The title of [Charles Larson's] pioneering study [American Indian Fiction] is somewhat misleading, for Larson intends a discussion of novels only, not shorter fiction as well. One suspects this restriction owes to the author's self-admittedly brief acquaintance with imaginative literature written by Native Americans. Unfortunately, the limitation leads the author into generalizations based upon but 16 works, from Simon Pokagon's Queen of the Woods (1899) to Leslie Silko's Ceremony (1977). If Larson had consulted, for example, Kenneth Rosen's collection of contemporary Indian stories, The Man to Send Rain Clouds, he would have found a dozen and half examples of how many gifted young Southwestern Indians approach the craft of fiction. The nihilism and despair which are overemphasized in this study could have been tempered by the affirmative notes struck in these other stories.

Not that Larson's critical study is superficial or unworthy of serious consideration…. On the positive side, American Indian...