Joy Harjo's Crazy Brave: A Journey of Self-Discovery and Empowerment

Rachel Tupponce: love this book! have always found her books interesting and definetly recommend.

United States on Nov 19, 2023

Jackie: The first time I read it, I read it quickly (it's a short book) and most of the imagery, symbolism, deep discussion and inquiry flew over my head. I knew I missed the book in it's whole-so I read it again. The second time I read it, I read it slowly, took notes, made connections. What a masterpiece. What a brilliant woman and writer. She is an inspiration and inspired through the words and sequence of life on her book.

United States on Jan 17, 2023

Melissa Mansfield: Joy Harjo is a master storyteller and poet. Her pages are salve for the soul. I couldn’t put this book down and ordered her latest memoir.

Canada on Apr 10, 2022

Pat Chopik: Thank you for sharing … awesome lady … want to read everything you’ve written!! She speaks the truth …

Canada on Mar 26, 2022

Sheila Gallagher @bethereloveution: Raw, poetic, and precious. She writes from her soul and it is heartbreakingly courageous and beautiful.

Canada on Oct 19, 2020

Philip Kienholz: I did like the honest tales of childhood and young adult life. Sometimes the mystical explanations were hard to follow, interspersed with everyday grit of the author's remarkable life. Now the US Poet Laurate, how will she grow and what will become of her voice within that yoke -- just asking. A more recent book's title is Conflict Resolution Among Holy Beings, or words to that effect, probably also essential to read.

Canada on Dec 26, 2019

Jar: At first, the Memoir by Joy Harjo seems slow and too simple. Then, her life began to change. From that point on, I never put "Crazy Brave" down. She gives a clear painting of the hardships any Native American woman might face. As she faces them, she dreams about a creative transformation in her life. Along the way, there is the life of the whole Creek, Cherokee and Irish family. There are the children and the men in this woman's life. We see what it is like for all of them to live with and apart the White man who is definitely in the majority and is always a part of their world. Each step away from her beginning molds her in to a braver female.

It is no shock when she almost loses her mind. Experiencing the abuses of an alcoholic, she finds herself trying to save a man who gets totally naked one night where he should not and one who climbs through a window to grab her in the dark. He has pulled down the electric wires to phone and lights. Again questions, should she keep trying to save him, rescuing him from his inner demons or is it time to save herself knowing he is a man and not a child.

Basically, every day she faces staggering questions. None of which are easy...

United States on Nov 08, 2019

Herman Padilla: This is such a good book I don't know where to begin. It makes me recall my own childhood and with the joy of a child I want to run up and share with someone my love of this book. I want to give a copy to my friends and read this again with my wife and read it to my daughter and have my son read it to me. I love her use of language and her life story is compelling, I have to read more from her
anyone who can write like this it's a waste of my time not to be reading her.

"Once the world was perfect, and we were happy in that world.
Then we took it for granted. Discontent began a small rumble in the earthly mind.
Then Doubt pushed through witty with its spiked head.
And once Doubt ruptured the web, all manner of demon thoughts jumped through.
We destroyed the world we had been given for inspiration, for life. Each stone of jealousy,
each stone of fear, greed, envy, and hatred, put out the light.
No one was without a stone in his or her hand.
There we were, right back where we had started.
We were bumping into each other in the dark.
And now we had no place to live, since we didn't know how to live with each other.
Then one of the stumbling...

United States on Jan 23, 2018

hypatia56: I learnt about the contemporary lives of native American women which was very interesting. I am Irish and the background sense of an ancient and enduring culture was what I was looking for, as this is what has always been missing for me in mainstream American culture, which comes across as shallow and colonial. The reverence for the landscape in the people who are the original nations is part of this story, and the sense of a resurgent nation and this inspiring woman needs to be widely read.

United Kingdom on Sep 04, 2016

Anne Mullins: Joy Harjo’s Crazy Brave, is a poignant and artistic memoir that provides readers with both lyrical and poetic lines and also recollections of historical substance. She combines beauty and truth in an elegant and effective way. Instead of dry, historical text, Harjo touches on difficult subjects such as Native American oppression, alcoholism, domestic abuse, and the feminist movement through her poetry and a first person account in a gentle tone, making these broad and daunting subjects pliable and relatable. She handles the idea of feminism and the oppression she faced as a Native female with particular grace. It is in her soft words that readers are led to the conclusion that Native American women were left behind in the feminist movement. Harjo depicts the trials of being both female and Native American and how the combination of the two was set aside and disregarded.
Growing up with an Alcoholic father and step father, Harjo experienced alcoholism and domestic abuse at a young age. The two male figures in her young life would get drunk and abuse her mother, her and her siblings. Alcoholism, being prevalent in Native American communities, the living situation Harjo grew up...

United States on Oct 11, 2014