Negative Positive
Title: Sacajawea Deserves Better
Review: The mythical status of Sacajawea is seductive indeed, and Diane Glancy attempts to fashion a novel that gives that myth a much needed rest, trying to get into the voice and experience of the "real" Sacajawea, but as always, language is the heart and soul of any recreation of historical voice, and here is where voice fails Glancy. The writing simply is not good enough. The second person narration makes the character a bit too literary, a bit to fashionable, leaving this reader bored by its simplistic syntax and unimaginative detail. Who knows what Sacajawea thought and dreamed! As Irish poet Eavan Boland suggests, one improvises when faced with this mystery. The improvisaiton here is uninspired. The fragments of journals from the expedition, rather than moving the novel along, impede its flow. This novel is considered experimental, I suppose, but the experiment fails. Why? Because the voice and language fail.
Is the review positive or negative? 