A “biographical novel” is a tricky undertaking. The author must
hold to the facts while, at the same time, delve into the deeper truths of the
inner workings of the subject. Over-reliance on one or the other can tip the scales
too much and render the work lopsided and useless as either history or
literature.
Win Blevins strikes a perfect balance in Stone Song: A Novel of the Life of Crazy Horse. Extensive research
into the history and culture of the Lakota is evident throughout the book, as
is his plumbing the depths of the recorded facts about and passed-down memories
of Crazy Horse. It all comes together in a striking and engaging portrait of a
great man. His strengths and shortcomings play out in a life torn between his duty toward his people, and obedience to the spirit that guides him.
While the well-known events of Crazy Horse’s life are included,
such as his leadership at the battle at the Little Bighorn and other fights,
Blevins does not hang his story on the extravagant or waste the reader’s time
rehashing history. Instead, he concentrates on how those incidents interplay
with the more profound and mystical moments in the man’s life that, taken
together, reveal his character.
In the end, we see Crazy Horse as a human being much like, and
very different from, ourselves. And we come away reminded that, as Blevins
renders it in the Lakota language, mitakuye
oyasin—we are all related.
