A Yellow Raft in Blue Water A Novel

Michael Dorris has crafted a fierce saga of three generations of Indian women, beset by hardships and torn by angry secrets, yet inextricably joined by the bonds of kinship. Starting in the present day and moving backward, the novel is told in the voices of the three women: fifteen-year-old part-black Rayona; her American Indian mother, Christine, consumed by tenderness and resentment toward those she loves; and the fierce and mysterious Ida, mother and grandmother whose haunting secrets, betrayals, and dreams echo through the years, braiding together the strands of the shared past. Michael Dorris's adult fiction includesThe Cloud ChamberandWorking Men. Among his nonfiction books arePaper TrailandThe Broken Chord, the latter of which won the National Book Critics Circle Award. ABooklistEditors' Choice in both the Adult and Young Adult categories Michael Dorris's widely acclaimed novel, deemed by many a contemporary classic, spans some forty years, and is set throughout the Pacific Northwest and the West, primarily on a Montana Indian reservation.A Yellow Raft in Blue Wateris a moving, deftly constructed, true-to-life saga of three generations of American Indian women, each beset by hardship, frustration, anger, and other innerand outerconflicts. However, the magic and brilliance of this book is that these women are also inextricably joined together by the indissoluble bonds of kinship. Moving backward in time, the novel is "told" to the reader by three distinct and unforgettable heroine-narrators, beginning with the granddaughter Rayona (or Ray, as she is commonly known). On her own at fifteen, Ray is lonely and vulnerable, yet also brave and resilient. She is tough and smart, and is desperately in search of roots and a homea search made all the more complicated by her mixed ancestry. (Her mother is American Indian and her absent father is Black.) Next comes Christine, Ray's mother. A bitter child of the reservation, Christine grew up a devout Catholic, believing inand waiting forthe end of the world. When such a cataclysm failed to materialize, she lost not only her faith but her grasp on existence itself. Later, she lost perhaps the only person she fully loved, her brother Lee. Christine is upset, naturally, at the awful breaks she keeps getting, but moreover she is painfully at odds with how life is supposed to be lived. And finally there is the fierce and mysterious Ida, Christine's stern mother and Ray's taciturn grandmother. Ida's haunting secrets, betrayals, and dreamswhich we do not encounter until the concluding chaptersecho through the years, enrichingA Yellow Raft in Blue Waterin ways both surprising and stirring. By novel's end, the shared past of these three women, a cycle of mystery, loss, and neglect, collides with the uncertain yet hopeful future to up0create a wise, profound, life-affirming story of familial endearment and individual enlightenment. "Three portraits of remarkable psychological density . . . each of these women speaks to us directly; and together, their voices form a chorus echoing through four decades of family history."The New York Times "Eloquent . . . much of the power ofYellow Raftlies in its strong and disparate voices, each of a female generation, entwined with the others and yet fighting for breath."The Boston Globe "An unforgettable portrait of Native Americans . . . a rich, multi-layered portrayal of complex events . . . the language is straight from the barrel, and the emotions conjured up are straight from the heart."Newsday "A marvel . . . crosses boundaries of sex, age, and culture in one leap and carries you forward

Michael Dorris’s adult fiction includes The Cloud Chamber, The Crown of Columbus, coauthored with Louise Erdrich, and the story collection Working Men. Among his nonfiction works are The Broken Cord, winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award, and a collection of essays, Paper Trail.

“Earns admiration from first page to last...Suspenseful, constantly gripping, original in its characters and settings, and finally, profoundly moving.” —People

“The writing here is powerful and deeply evocative of scene and place. Michael Dorris has created a set of characters so real that they seem to acquire lives of their own, almost, off the printed page.” —Mademoiselle

“Dazzling.” —San Francisco Chronicle

“Spellbinding.” —Los Angeles Times

“Memorable...Marvelous.” —The Washington Post Book World

“Vivid, intense...straight from the heart.” —Newsday (New York)