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A Council of Dolls
First edition cover
AuthorMona Susan Power
Cover artist
LanguageEnglish
Genre
  • Indigenous
  • Literary
  • Cultural Heritage
  • Magical Realism
  • Historical / 20th Century / General
  • Coming of Age
  • Own Voices
  • Saga
[2]
Set in
PublisherMariner Books imprint of HarperCollins
Publication date
8 August 2023[2]
Publication placeUnited States
Media typePrinted novel
Pages308
Awards
ISBN9780063281097 hardcover
OCLC1340038999
813/54-dc23/eng/20220808
LC ClassPS3566.083578 C68 2023
Websitewww.monasusanpower.com/a-council-of-dolls

A Council of Dolls is a 2023 historical fiction novel about multiple generations of Yanktonai Dakota women grappling with the effects of settler colonialism, told partially through the point of view of their dolls. The novel is by Mona Susan Power (Standing Rock Sioux), PEN Award-winning author of several works related to Native identity, such as The Grass Dancer.[3] The book was released through Mariner Books August 2023. A Council of Dolls was longlisted for the 2023 National Book Award for Fiction.[4][5]

Plot summary

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Three generations of Dakota girls and their dolls live through family and societal change. The girls and dolls can talk to each other, and the dolls have powers to help the girls through the tragedies they face.[2]

Concept and creation

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A Council of Dolls was published nearly thirty years after the success of Mona Susan Power's debut novel The Grass Dancer. Power struggled with mental health and her writing practice following her debut.[6][7]

The novel is an expansion on an earlier story about dolls published in The Missouri Review called "Naming Ceremony".[8][9] "Naming Ceremony" was runner-up for the 2020 Jeffrey E. Smith Editors’ Prize[10][11] and a finalist for the 2019 Rick DeMarinis Short Story Prize.[12]

Power was guided by her family's own history with unwelcome government intervention into Native society and multigenerational experiences with Indian boarding schools. The novel is semi-autobiographical, with the characters and story based on herself, her own family members, and their family history. The character of Lillian is based on her mother, activist Susan Kelly Power, one of the founders of the American Indian Center in Chicago, Illinois. While writing another novel in 2014 entitled Harvard Indian Seance at Lizzie Borden Bed and Breakfast, Power felt compelled to tell the story of boarding school survivors. Weeks later, international news broke about child burials at Canadian boarding schools, which she says explained her need to tell boarding school stories. Power wrote about several generations of the family because she wanted readers to sympathize with the effects of their intergenerational trauma, rather than condemn them.[13] For Writer's Digest she explained: "My concern that the mother character will be judged and disliked for her woundedness, the dangers it creates, leads me to include two more generations of girls and their stories. As I write, I feel ancestors crowding into the small room. This is their story, too. I believe they support my efforts, cheer me on, as if my healing the past will help them set down their own sadness and regret."[14] At times writing the novel was so emotional she would cry.[15][16][7] "A Council of Dolls is my attempt to be part of a long overdue, ferociously suppressed healing ceremony."[17] (The book dedication reads "For my ancestors".)[18]

The novel was written during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown. The first draft was completed in four months following recovery from a broken arm in May 2021.[9][19] Power was completing copy-edits in 2022.[20]

Release

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Power held a launch party on publication day 8 August 2023 at the Birchbark Books event space Birchbark Bizhew in Minneapolis, Minnesota.[21] The first printing was 75,000 books.[22]

The cover art is by Dakota beadwork artist Holly Young (Standing Rock Sioux), who connected with Power while researching prominent historical beadworker Nellie Two Bears Gates (Standing Rock Sioux), who is Power's great-grandmother. Publisher Harper Collins chose an existing piece for A Council of Dolls: floral appliqué beadwork sewn onto blue velvet cloth in traditional Dakota style. Young also created a custom work for the cover of Diane Wilson's The Seed Keeper.[23][24]

