From the Bookshelf of Never too Late to Read Classics…

Laughing Boy: A Navajo Love Story

Oliver La Farge,

Wanden Lafarge Gomez

Start date: January 1, 2024

Finish date: March 31, 2024

Discussion: Frontier Western Classics

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What Members Thought

Jan 07, 2025 Sara rated it liked it

Shelves: indigenous-people, pulitzer-prize-winners, western, native-american

I find myself unsure what to say about this 1930 Pulitzer winner. It is the tale of a Navajo couple, Laughing Boy and Slim Girl. Laughing Boy is an Indian through and through–he knows the ways, the gods, the rituals, the customs. Slim Girl was stolen from her home and forced into an American school–she has lost all her connection to her people, and she is trying to find her way back.

One feels the doom that hangs around these two characters as they struggle to exist in a no-man’s land between th ...more

16 likes · Like · see review

Apr 14, 2019 Shirley (stampartiste) rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: read-classics, challenge-bingo-2019

Several years ago, my husband and I were privileged to be invited to a week-long Sundance on the Navajo Reservation in Arizona. We got to know several of The People as we worked with them preparing meals for those who came to participate in the dance. It was a wonderful experience which left me with a deep appreciation for the Navajo way of life, their deep spirituality and the foundational role that family and community plays in their lives. In his book, Laughing Boy: A Navajo Love Story, I bel ...more

2 likes · Like · see review

Jun 05, 2022 Kelly_Hunsaker_reads ... rated it really liked it

Shelves: read-in-2022, classics, pulitzer, indigenous-native, 60-before-60

Laughing Boy by Oliver LaFarge won the Pulitzer Prize in 1930. The author was an anthropologist who worked extensively in the Olmec sites of Mexico, as well as sites in Central America and the Southwestern United States. He wrote many nonfiction books and fiction books. He was an active and vocal proponent of the rights of Native Americans.

In this novel (his debut) he tells a beautiful story of two young Navajo people who fall in love and begin life together. Laughing Boy and Slim Girl meet at a ...more

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Aug 01, 2020 Annette rated it really liked it

Shelves: classics-read, classic-challenges-2020, pulitzer, 2020

Very moving. I live in the Southwest and the vistas are as amazingly beautiful as described. And I feel that La Farge accurately portrayed the people as best as an outsider could.

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