The Enemy Gods

by Oliver La Farge

Myron's years in the Christian school destroy his faith in the Navajo gods and the ancient ways of his people

Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction, Indigenous

325 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1937

About the author

Oliver Hazard Perry La Farge was an American writer and anthropologist, perhaps best known for his 1930 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel Laughing Boy. Named for his father, Oliver H.P. Lafarge, he is the grandson of the artist and stained-glass pioneer John La Farge, nephew of the noted Beaux-Arts architect Christopher LaFarge and the father of the folk singer and painter Peter La Farge.

La Farge's short stories were published in The New Yorker and Esquire magazines. His more notable works, fiction and non-fiction, focus on Native American culture.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oliver_L...

Reviews

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

The anthropologist Oliver La Farge wrote the Pulitzer prize-winning novel Laughing Boy in 1927. It is a tale of a young couple caught between two worlds: their rich Navajo heritage and the denigrating white culture. It is a very effective book - so far as it goes - but is too understated in many respects.

In The Enemy Gods, published some eight years later, La Farge has the confidence and courage to speak the hard truth about the destructiveness of European religion on Navajo culture and of one boy's heroic struggle to resist. The book is far deeper than Laughing Boy, and is a nearly photographic record of Navajo life in the 1920's and 1930's. The book's climax is an awesomely beautiful evocation of native sprituality. Highly recommended!

[Sally Atwell Williams · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Enemy Gods by Oliver LaFarge was written in 1935 or thereabouts. It is about a young Navaho boy who is sent to school away from where he lived. This happened to many children. However, for Myron, it was his parents who decided he needed a good education. The book was excellent when Myron's life with his people was discussed versus the life he had with the white men who he lived with and who taught him. He was taught Christianity, and told to throw away the many gods his people prayed to. However, he was torn between both lives. The one thing that I did not like about the book, was La Farge's use of the vernacular when the children spoke English to each other and to the teachers and priests. I felt it continued the prejudice that whites have of other ethnic groups. Much like when white authors create their own vernacular for African Americans. This feeling of mine is probably because I never thought about it in growing up. I heard accents but people speaking what my mother would call "bad English."

however, I did learn quite a lot about Navaho traditions and customs and thinking. That was very important to me as I live in New Mexico now, among many different ethnic cultures.

[Sarah Sammis · Rating 2 out of 5]

I borrowed it from the South Pasadena library. I don't remember much of the book.