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26th out of 194 books
—
45 voters
People of the Whale: A Novel
by
Linda Hogan
Raised in a remote seaside village, Thomas Witka Just marries Ruth, his beloved since infancy. But an ill-fated decision to fight in Vietnam changes his life forever: cut off from his Native American community, he fathers a child with another woman. When he returns home a hero, he finds his tribe in conflict over the decision to hunt a whale, both a symbol of spirituality...more
Hardcover, 304 pages
Published
August 17th 2008
by W. W. Norton & Company
(first published 2008)
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A new book from another of my favorite novelists, this is just as good as her last. Set in a village of a native nation fallen on hard times on the Pacific Coast, young Thomas, descended from those who talked to the whales, loves childhood friend Ruth and they marry. When out drinking with his buddies, Thomas joins the army and is shipped to Vietnam. Ruth takes this as a betrayal, but does not stop loving him. His death is reported and Ruth continues on, fishing, arguing with the men who want t...more
Beautiful as all her prose, this book took me to the ocean and into the minds of a character whose transcendent relationship with water figures as heavily as the plot based on human experience. Excellent and troubling depictions of community politics and tribal obligations. And yet, as compelling as I found this book, I had to wonder over Hogan's creating a fictional tribe who (very like the actual Makah tribe) decide to reinstate the hunting of whales. I do not know why the Makah decided to hun...more
I am on a constant quest to find women writers who speak in stories I can relate to. In Hogan I feel I have found such a writer. Hogan does not shy away from the victimization inherent in her Native character’s lives, but it is with great elegance that she recognizes the circumstances that bring individuals and cultures to the disorienting places in which we find ourselves today. Here, Hogan weaves the stories of Native Americans into the story of the Vietnam War. People of the Whale draws paral...more
People of the Whale may be Linda Hogan's most beautiful novel yet. The novel is set among a fictional tribe in the Pacific Northwest who decide to resume a whale hunt to secretly sell the meat to the Japanese. I expected this book to be about the politics of whaling in the context of native sovereignty. It is not. Hogan depicts the whaling controversy without nuance. It is greed and corruption. It is a war on life on par with larger wars. The whaling however is only a background story to a nov...more
Hogan's prose is unbelievably lush - there is such compassion and beauty to this book, even when Hogan turns her attention to the ugliness of humanity; war, loss, grief, murder, colonialism, PTSD. Multiple worlds exist in these pages - Dark River, self-sufficient, wonderfully contained, bordered by ocean and forest, brushing up against the spirit world; Saigon, a half-world away, rich with the scent of flowers even amid poverty, confusion, silences, the memory of war. The larger world isn't abse...more
I wasn't so sure about this book for the first 75 pages or so. The language is very poetic and this was jarring and seemed a bit overdone at the start. But when part 2 kicked in, with the story of the main character's daughter growing up without him in the wake of the Vietnam War, Hogan hits her stride. And from that point the narrative never flagged for me. I guess either the poetry subsided or I grew so used to it that it didn't bother me any more. And, too, Hogan's characters are so richly dr...more
Thomas Just returns from Vietnam and disappears from his family (wife Ruth and son Marco Polo), having abandoned another child, Lin, in Vietnam, until he gets word of a tribal whale killing to take place. This horrible corruption of an act once intimately connected to nature for these People of the Whale is indicative of how far removed they are from their roots (they murder a young whale, who had only come close to greet them, rather than a whale that, traditionally, they would ask to offer its...more
In her quiet, intensive, often lyrical writing, Linda Hogan has created a serious and magical book. In the story of one Native man's search for his place in the Native and the American world, in tribal tradition and modern day problems, she speaks to all of us. What is the source of our greed and desparation, that leads this man, Thomas Just, to going to the Vietnam War, or leads his tribal members to restart whale hunting outside of international treaties and their own traditions? We get more i...more
Aug 07, 2011
Christina Carson
rated it
5 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
Those enamored of Native culture and those seeking a beautiful story of challenge and triumph.
Recommended to Christina by:
A professor of English at Oklahoma State
I have spent many years studying and working with First Nations in Canada. Their way of understanding the world is one that could teach us a great deal about wholeness, lack of attachment and interconnectedness. In this novel, Linda Hogan, a Native herself, not only tells a truly poignant tale but does so in the manner that reveals an authentic portrayal of Natives and their interactions. It's lyrical nature often has the rhythm that their songs do, and it carries the story along with the same s...more
Some books are meant to be devoured. A great mystery, for example, or a romance where you can’t wait to see if the star-crossed lovers ends up together or not.
