Yellow Bird
Ratings3
Average rating3.3
15
Ratings3
Average rating3.3
PULITZER PRIZE FINALIST • The gripping true story of a murder on an Indian reservation, and the unforgettable Arikara woman who becomes obsessed with solving it—an urgent work of literary journalism. “I don’t know a more complicated, original protagonist in literature than Lissa Yellow Bird, or a more dogged reporter in American journalism than Sierra Crane Murdoch.”—William Finnegan, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Barbarian Days In development as a Paramount+ original series WINNER OF THE OREGON BOOK AWARD • NOMINATED FOR THE EDGAR® AWARD • NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The New York Times Book Review • NPR • Publishers Weekly When Lissa Yellow Bird was released from prison in 2009, she found her home, the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation in North Dakota, transformed by the Bakken oil boom. In her absence, the landscape had been altered beyond recognition, her tribal government swayed by corporate interests, and her community burdened by a surge in violence and addiction. Three years later, when Lissa learned that a young white oil worker, Kristopher “KC” Clarke, had disappeared from his reservation worksite, she became particularly concerned. No one knew where Clarke had gone, and few people were actively looking for him. Yellow Bird traces Lissa’s steps as she obsessively hunts for clues to Clarke’s disappearance. She navigates two worlds—that of her own tribe, changed by its newfound wealth, and that of the non-Native oilmen, down on their luck, who have come to find work on the heels of the economic recession. Her pursuit of Clarke is also a pursuit of redemption, as Lissa atones for her own crimes and reckons with generations of trauma. Yellow Bird is an exquisitely written, masterfully reported story about a search for justice and a remarkable portrait of a complex woman who is smart, funny, eloquent, compassionate, and—when it serves her cause—manipulative. Drawing on eight years of immersive investigation, Sierra Crane Murdoch has produced a profound examination of the legacy of systematic violence inflicted on a tribal nation and a tale of extraordinary healing.
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Hard to figure out, categorize, or rate. Ostensibly a memoir of the titular Lissa Yellow Bird — a truly memorable, fascinating, haunting and haunted character — the book is both much more and somewhat less: the Oil Curse; Native American sovereignty and resiliency despite the centuries-long abuses of the U.S. government; corruption; obsession; the power of relationships; and of course murder most foul. Murdoch treated these all as co-themes, not side ones, lending them equal weight, each one captivating but overall a little too choppy for me: I found it hard to track the broader picture.
Memorable, though: I finished the book feeling admiration for Yellow Bird, her family, and even the (outsider) author. I do wish the author had placed the Author's Note, or crucial parts of it, as a foreword instead of at the end — but I'm not sure how that could be done. So I'll just offer a heads-up to potential readers: the author does address some of the discomfort you may feel while reading, and does so to my satisfaction.
