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Overview
A sweeping, multifaceted tale of a young Native American pulled between the cherished traditions of a heritage on the brink of extinction and an encroaching white culture, Gardens in the Dunes is the powerful story of one woman's quest to reconcile two worlds that are diametrically opposed.
At the center of this struggle is Indigo, who is ripped from her tribe, the Sand Lizard people, by white soldiers who destroy her home and family. Placed in a government school to learn the ways of a white child, Indigo is rescued by the kind-hearted Hattie and her worldly husband, Edward, who undertake to transform this complex, spirited girl into a "proper" young lady. Bit by bit, and through a wondrous journey that spans the European continent, traipses through the jungles of Brazil, and returns to the rich desert of Southwest America, Indigo bridges the gap between the two forces in her life and teaches her adoptive parents as much as, if not more than, she learns from them.
Synopsis
A sweeping, multifaceted tale of a young Native American pulled between the cherished traditions of a heritage on the brink of extinction and an encroaching white culture, Gardens in the Dunes is the powerful story of one woman's quest to reconcile two worlds that are diametrically opposed.
At the center of this struggle is Indigo, who is ripped from her tribe, the Sand Lizard people, by white soldiers who destroy her home and family. Placed in a government school to learn the ways of a white child, Indigo is rescued by the kind-hearted Hattie and her worldly husband, Edward, who undertake to transform this complex, spirited girl into a "proper" young lady. Bit by bit, and through a wondrous journey that spans the European continent, traipses through the jungles of Brazil, and returns to the rich desert of Southwest America, Indigo bridges the gap between the two forces in her life and teaches her adoptive parents as much as, if not more than, she learns from them.
The Progressive - Tayari Jones
Gardens in the Dunes is a fascinating novel of ideas, myth, and allegory.
Editorials
Tayari Jones
Gardens in the Dunes is a fascinating novel of ideas, myth, and allegory.— The Progressive
From The Critics
Drenched with atmosphere, lush with descriptions of vividly detailed gardens, and saturated with dream imagery...Publishers Weekly -
Silko (Almanac of the Dead) is widely considered a master of Native American literature, but in this third novel, as always, the poet, short-story writer and essayist soars beyond the simpler categorizations that might circumscribe her virtuosic and visionary work. Indigo is one of the last Sand Lizard people, who for centuries have cultivated the desert dunes beyond the river. Young Indigo's story opens like a folk tale, outside place and time, but gradually circumstances become plain. It's the turn of the century, Arizona is on the verge of statehood and an aqueduct is being constructed to feed water from the Colorado River to Los Angeles. Displaced peoples strip the desert gardens, and Grandma Fleet takes Indigo and Sister Salt to Needles. There the girls' mother has joined the encampment of women dancing to summon the Messiah, who, to Indigo's wonderment, appears with his Holy Mother and his 11 children. Soldiers raid the celebration; soon Indigo and Sister Salt are captured and separated, and Indigo is sent to school in Riverside. She escapes and is found hiding in a garden by intellectual iconoclast Hattie, who adopts the child and takes her first to New York, then to Europe. The novel, expanding far beyond its initial setting and historical themes, is structured around intricate patterns of color and styles of gardening: the desert dunes are pale yellow and orange; in Italy, a black garden is formed from thousands of hybrid black gladioli. Significantly, there's also a parrot named Rainbow--along with a monkey named Linnaeus and a dog circus. Silko's integration of glorious details into her many vivid settings and intense characters is a triumph of the storyteller's art, which this gifted and magical novelist has never demonstrated more satisfyingly than she does here.Library Journal
Silko (Almanac of the Dead) has produced a work that touches on several cultures, belief systems, and issues, the most important being respect for the earth and all its life forms. To this end, she presents the life of a young Sand Lizard Indian girl, one of the last of her tribe. She travels from her ancient homeland in Arizona to California, New York, England, Italy, and back to Arizona, beginning and ending her journey in the "garden in the dunes," where she lives off the land with reverence and care. In her travels, she is exposed to people who treat her with contempt, condescension, and curiosity as well as complete respect; she learns about ancient Celtic and Roman cultures and beliefs; and she sees the earth raped to accommodate Western expansion. Silko exhibits an amazing fluency with gardens and plant life of all kinds and a substantial knowledge of world mythology. -- Rebecca A. Stuhr, Grinnell Coll. Libs., IASuzanne Ruta
...[A] rich, intriguing, irritating mix of myth, allegory, Victorian children's tale and adventure yarn, laced with...Southwestern history, early Christian theology and Celtic archeology. Plus a seed catalogue....Garden in the Dunes has its distinctive tone elegaic, retrospective and many fine inventions.— The New York Times Book Review
Bryce Milligan
Silko is a fiction warrior, ready to reinvent the novel itself with some of the most lucid prose being written today...Silko deserves every one of the major awards—and they are numerous—that she has received. If there is any justice, Gardens in the Dunes should be a front runner for a Pulitzer.—The Hungry Mind Review