Other books are meant to be savored. People of the Whale by Linda Hogan falls into this latter category, and savor it I did, like a fine wine.
When Thomas Witka Just marries his childhood sweetheart, Ruth, they are sure their love will last until the last gray whale sings its final song. They are members of the (fictional) A'atsika tribe, a...more
Other books are meant to be savored. People of the Whale by Linda Hogan falls into this latter category, and savor it I did, like a fine wine.
When Thomas Witka Just marries his childhood sweetheart, Ruth, they are sure their love will last until the last gray whale sings its final song. They are members of the (fictional) A'atsika tribe, a...more
Hogan's writing is so rich and intricate that I found myself actually stumbling through the first third of this book, having to put it down for longer stretches than I wanted to while I mustered up more patience and focus to continue on. Hogan's voice just felt so otherwordly and I felt like I couldn't experience the characters directly enough because she seemed to write around them rather than about them. But soon enough I fell into sync with it all and found myself doing exactly the opposite:...more
I had such a good conversation with my BF about this book. I think Linda Hogan is a fantastic writer. This is a relatively short book but it took me quite a while to read because it's so dense. It's written beautifully, and the reason why I had to read it slowly is because I had to stop and think about Native American lore and culture and how that collides with Western (white) culture. Everything that Thomas was raised to believe, revere, and live is in complete contrast to what he has to do in...more
Jun 17, 2009
Miz Lizzie
rated it
5 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
adults
Shelves:
adult-fiction,
compassion,
death,
dreams,
families,
fear,
grief,
history,
native-american,
nature,
spirituality,
vietnam,
vietnam-war,
whales
Linda Hogan is a poet who writes exquisitely beautiful and deeply meaningful novels about the emotional and environmental fall-outs of devastating events that somehow manage to come to a place of redemption and hope. Raised on a remote west coast reservation, Thomas Just goes out drinking with his buddies and ends up signing up to serve in the Vietnam War. The effects of the war on Thomas, his wife, his children, and his community reverberate through the years as everyone struggles to restore th...more
A real disappointment after all the glowing reviews. Some praised the lyrical writing, I found it flat, coming across as a translation written with a fourth-grade vocabulary list.
An odd amalgam of Native Americans communing with whales and octopuses who live on land to fragging your officer in Vietnam because you were so much smart than he was, to evident murders with people reappearing.
Switches back and forth from mystical to ordinary life and, although I finished it, my main emotion was get-o...more
An odd amalgam of Native Americans communing with whales and octopuses who live on land to fragging your officer in Vietnam because you were so much smart than he was, to evident murders with people reappearing.
Switches back and forth from mystical to ordinary life and, although I finished it, my main emotion was get-o...more
A poetic, even spiritual novel about a tribe on the West Coast which is close to cultural annihilation. The main characters are people of the native way, people of the sea and all it contains, particularly the whale and the octopus. Thomas is almost destroyed by his experience in Vietnam. This is a novel about healing. An interesting linking of the cultures of Vietnam and the Pacific Northwest. The reader, Stefan Rudnicki, is excellent.
Once again, Linda Hogan dazzles me again with her lyrical and compassionate writing. Her work always leaves me with an even greater appreciation for other viewpoints and the spirit of our environment. Even though I'm a huge Linda Hogan fan, I was reluctant to read this novel because one character wrestles with his memories of fighting in the Vietnam War, and frankly, I am a sissy when it comes to thinking about the horrors of humanity, but the way Hogan told the story was both sensitive, honest,...more
May 17, 2013
Abby
added it
Linda Hogan's mind seems drawn to similar characters and motifs like streams she can't help following downhill. After reading Solar Storms, I can't help thinking that in this book she killed off the most interesting person from the other story(young person who goes to live with the elders). But mainly it felt like there was too much author talk and not enough characters getting to express themselves.
Short rant: I really hate evil characters with no apparent motivation. Dwight is just a jerk from...more
Short rant: I really hate evil characters with no apparent motivation. Dwight is just a jerk from...more
This is the first book of fiction I have read about a native American culture by a native American. I found Ms. Hogan's writing style poetic, lyrical, and magical. She transported me into a new world where nature and humans become one, where nature is revered, and where life's lessons are not only learned through experience but through nature. I am eager to read more than Ms. Hogan has written after reading this book.
