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I Heard the Owl Call My Name by Margaret…
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I Heard the Owl Call My Name (original 1967; edition 1980)

by Margaret Craven (Author)

Series: Owl Calls (1)

MembersReviewsPopularityAverage ratingMentions
2,179407,220 (3.88)127
This short novel, written decades ago, captured me. Ms. Craven evokes the landscape, the rain, and the stark choices facing the First Nations peoples, but her novel about a young priest's journey to a remote village and his efforts to understand and accompany them goes deeper than that. She gets at the challenges facing both the First Nations people and the descendants of the Europeans who tried to displace them. Fortunately, although it is still a struggle, Craven's pessimism now seems misplaced as the different nations work to save their languages, their culture, their independence. ( )
  nmele | Dec 1, 2020 |
English (39)  German (1)  All languages (40)
Showing 1-25 of 39 (next | show all)
Cayman 2024 - #4 - This was one of the random completely unknown books on my vast library shelves that i just grabbed and put in the box to read on our Caribbean vacation. Not even sure what prompted me to acquire it or when. But it was a very genuine, heartfelt story (one i just learned had actually been made into a movie!) of a preacher sent to take over an island parish in upper British Columbia of Indian villages....a seemingly impossible task for a slightly naive and lonely white man. But the captivating descriptions of life in these villages and on the water....and the spiritual traditions and cultural conflicts he grapples with as he tries to make a difference was unbelievably sweet to me.....sparse in a very good way......and startling at the end, which is always a plus. Very glad i brought it! Now to find the movie! ( )
  jeffome | Jan 27, 2024 |
This novella starts by giving you what the ending will be - so it's not a spoiler here...the young priest has a short time to live, but he's given charge of a indigenous village's church teachings. Unlike so many other non-fiction tales, this one has a high level of respect and love from nearly any of the representatives of the church, if not from all the white men the tribe deals with. It's a subdued, but enjoyable book that leads to quiet contemplation of life and meaning. ( )
  Sean191 | Oct 30, 2023 |
I liked this book. After living in an Alaskan village for a couple of years before reading this book, it gave me a lot of insight to young adults of our village. It also made me sad, realizing how lost native cultures have become. ( )
  Luzader | Oct 25, 2023 |
I read this one so long ago that I don't recall any details. ( )
  mykl-s | Aug 12, 2023 |
I guess they read this in high school or something. It is off the same list as A Death in the Family. This book is entertaining and seems to be much better than it actually is. It seems that because the protagonist lived with Native Americans, was a religious man and was ill, he learned some deep central truth. But I don't know what he learned exactly. The best I can make of it, is that everybody dies and you should be nice to other people, even though they are culturally different from you. The implication is that it is easy to say this, but you could only really learn it if you were isolated in British Columbia with Indians. As my people say, efshur. ( )
  markm2315 | Jul 1, 2023 |
Gentle and lyrical. ( )
  77nanci | Feb 11, 2023 |
OWL is a beautifully told and sad old Classic.

