SOURCE: Andrews, Jennifer. “Making Associations.” Canadian Literature 168 (spring 2001): 151-52.

In the following excerpt, Andrews evaluates the strengths and weaknesses of Truth and Bright Water.

In an essay titled “Godzilla vs. Post-Colonial,” published in 1990, Thomas King proposed some alternative categories for discussing Native literature, ones that do not rely on the arrival of European settlers in the New World to mark the beginning of a distinctive literary tradition. Among the terms he offers to describe Native texts, King includes “associational” literature, which he uses to label the work of contemporary Native writers who depict Native communities. Rather than focusing on a non-Native society or the conflicts between Natives and non-Natives, these texts present the “daily intricacies and activities of Native life.” According to King, those who write associational literature usually reject the “climaxes and resolutions” that are valued by non-Natives. Instead, they emphasize the interactions of the community without...