The Ancient Child By N. Scott Momaday
By N. Scott Momaday
Grey, a 19-year-old girl destined to become a medicine woman contacts Locke Setman (Set), an artist in his 40s, after his grandmother dies, telling him that she is giving him the medicine left to him by his grandmother. Set, a famous artist, attends his grandmother's funeral and meets those who lived with her and surrounded her before returning to his artist life. Set had been adopted when he was young, and finds out his birth father has died. He returns to the Kiowa on an inner journey to live with Grey in a hogan where he tries to heal and falls in love with her. Interspersed with this narrative are the boy who turns into a bear myth, Grey's fantasies about Billy the Kid, and other characters who give the story its color.
Like Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko, The Ancient Child is about a man who needs to go outside of his regular life and return to his roots, his ancestral traditions, to reconnect with the person he is supposed to be. A young man finding guidance at the hands of a medicine person and the under the eye and care of a female in the tradition. In the end Set becomes the boy in the myth, turning into a bear.
This book seemed somewhat disjointed. Like Ceremony, it interspersed the myth within the narrative, though I feel like it was more readable in this book and didn't inhibit my understanding of the story, but enhanced it. However, the other elements just seemed like a mixture that had no place together. Still, the prose was good, the characters enjoyable. My favorite parts of the story were Grey's interludes with Billy the Kid. I wish the book had been about that. They were the most entertaining parts. Set's story was far less interesting.
I'm giving The Ancient Child 3 stars. I'd be interested to read more form Momaday.
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