WALKING THE CHOCTAW ROAD

A superb storyteller, Tingle has collected Choctaw tales from his great-grandfather’s account of the Trail of Tears to his own tale of a summer with his father. That summer the two—with contrasting ideas and thoughts—worked side-by-side and came to respect one another. The battle, Tingle says, went on for 20 more years until during the last ten when they became best friends. But the most gripping tale is Tingle’s account of his own youth and the day he realized his grandmother was blind, and the day years later when the family all gathered as his grandmother underwent one of the first eye-transplant surgeries. Poetic language and a compelling but quiet voice honor the Native American traditions for both the native and the non-native reader. This collection may need some advertising, but readers who discover it will come to appreciate the tales. (Short stories. 10-15)