SOURCE: A review of The Power of Horses and Other Stories, in Kirkus Reviews, Vol. LVIII, No. 10, May 15, 1990, pp. 670-71.

In the following unfavorable review of The Power of Horses, the critic contends that the characters are stereotypical, the prose is flat, and the stories "seem more like lectures."

This first collection of short fiction by a Native American raised on a South Dakota reservation displays all the faults and none of the strengths of much ethnic literature—it's predictable, preachy, and full of cant phrases. Characters of whatever ethnicity seem mere caricature in Cook-Lynn's flat prose.

A prologue alerts us to the theme of these 15 pieces—the importance and power of the past and its myths for the Dakotapi of the Upper Plains. Unfortunately, Cook-Lynn spends more time throughout telling us this than suggesting it in her narratives. Many of these anecdotal stories, in fact, seem more...