The Trickster: A Study in American Indian Mythology

by Paul Radin

Book Overview

The myth of the Trickster--ambiguous creator and destroyer, cheater and cheated, subhuman and superhuman--is one of the earliest and most universal expressions of mankind. Nowhere does it survive in... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0805203516
• Release Date: January 1988
• Publisher: Schocken
• Length: 211 Pages
• Weight: 0.67 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.0" x 0.5" x 5.2"

Customer Reviews

The trickster at about as strange as it can get

Broken Film: Poems Raul Radin's The Trickster presents one of the more refreshingling un-filtered American Indian story cycles. Given its age the language does tend to be a bit creaky and the pacing can be a bit slow for modern tastes. But very few readers will fail to have at least one or two well worn scales ripped from their eyes by shocks to either narrative expectation or standard decorum as they work their way through this amazingly fertile and amusing myth. It is best to treat the tellings in this volume as transcripts, and then to replay them in your imagination to amplify the humor and humanity that are sketched out in the linear renderings. There is great stuff here when you replay it in the windmills of your mind.

Used but new(ish)

Bought used for a very good price. Book in excellent condition. Came in mail in a matter of a few days.

Coyote on the couch

Although occasionally dry, the connection between myth and psych is touched on here - distinguishing this material from more conventional anthologies of Coyote/Trickster legends. I might suggest the more readable Joseph Campbell, and indeed there's a bit of a connection between the two writers, and Carl Jung.There's new material here, even if a little too intellectual for some. Some of the legends were new to me, and the valuable tidbits made it worth wading through. Jung's contribution is unique. In summary: It's a slower read, but worth the effort.

Try to cut the essays a little slack

The introduction and other essays in this book suffer greatly from 'primitive peoples' syndrome (it was written a few decades ago). Ignore this: the best part of the book is the middle, where a Winnebago trickster story plus a few others are included, supposedly in full. If you believe Radin's description of collecting the myths (got them from an informant, translated by two more informants and 'tidied up' by him), then they seem to be pretty much OK.. certainly nothing obvious has been left out, as self-mutilation, genitals, and jolly exploits with faeces are still in there. Draw your own conclusions.