TOTEM DREAM

by Alexander Knox ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 1973

Calvin Heggie, more-or-less discharged by his Hudson Bay Company boss, joins a menage a trois of two Indian women on the run from their husbands and a white former army scout-cum-farmer in the pre-Revolutionary War era. His idyllic Eden (of finally-fulfilled sexual desire) is abruptly broken by the unexplained pursuit of Indians, culminating in a tribal gathering headed by chiefs Longhair (the nephew of Pontiac) and Ottawa Walker, in which Calvin unwillingly abets the White Man's commercial ambitions to save his skin and acquire two nice young Indian wives. No simplistic defense of the Noble Savage, the novel places equal blame on both Indian greed and the so-called rational processes of the non-violent chiefs. They ridiculed the apocalyptic visions of their bloodthirsty brothers who correctly foresaw the death of their civilization in the first trading post. The author writes with understanding and respect of the first inhabitants of our country. A simply written and strangely engrossing novel about the death of the original American Dream.

Pub Date: March 1, 1973

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Viking

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1973

Categories: FICTION