Rez Road Follies: Canoes, Casinos, Computers, and Birch Bark Baskets

The Rez Road Follies captures Native American storyteller, poet, and performer Jim Northrup at his shrewdest and funniest. He tells of the key events of his own life: his childhood in a government boarding school, combat in Vietnam, confronting family tragedies, and becoming a grandfather-or, as he says, “almost an elder.” Northrup writes with equal candor about the reservation’s poverty and racism on one hand, and its kinship and traditions on the other. The Rez Road Follies, filled with keen observations and feisty opinions, is an entertaining feast with a core of hard-earned wisdom.