Painted Turtle, Woman with Guitar - Softcover

Painted Turtle's story "is a victory; lyric over prosaic, female over male, writer over material.  Like Painted Turtle, Major deserves applause."--LOS ANGELES TIMES

The Zuni folksinger Painted Turtle first made her appearance in Clarence Major's award-winning and critically acclaimed novel, My amputations (1986).

In this simply told new work, Painted Turtle is at the center of a lyrical tale narrated by Baldy, a Navajo guitar player.  She tells of her struggles, from her childhood experiences living on the Zuni reservation to the time of her performances on the grimy cantina circuit throughout the American southwest.

Baldy's story is a quiet love story, a tale of wonderment.  But it is also a tale of a quest for self-realization--the quest of an unwed mother of twin boys who finds herself an outsider and the cause of conflict among her family, her clan, her tribe.  Against all odds, Painted Turtle struggles desperately to keep her integrity while remaining in touch with the deep rhythms of her heritage.  And through her music she seeks a cure for the spiritual sicknesses surround her.

This masterful novel is a testament not only to the strength of the southwestern Indian, but to the strength of human endurance and to an abiding faith in that endurance.