With some advances in Native American history, it offers many contrasts. ( )
  m.belljackson | Aug 20, 2022 |
Interesting story set in British Columbia. An Anglican minister living in a village of Native Indians, learning of their culture and becoming part of their community. ( )
  ElizabethCromb | Apr 4, 2022 |
An engrossing fable, told in a sparse almost poetic style, of an outsider in a Kwakiutl village in BC. I couldn't help thinking what we would think of a book written by an American after briefly visiting New Zealand's East Coast in the early '60s, about a sensitive and understanding Pākehā priest who moves there and wins over the local Māori. I have a feeling it would be seen today as HUGELY problematic. I wonder what the Kwakwaka'wakw people of Kingcome think of this book today? That's the review I'd like to read. ( )
  adzebill | Oct 5, 2021 |
This short novel, written decades ago, captured me. Ms. Craven evokes the landscape, the rain, and the stark choices facing the First Nations peoples, but her novel about a young priest's journey to a remote village and his efforts to understand and accompany them goes deeper than that. She gets at the challenges facing both the First Nations people and the descendants of the Europeans who tried to displace them. Fortunately, although it is still a struggle, Craven's pessimism now seems misplaced as the different nations work to save their languages, their culture, their independence. ( )
  nmele | Dec 1, 2020 |
Review and 50th anniversary retrospective by Richard J Mammana Jr on livingchurch.org, February 2018
https://livingchurch.org/2018/02/27/an-enduring-anglican-classic/ ( )
  stgcadbay | Oct 6, 2019 |
Mark Brian is the new vicar of an isolated Indian Village in British Columbia. As the story unfolds, the natives learn to trust him, as he is eager not just to serve their church, but to learn about them. He teaches himself their language, listens carefully to their stories and respects their customs. He becomes a part of the community. When the “owl calls his name” the vicar is truly mourned by the natives. Told at a time when the world is encroaching on the lives - for example, making laws they must obey, encouraging their children to leave to go to white schools to have better lives - the story of their quiet dignity and their generous spirit is eloquently told. ( )
  steller0707 | Aug 25, 2019 |
Touching story of a priest sent to live with a native American tribe, and how he came to be one with them. Not maudlin or melodramatic, just a gentle tale of friendship. ( )
  fuzzi | Jul 28, 2019 |
A co-worker's mother was clearing out some of her books and I snapped this one up. I remember reading it long ago and finding it incredibly moving. I found the following review on About.com
Written in the 1960's, this classic reflects that decade's acceptance of the demise of Native American culture. Today, we hope to preserve it. The book is about the clash of cultures, interwoven with the beauty of Native American life within nature's cycles. In spite of its preoccupation with death, the novel celebrates life. An article in the UK publication The Independent (Sept. 25, 1977) stated that Prince Andrew carries this book with him wherever he goes, which demonstrates a measure of the book's universal appeal.

Although Margaret Craven was born and worked in the United States, this book is set in an Indian reserve in British Columbia. ( )
  gypsysmom | Aug 24, 2017 |
Modern classic of Native American life. Amid the grandeur of the remote Pacific Northwest stands Kingcome, a village so ancient that, according to Kwakiutl myth, it was founded by the 2 brothers left on earth after the great flood. The Native Americans who still live there call it Quee, a place of such incredible natural richness that hunting and fishing remain a primary food source.
  jhawn | Jul 31, 2017 |
"She waited as if she had waited all her life, as if she were part of time itself, gently and patiently. Did she remember that in the old days the Indian mother of the Kwakiutl band who lost a child kicked the small body three times and said to it, 'Do not look back. Do not turn your head. Walk straight on. You are going to the land of the owl'?"

I was recommended this book for my Canada project. Although written by an American, the story is set in British Columbia and tells of a young vicar who is sent to live with a native tribe. The reason for this is not much of a spoiler because it is literally written on the first page: The vicar has been sent to this particular post because his superior learned that the vicar was terminally ill and hoped that his experience with the tribe would help him cope.

There is some inconsistency in the story about this because the vicar doesn't know he is ill - so, logically, the plot is not rock solid. However, there is more to the story than the vicar's impending death. Craven explores the conflicts that arise between generations, between civilisations, the impact and dependency if one looses touch with the other.

"On Sunday after church the young people returned to school. Many of the tribe went to the river's edge to see them off in the canoes. And the young people regretted going and wanted to go, and the elders wanted to keep them and were relieved when they went. The little dissent went with them, and the village was at peace."

I Heard the Owl Call My Name is a very gentle book, very unassuming, but the naturalist writing and the simplicity with which the story is told ensures that that the story gets the point across -

"You suffered with them, and now you are theirs, and nothing will be the same again."

