Tomson Highway is one of Canada's foremost playwrights and novelists. In "Comparing Mythologies" he addresses a theme that is central to much of his work: the ways that Canadian culture today is shaped by the mixture of Aboriginal and Western mythologies. What interests him is not merely the differences between these cultures, but the ways that inherited beliefs enable Native communities to cope with the cultural and social challenges facing them today.

A popular approach to the subject, not an academic book. Tomson Highway is not an academic. He is an artist who uses artistic language.Readers are not obliged to read the whole volume. Each page is like an entry in an encyclopedia. All one has to do is leaf through the table of contents, choose an entry, and ignore all the rest or, rather, save it for another more propitious time.Each book description is a snapshot. Not only should the reader's curiosity be piqued to the point where he or she will want to buy the book seen in that snapshot, he will want to read more books written by the same author.Think of this book as "Tomson's Books," which would be this fascinating collection of writings by Native writers wherein this ridiculous Cree man from northern Manitoba chats warmly about and then, similar to Gilmour's Albums, the popular radio show that ran from 1957 to 1997 on CBC Radio hosted by the amiable Clyde Gilmour.

"In his first novel, Kiss of the Fur Queen, noted playwright Tomson Highway tells the story of two Cree brothers who were severely abused at a Catholic residential school, and he uses the full transformative power of magic and myth, as well as a compelling traditional novel plot, to restore to them their dignity and, by implication, that of their people."--"Toronto Globe and Mail"

"Highway's novel vibrates with the force of the collision of two cultures, the long history of a people living at one with nature, and the violence of their enforced conversion to Christianity. Emotionally complex, witty, symphonic and sad, Kiss of the Fur Queen is a remarkable novel, filled with blood, guts, life and love."--"Vancouver Sun"

"Speaking one language, I submit, is like living in a house with one window only..." From his legendary birth in a snow bank in northwestern Manitoba, through his metamorphosis to citizen-artist of the world, playwright, pianist, polyglot, storyteller, and irreverent disciple of the Trickster, Tomson Highway rides roughshod through the languages and communities that have shaped him. Cree, Dene, Latin, French, English, Spanish, and the universal language of music have opened windows and widened horizons in Highway's life. Readers who can hang on tight-Highway fans, culture mavens, cunning linguists, and fellow tricksters-will experience the profundity of Highway's humour, for as he says, "In Cree, you will laugh until you weep."