Pulitzer Prize Fiction Winner
Laughing Boy
by Oliver La Farge
Summary
In the high desert of the Navajo Nation, a young traditional silversmith named Laughing Boy falls in love with Slim Girl, whom years in white run boarding schools have displaced from her people. Their attempt to build a life together becomes a lyrical meditation on cultural rupture, assimilation, and the survival of indigenous identity. La Farge's anthropological background lends the novel a careful attention to ceremony, landscape, and language.
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Historical Context & Significance
La Farge was an anthropologist who had lived among the Navajo. Critics praised his novel as one of the first respectful literary portrayals of Native American life, though it has since drawn criticism for its ethnographic romanticization.