This review was first posted on BookLikes. ( )
  BrokenTune | Aug 21, 2016 |
I didn't really get a lot out of this, but I'm sure surprised to see it on the Underrated List. It's famous and widely recommended. It was also, I dunno, spiritual or something, which would not work well for me. (I hope the compilers of this listopia are checking to see if the GR librarians need to combine editions.) ( )
  Cheryl_in_CC_NV | Jun 6, 2016 |
When I read the reviews that were prertty much sumed up as another book about how indian children abandoned their ancestors' ways and did things like the distrusted white man I didn't expect to like the book.
I'm sure I'm not doing much the same as my British, Scottish and Irish ancestors did. We don't have to, it's called progress.
It took a bit to get in to the rythm of the book but the story behind the vicar's actions was lovely. I would have loved to have known Mark (the vicar). I think this would be a good book for young people if it was a guided group reading. ( )
  GeneHunter | Mar 13, 2016 |
When I read the reviews that were prertty much sumed up as another book about how indian children abandoned their ancestors' ways and did things like the distrusted white man I didn't expect to like the book.
I'm sure I'm not doing much the same as my British, Scottish and Irish ancestors did. We don't have to, it's called progress.
It took a bit to get in to the rythm of the book but the story behind the vicar's actions was lovely. I would have loved to have known Mark (the vicar). I think this would be a good book for young people if it was a guided group reading. ( )
  GeneHunter | Mar 13, 2016 |
When I read the reviews that were prertty much sumed up as another book about how indian children abandoned their ancestors' ways and did things like the distrusted white man I didn't expect to like the book.
I'm sure I'm not doing much the same as my British, Scottish and Irish ancestors did. We don't have to, it's called progress.
It took a bit to get in to the rythm of the book but the story behind the vicar's actions was lovely. I would have loved to have known Mark (the vicar). I think this would be a good book for young people if it was a guided group reading. ( )
  GeneHunter | Mar 13, 2016 |
A lovely little tale, set among an isolated Indian tribe in the Pacific Northwest. Craven writes lyrically, poetically, and draws beautiful pictures of a wilderness that not many of us will ever see, let alone survive in. I did enjoy the setup of the tale - young idealistic vicar goes to stay among the Indians, presumably to guide and teach them, and ends up learning far more from them - but since I generally take exception to the invasion of Western religions into these ancient First People cultures, I squirmed a bit. There is no doubt that the tribe is helped by modern civilization - a "hospital boat" arrives periodically to administer to the sick or aging, and give vaccinations to the children - but it seems an irony that the "help" is rather forced upon them. There seems an overall acknowledgment by all authorities involved that the tribe's survival is ultimately doomed, and this aid seems designed to draw out the agony while compelling them to see the light of Christianity if they wish to live.

Aside from this underlying note of dissonance, the story, even as short as it is, manages to develop several key characters and their affect on the vicar, as they learn to understand and trust one another. Definitely worth a read. ( )
  terriks | Jan 1, 2016 |
Mark Brian, an Anglican priest, is sent to the Indian village of Kingcome in the wilds of British Columbia. Initially he is tolerated by the natives but after sharing their hunting and fishing expeditions, their festivals and funerals, their joys and sorrows, and showing much compassion and aid when emergencies occur, the they open their homes and lives to him. He got as close to them as a non-native is able.

One cold winter evening he heard the owl call his name. To the Indians this was a warning of death and in Mark's case it proved to be true. As he was preparing to return to the white man's world as his assignment was being terminated because of ill health, he was killed by an avalanche. The natives proved their appreciation of what he meant to them by organizing and conducting his funeral.

Even though a novel, this is a wonderful look at the West Coast native culture and the issues indigenous peoples face as they interact with the world outside. ( )
  lamour | Dec 22, 2015 |
Once in a while you���ll come across a book that will tug at your heart, and will continue to do so long after you���ve put it down. Margaret Craven���s novel, I Heard the Owl Call My Name, is such a book. Mark Brian is a young Anglican vicar sent to an isolated Native village in British Columbia���s Pacific Northwest. He finds a people struggling to keep their culture alive���the young have alienated themselves from their cultural heritage and are adopting a more modern life in the white society. Broken totems poles and burial grounds where the moss-covered bones of their ancestors are left unattended is all that is left of a once noble nation. The young vicar has unknowingly been diagnosed with a fatal disease���it is his journey through the land of the dying and the departed that he will earn the right to a funeral for a king.
A truly wonderful, heart-wrenching story, which will have a permanent place on my shelf of books to read over and over again.
( )
  BooksUncovered | Feb 17, 2015 |
This is one of my favourite books ( )
  fross | Jan 8, 2015 |
You get a hint of what's ahead from the first page where the bishop is discussing his vicar. Somehow I wound up reading this as I was heading north to Victoria, B.C. I only knew that the book was about Native American culture. Margaret Craven does a wonderful job bringing the native culture to life and characters that you care about. The tribal elder who is so relieved when Mark Brian helps clear a new burying ground, blesses it, and helps re-bury Kingcome's ancestors who due to storms have had their burial trees and boxes destroyed. Another tribal member gets drunk, sells a valuable mask and not he winds up disgraced but his extended family as well ( )
  lisa.schureman | Sep 8, 2014 |
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