The work, overall, is truly astonishing. There are no easy truths, no fanciful resolutions, and a significant absence of drumming and dancing to a mythical happy ending. What Red Eagle has given us is an account of brutality, the longing for faith, and the slim hope of renewal. Voices of pain and struggle urge these narratives forward. Still, amazingly, the truths here ascend above all, like all truths, and what remains is a sharply-honed view of survival and letting go.
Red Earth is a book to be treasured.
One reading will not be easy, nor will it be enough. We recommend this work heartily, for the classroom and the home, and look forward to further efforts by Philip Red Eagle, a strong new voice in U.S. letters.