DOG FLOWERS

A Navajo woman’s memoir of family, loss, and self-discovery.

Geller, a creative writing teacher, takes readers on two parallel journeys: that of her mother, Laureen, who left the Navajo reservation at age 19, “almost as soon as she could,” and her own, which begins with her notifying her sister Eileen that their mother was dying. Laureen had spent “the last six months of her life homeless, sleeping in a park in Lake Worth, Florida,” and the author traveled to visit her during her final days. After Laureen’s death, Geller collected her mother’s belongings, “packed into eight suitcases” and including “her diaries, her photos, and the letters she kept.” Using these personal items, the author expertly weaves her story into Laureen’s, comparing her memories with her mother's records. Geller traces her childhood, adoption by her grandmother, experiences with abuse, and troubled relationships with her sister and father. One of the primary themes here is the author’s complicated feelings about her Navajo identity, whether discussing how she “learned to twist my sorrow into a joke,” describing her family to her friends, or recounting her meeting with a Navajo jewelry maker. “I didn’t imagine she knew my mother’s family; I didn’t even imagine she cared,” writes Geller. “But I had reached the limits of my documentary sleuthing—the letters from my mother’s fam­ily were old, the addresses and phone numbers ancient—and this jeweler seemed like my last chance.” After that encounter, she was invited to a memorial for her mother on the reservation and began the process of connecting with her extended family and working to understand her own cultural identity. Geller's mix of archival research and personal memoir allows readers to see a refreshing variety of perspectives and layers, resulting in an eye-opening, moving narrative.

A deftly rendered, powerful story of family, grief, and the search for self.