Angela M is taking a break.'s Reviews > A Council of Dolls

While I reading this book, it was nominated for the National Book Award . I can see why. I’ve been thinking about this so much the last two days, I upped my rating. 4.5 stars rounded up.

“There is no true healing without remembering…”

A legacy of trauma as a result of brutality, abuse, loss, war, prejudice. A reflection of the Native American experience through three generations of Dakhota women and their dolls who are their companions and confidants who see and sense and speak . A child’s imagination or spirits? There are other spirit encounters with ancestors. There are visions. I just accepted them as part of the story.

Through six year old Sissy in 1960’s and Ethel, her black Thumbelina doll, through her mother Lillian in the 1930’s and her Shirley Temple doll named Mae and through Cora, her grandmother and her Native doll Winona, Power tells a haunting, powerful and important story. The Indian boarding school experience seems to have come to light more and more recently and it’s imperative that we not just remember, but bear witness to what happened to so many Native American children.The last part of this novel with stories of the three dolls was gutting, stunning actually. This is difficult to read, but it’s imperative to acknowledge this history.

The author in her note:
“While this book is a work of fiction and it characters a product of my imagination, some of the experiences depicted in these pages are inspired by stories my mother shared with me about what it was like growing up on the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation…”

“From earliest memory I've been familiar with the history of the devastating Indiar Boarding School experience. Both grandparents on my mother's side of the family attended the Carlisle Indian Industrial School.”

https://carlisleindianschoolproject.com/

I received a copy of this book from HarperCollins through Edelweiss.