[American Indian Fiction] is the first book-length study of fiction written by American Indians. Larson treats novels by twelve authors: Simon Pokagon, John M. Okison, John J. Mathews, D'Arcy McNickle, N. Scott Momaday, Dallas Chief Eagle, Hyemeyohsts Storm, Denton Bedford, George Pierre, James Welch, Leslie Marmon Silko, and Nasnaga. Though the book is titled American Indian Fiction, Larson discusses only novels, ignoring the fine short fiction of Simon Ortiz, Leslie Silko, and others for plodding discussions of the third-rate novels of Nasnaga, Pierre, Bedford, and Eagle. Larson gives some interesting readings of individual novels, but the study is marred by a curious and often imprecise conceptual frame.

This is nowhere more evident than in the introductory chapter in which the limits of the study are defined. The single criterion for inclusion of an author is whether he is "genuinely a Native American." This of course is a question...