X-INDIAN CHRONICLES

Thomas M. Yeahpau (Kiowa) was introduced to the YA literature world in the anthology Night is Gone, Day is Still Coming (2003). Imagine a Native-American hip-hop version of Francesca Lia Block, with not-yet-fully-formed literary chops. In NDN City, Mausape and his friends Hoss, Brando and Maddog struggle to become men in the face of obstacles that are both myth- and man-made. The series of stories shifts from character to character and over the course of a decade, from Mausape’s midnight Fancy-Dance showdown, to his birth as a storyteller in a jail cell, where he betrays and acclaims his friend in a single act. Though fascinating, the narrative often smacks of a cheap trick, and it’s difficult to keep the main characters straight—as if they are all not completely born from Yeahpau’s ego, which is promising but untempered. Still, these stories are notable for their setting and voice; they are crude and tender, hideous and funny, resonant stories of disaffected youth and the way that clashing cultures twist their reality. (Fiction. YA)