life in spite of great personal and historic tragedies. I'm so glad to understand more of where her poetry and music are coming from.
Joy Harjo writes a memoir that floats above life. It is mystical but raw and being strong as steel is just what she is while moving from hard place to harder place - poet, musician, artist, mother - she is beyond definition.
Dec 24, 2012
Karen Douglass
added it
Loved this book. It's a truly brave memoir and gives us insight into growing up as "a skin" in a household that feels, sadly, common to many ethnic groups. I've long been a Harjo fan and this strengthens my respect for her and her poetry.
A review on the back of this book states that "it's a book for people who want to re-fall in love with the world". I feel like I've fallen back in love with not only the outside world but also my inner life. Beautiful book.
This is an interesting auto-biographical story, written mostly in a general style and in poetic language. Personally, I would have preferred more detail about events in the author's life.
I think everyone should read this. Not the typical biography of native americans but very compelling. I think we have to be brave to follow that thread that holds us together.
I read part of this memoir, but found that the style is not one that I appreciate, at least at this time. So, I read some, skimmed some, and skipped to the end.
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Bio Joy Harjo
Joy Harjo was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma and is a member of the Mvskoke Nation. She has released four award-winning CD's of original music and won a Native American Music Award (NAMMY) for Best Female Artist of the Year. She performs nationally and internationally solo and with her band, The Arrow Dynamics. She has appeared on HBO's Def Poetry Jam, in venues in every major U.S. city and...more
More about Joy Harjo...
Joy Harjo was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma and is a member of the Mvskoke Nation. She has released four award-winning CD's of original music and won a Native American Music Award (NAMMY) for Best Female Artist of the Year. She performs nationally and internationally solo and with her band, The Arrow Dynamics. She has appeared on HBO's Def Poetry Jam, in venues in every major U.S. city and...more
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“A story matrix connects all of us.
There are rules, processes, and circles of responsibility in this world. And the story begins exactly where it is supposed to begin. We cannot skip any part.”
—
2 people liked it
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There are rules, processes, and circles of responsibility in this world. And the story begins exactly where it is supposed to begin. We cannot skip any part.”
Apr 09, 2013 01:37pm