Elsie's Business (Paperback)

A stranger visits a small town to uncover the truth about the short, tragic life of a Native American woman in 1960s South Dakota.Born into poverty to a Dakota mother and a black father she never met, Elsie Roberts never fit in with the Native American or white communities. Cleaning houses and looking after her sick mother, Elsie's life takes a terrible turn one winter day when she is brutally raped and left for dead by four joyriding white teenagers. She beats the odds and regains consciousness to discover not only that her mother has died-but that the boys who hurt her were killed in a car wreck the very night of her attack. After she recovers, a local church intervenes and gets the vulnerable-seeming young woman a new job in a nearby town where she keeps to herself but seems to find some happiness doing beadwork and receiving visitors. Striking yet childlike, Elsie also has a strange effect on some of the local men, including the young Catholic priest she works for, and the rancher husband of a well-meaning white woman who befriends her. After Elsie is murdered while walking home one night, the gossiping about her only intensifies when the top two suspects in her slaying are found dead. Could it be that Elsie was really the seductive embodiment of the "Deer Woman," an avenging force in native legend? Or just a lost soul who never had a chance? And what about the mummified baby found in her cabin? Told via flashbacks to an unnamed narrator somehow connected to Elsie, this frequently sad story is most interesting when showing the intersection of modern and Native life, such as Elsie's attempts to tan her own deer hides using ancient methods.The blend of murder mystery and Native American legend can be intriguing, but Elsie, who never speaks for herself, remains an enigma, making it hard to see her as anything other than a victim. (Kirkus Reviews)

Beaten, raped, and left for dead at the side of a road on the Standing Rock Reservation, the young Elsie Roberts disappears into her self to revisit the haunts of her childhood and, perhaps, in the depths of her experience to uncover the deepest mystery of all. In Elsie's Business, Elsie's search through her own memories ultimately intersects with the search of a stranger who is seeking Elsie's story. A picture emerges of a poor child, half black and half Native, whose mother has barely eked out a living for the two of them by tanning deerskins and cleaning houses. Rebuilding her life in a different town as a housekeeper, tanner, and beader of moccasins and bags, much like her mother, the taciturn Elsie finds modest comfort and connections among the white people who employ and befriend her. But her peace is fleeting, for someone from her past or possibly her present would like to see her silenced completely. A mystery of mesmerizing suspense and sadness, Elsie's Business weaves the story of a ravaged woman into the traditional tales of her people to create a vivid sense of communities bound by storytelling and understanding and sundered by ignorance and silence. English at the University of Arizona.

General

Imprint:	Bison Books
Country of origin:	United States
Series:	Native Storiers: A Series of American Narratives
Release date:	October 2006
First published:	October 2006
Authors:	Frances Washburn
Dimensions:	216 x 140 x 12mm (L x W x T)
Format:	Paperback - Trade
Pages:	216
ISBN-13:	978-0-8032-9865-1
Categories:	Books > Fiction > General & literary fiction > Modern fiction Promotions
LSN:	0-8032-9865-X
Barcode:	9780803298651

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