Indian Affairs

by Larry Woiwode

In the sequel to What I'm Going to Do, I Think, Chris and Ellen return to northern Michigan while Chris writes his dissertation and reassesses his native American heritage, but a prowler menaces the cabin and a group of young Indians threatens him.

290 pages, Hardcover

First published June 15, 1992

About the author

Larry Woiwode was designated Poet Laureate of North Dakota by the Legislative Assembly in 1995. He served as Writer in Residence at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, 1973-74; and from 1983-88 was a tenured professor at the State University of New York, Binghamton, and director of its Creative Writing Program.

Larry Woiwode’s fiction has appeared in Antaeus, Antioch Review, Atlantic Monthly, GQ, Harpers, The New Yorker, Paris Review, Partisan Review, and many other publications; his poetry has appeared in Atlantic Monthly, Harpers, The New Yorker, Mademoiselle, Poetry North, Tar River Poetry, Transatlantic Review, Works in Progress, and other publications and venues, including broadsides and anthologies.

His novels and his memoirs are widely acclaimed and his writings have been translated into a dozen languages and earned him international recognition: he is the recipient of the William Faulkner Foundation Award, 1969; has been a Guggenheim Fellow, 1971-72; a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and the National Book Award, 1975; chosen by the American Association of Publishers for a novel to present to the White House Library, 1976; is recipient of an Award in Literature from the National Institute and American Academy of Arts & Letters, 1980; of the John Dos Passos Prize (for a diverse body of work), 1991; and of a Lannan Literary Fellowship, 2001. He has also received North Dakota’s highest honor, the Theodore Roosevelt Roughrider Award, conferred by Governor Sinner, in 1992; and in 2011 received the Emeritus Award from the High Plains Awards Committee, for “A Body of Work as Vast as the West.” His recent publications include Words Made Fresh, and The Invention of Lefse, published in 2011 by Crossway Books. His new novel Blackburn Bay is nearly ready to be viewed by agents and publishers, and in 2010 he completed a new book of short stories

Reviews

[John Benson · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wish I liked Larry Woiwode's writing more, as he was the Poet Laureate for North Dakota, just across the river from where I live in Moorhead, MN. I heard him read several times, but find myself too often disappointed in his books. This is a much later sequel to his first novel, WHAT I AM GOING TO DO, I THINK. In that 1966 novel, Chris and Ellen go and stay in her grandparents' cabin in northern Michigan soon after they are married. This book, published in 1992, takes them to the same place, seven years later and Chris is working on finishing his dissertation. He gets involved with some local Indians and then the plot falls apart. I ended up skimming through too much of this book. Another disappointment.

[Tim Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was the very first work by Woiwode I ever read. Since it was a sequel, it probably was not the best book of his to start with, but since I received it as a gift, I dove in.

While there were sections that were a bit tedious, there were enough marvelous sections and humor to pique my interest in seeking out more of Woiwode's work. He is now one of my favorite authors.

I especially enjoyed the scene where Chris "helped" the farmer with his haying.