SOURCE: Dunn, Carolyn. Review of Baptism of Desire. American Indian Culture and Research Journal 17, no. 3 (1993): 188-93.

In the following review, Dunn offers a critical overview of the poems contained in Baptism of Desire.

When classifying American Indian literature, literary critics seek to define just what is distinctly Indian about these writers. Most of the writers today come from varied tribal and nontribal backgrounds, so it is difficult to categorize Indian writers under that simple heading: Indian. Male writers tend to explore themes of ritualistic death and rebirth through a communion within the community; female writers tend to look outward in terms of the whole community, centering on female cyclical rituals of rebirth/death/regeneration and survival of their future generations. Broad themes of anger and isolation are common threads in the work of both male and female writers. But these questions arise: Is there a division between writers...