House Made of Dawn

I have been teaching this book for 10 years in my course Cultural Diversity in Contemporary American Fiction. I will be using it this fall in my course Cultural Anthropology. The shifts of time and location have made the work difficult for most students, most of whom expect straighforward narrative in a novel; it takes them a while to latch onto the clash of cultures that is the center of the novel. At that point most have found the effort worthwhile. Did Momaday's ethnic background influence the choice of this novel for the Pulitzer Prize? Quite possibly.But that does not make it a less worthy selection. A look back at previous winners suggests that often the national mood at the moment has impacted the process. I highly recommend this novel for the thoughtful reader.

"House Made of Dawn," by N. Scott Momaday, is an extraordinary work of American literature. In this book Momaday tells the story of Abel, a Native American whose life journey takes him from the rural world of his ancestors to the harsh urban environment of an American city. Along the way Momaday creates passages of great pain, beauty, and wonder.Consider the book's opening lines: "Dypaloh. There was a house made of dawn. It was made of pollen and of rain, and the land was very old and everlasting. There were many colors on the hills, and the plain was bright with different colored clays and sands." Prose like this gives the book a timeless, mythic flavor, and is stunningly complemented by naturalistic passages that explore such visceral topics as violence, sexual ecstasy, and alcohol abuse.Momaday superbly evokes the people, animals, and geography of the rural West. His book also explores the significance of both oral and written cultural traditions. The book features one of the most intriguing characters in 20th century American fiction: The Rev. J.B.B. Tosameh -- "orator, physician, Priest of the Sun, son of Hummingbird" -- in whose character Momaday explores the collision between Christianity and Native American religious traditions."House Made of Dawn" has a somewhat fragmented structure. Like William Faulkner, Momaday expects the reader to do some work in assembling the greater story. But such work is rewarding. Recommended as companion texts: "A Son of the Forest and Other Writings," by groundbreaking Pequot Indian author William Apess; and "Mohawk Trail," by Beth Brant, a contemporary author of the Bay of Quinte Mohawk people.

After reading this powerful novel I went to the Internet and read atranslation of The Navajo Night Chant - House Made of Dawn. This canpresent a kind of framework for reading the book as the story of Abelis not a straight forward narrative, but an elegiac chant on oneNative American's cultural alienation and cycle of self-destructivebehaviours. The same spiritual connection to landscape found in theNavajo Night Chant is displayed by Momaday in this novel, so thatplace is intimately connected with identity and Abel's dislocationfrom his place has as much to do with his alienation as his experiencein war. Momaday's feeling for his main character, for landscape andfor language is deeply moving, making this book a rewarding andlayered experience.

Momaday's first of two novels (so far!) show any aspiring writer what to aim for. From his opening page to the last, we are treated with an amalgamation of myth, landscape, character and plot, clearly showing how 'author as mythmaker' can be accomplished without being ovedone. I have read this book several times and cannot get over how the land becomes more than setting; it becomes character. The intimate relationship that Momaday has with the southwest is obvious here, and should be a lesson to others who dare write about such sacred places in more superficial ways. Momaday is one of the countries leading writers, the first American Indian to win the Pulitzer prize, and a brilliant scholar. Anyone who has difficulty reading this book, as stated in other reviews here, clearly needs to reassess what one wants from literary fiction. This is not beach literature; he wants you to think and learn, besides understand. His novel structure is fantastic and asks the reader to go back, reread and comprehend. His descriptions of landscapes alone are worthy of many readings of this terrific novel.

The writing style is complex and heavily symbolic, but once one opens up and lets the words flow in - boom it hits you like a bomb!!! This is a beautiful book, full of the feelings, thoughts and reality of not only Native Americans but all those affected by the intrusion of a 'different' system. A system of thoughts, ideas and ways that fracture and destroy.It's also about the state in which one survives this intrusion.