I really enjoyed this book. This is the first book I have read from Linda. Beautiful story of a Tribe that believes fully in the ocean and its creatures that live within. Also its about a Tribe that is lost and it's own people go against each other. As a native person who believes in nature myself and knows how Tribal politics works,I really conected with the story. It was thoughtfully written with a lot of detail. Overall a great book to read.
This is a beautifully written story that is so complex in its handling of PTSS from Vietnam and the conflicts between white and native societies/cultures. And- if that is not enough for you - the internal conflicts probably will weigh most on your soul. In the afterword the author talks about her husband helping her with the Vietnam content - it is so real and raw.
I learned that much of the descriptions applied to oppressed Native peoples, disconnected from their cultures, can be applied synonymously to Black peoples and other people of color. Linda Hogan refers to them as "conquered people"; she alludes to their despair and what america has done to them, but also the hope and depth that still swims deep within their souls.
This novel about an unnamed paddling Native American Nation on the west coast is written in prose but feels like poetry. There's an underlying haunting quality tinged with sadness as the story unfolds. Things don't always turn out as you would want, but all the events fit into a gestalt that seems right. I will definitely read more books by this author.
This is a haunting and beautiful story about Native American Ruth, a woman born with gills, and her husband Thomas, one of the people of the whale, who signs up for the war in Vietnam and comes back changed, and Lin, the daughter he leaves behind. The themes of nature, and man's stewardship of the earth, and the effects of war are explored in poetic prose.
A village is broken by corrupt male leaders.
A man is broken by going to war in Vietnam.
His son is broken when a whale is killed.
His wife is broken when her son dies.
His daughter is not broken against all odds.
Three women dance on a beach.
Old people teach old ways
and eat Girl Scout Cookies.
A man is broken by going to war in Vietnam.
His son is broken when a whale is killed.
His wife is broken when her son dies.
His daughter is not broken against all odds.
Three women dance on a beach.
Old people teach old ways
and eat Girl Scout Cookies.
I had to read this book for an English class. Hogan is a wonderful storyteller, weaving intricate plot lines that leave you curious and turning the pages quickly. Her imagery is stunning and her use of "magical realism" adds a nice feel to the novel. I definitely recommend it if you like books that really make you think, and books that transport you to another place and time.
A young woman in the present day, living in Dutch Harbor, Alaska, while her current boyfriend is out with the fishing fleet, becomes involved with the local indigenous culture. This could have been better. They woman's tawdriness turned me off, and at time it was not clear what was going on.
Hogan may be the single most unheralded writer on the planet, but hopefully that won't continue to be so. She has a unique voice and vision that gets both the big picture and the smallest of detail. She also comfortably mixes and traverses the mythopoetic realm with everyday reality, a feat many writers never seem to accomplish. Often enough, reading a second novel from a writer I enjoyed the first time just doesn't measure up or reach the same level of interest. That was not the case with this...more
Because you enjoyed The Things They Carried, you might also enjoy People of the Whale by Linda Hogan. Written with a similar style, this story also delves into the before and after lives of soldiers who fought in Vietnam.
Fantastic! Hogan's lyrical prose draws the reader in to this story of a family - and really, the tribe - and the effects of one man's experiences in the Vietnam War on it. Deftly written, this is for fans of Louise Erdrich and other writers who elegantly depict loneliness and solitude, physically, mentally, and spiritually.
Beautiful, lyrical sentences with almost a dreamlike feel. Compares and contrasts the suffering of Native Americans with that of the people of Vietnam during the unjust war in the 60s and 70s.
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![People of the Whale [With Headphones]](http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1348562031s/14450466.jpg)
Linda Hogan, Writer in Residence for The Chickasaw Nation, is an internationally recognized public speaker and writer of poetry, fiction, and essays.
Linda Hogan was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for her novel Mean Spirit. Her other honors include an American Book Award and a Guggenheim Fellowship. A former Professor at the University of Colorado she now lives and works in Oklahoma.
More about Linda Hogan...
Linda Hogan was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for her novel Mean Spirit. Her other honors include an American Book Award and a Guggenheim Fellowship. A former Professor at the University of Colorado she now lives and works in Oklahoma.
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Jan 01, 2013 03:46pm