SOURCE: "Events Remain Contradictory," in The American Book Review, Vol. 14, No. 5, December, 1992–January, 1993, p. 9.

In the review below, Ruppert discusses Young Bear's focus on identity, voice, self-definition, and the process of becoming a writer in Black Eagle Child.

With this experimental autobiography, [Black Eagle Child: The Facepaint Narratives] Ray Young Bear steps confidently into an area of literary endeavor new to him, yet with some familiar touches. The free verse (almost blank verse) format is periodically juxtaposed to prose sections, verse with differing typefaces, and a variety of speaking voices. Through these competing elements emerge narratives from the lives of Edgar Bearchild and Ted Facepaint that poetically suggest the process of becoming a writer and finding a place in the world. While the author does allow other voices to speak, the text is not intended to be a portrait of a community; indeed, looked at from one angle...