SOURCE: Welburn, Ron. Review of Medicine River and Green Grass, Running Water, by Thomas King. MELUS 21, no. 2 (summer 1996): 195-97.

In the following review, Welburn examines how King explores the Native American point of view in Medicine River and Green Grass, Running Water.

Leslie Silko's novel Ceremony opens with the wisdom that stories “are all we have to fight off illness and death.” Native American fictionists have abided by their traditions in storytelling at least since N. Scott Momaday's pivotal House Made of Dawn (1968) and certainly before that. With two dissimilar novels, Medicine River and Green Grass, Running Water, Thomas King reaffirms the inextricable influence of traditional narratives and characters on contemporary Native writing. Set in Alberta, Canada's Blackfeet country, both novels are about communities that need their individuals. Will of Medicine River and Eli Stands Alone of Green Grass, Running Water are the homecoming characters, though only Will...