Larry Spotted Crow Mann's groundbreaking novel, The Mourning Road to Thanksgiving, challenges the notion of a holiday deeply ingrained in American tradition and folklore both from a historical standpoint as well as cultural. The story is told through the experiences a Native American Nipmuc man who fights to change the future while coming to terms with his own troubled past and the acceptance of his family. For Neempau, the ultimate remedy is to challenge and end one of America's favorite holidays: Thanksgiving.
His heart-wrenching, daring, and sometimes humorous journey not only exposes the innermost core of Native American struggles, but also the complexities of the notion of race, tradition, and identity. This brilliant story transcends cultural differences and inspires new thinking while taking readers beyond the boundaries of the past.
It's these very complicated issues that contemporary Native families struggle with for a holiday that most take for granted as a time for feasting and football. While this is a novel that highlights the contradiction of the history and tradition of two cultures, in no way does it exclude either from the well-told tale that Larry spins about one family's journey to come to terms with Thanksgiving. The Mourning Road to Thanksgiving is an engaging read-sometimes deadly serious, sometimes poignant, sometimes humorous, always relevant.