Reception

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Overall reception was positive.[25] A starred review by Publishers Weekly calls it a "story of survival that shines brightly," and says Power reveals a "deep knowledge of Indigenous history" and the book is a "keen" and "wrenching" depiction of boarding schools.[26] Booklist describes the novel as a "heart-wrenching account of inherited trauma and resilience" that "is perceptively told."[27] Midwest Book Review "unreservedly recommend[s]" the book as a "masterpiece of literary elegance and emotional eloquence".[28] Kirkus Reviews had a mixed response to the book, saying it was "occasionally moving" but "steeped a little bit too long in sentimentality."[29]

Dakota author Gabrielle Tateyuskanskan of the Oceti Sakowin Writers Society praised A Council of Dolls for bringing to light the experiences of boarding school survivors and their descendants, and relates events in the book to recorded abuses at boarding schools raised in legal cases and academic studies.[30]

A Council of Dolls illustrates the horrible legacy and emotional toll of medical neglect, mental abuse, disease, malnourishment, use of child labor, sexual abuse, and physically abusive conditions that wakaneja [children] endured while attending boarding school. Due to adverse childhood experiences, many young people did not survive boarding school and their resting places are in marked and unmarked school graveyards across America. These children were never returned to their grieving families. In many cases the records of burial sites and their locations have been lost. Families then suffer as a result of those wakaneja who have disappeared. This story describes the results of 150 years of stress, anguish, and feelings of powerlessness of parents, the tiwahe [family] and the Oyate [nation] due to the loss of their cherished children to inhumane educational institutions. These schools were places where wakaneja should have been protected, educated and nurtured.

— Gabrielle Tateyuskanskan (Oceti Sakowin Writers Society), A Council of Dolls: A Novel by Mona Susan Power (review)[30]

Centers for the Book of the Library of Congress selected A Council of Dolls as one of Minnesota's "Great Reads for Adults".[31] The novel was featured in The New Yorker's Best Books of 2023. Good Housekeeping recommended it as part of their GH Book Club, and as sixth out of thirty "must-read" books by Native authors.[32][33][34] People and Washington Post also highlighted the novel.[35][36]

Awards

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A Council of Dolls was longlisted for the 2023 National Book Award for Fiction and the 2024 Carol Shields Prize for Fiction, and won the 2024 Minnesota Book Awards category for novels.[37][38][39][40][41] The novel won the woman writer category for the High Plains Book Awards, which honors books about the High Plains region in the U.S. and Canada.[42][43][44]

Editions

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A Council of Dolls is also available as an audiobook from HarperAudio, read by actress Isabella Star LaBlanc (Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate) (ISBN 9780063281127), and in ebook (ISBN 9780063281110) and large print format (ISBN 9798885796194).[2][28]

Minnesota State Services for the Blind read the book live on-air in a twelve part broadcast series starting May 28, 2024, part of their Radio Talking Book program, which communicates publications such as newspapers, magazines, and popular books via radio 24-hours a day.[45]

Further reading

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References

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  1. ^ Young, Holly (8 August 2023). "Holly Young's post, A quick moment to relish..." Facebook. Retrieved 5 November 2023.
  2. ^ a b c d "A Council of Dolls by Mona Susan Power". HarperCollins. Retrieved 14 October 2023.
  3. ^ "About". Mona Susan Power.
  4. ^ "National Book Awards Longlist 2023". The Washington Post. Retrieved 14 October 2023.
  5. ^ "A Council of Dolls". National Book Foundation. Retrieved 19 November 2023.
  6. ^ "All the books longlisted for the National Book Awards this year." Washingtonpost.com, 15 Sept. 2023, p. NA. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A765445489/GPS?u=wikipedia&sid=bookmark-GPS&xid=3826a18e. Accessed 23 Oct. 2024.
  7. ^ a b Nelson, Kate (20 November 2023). "Author Mona Susan Power Comes in From the Cold". The Cut. New York Magazine. Retrieved 21 November 2023.
  8. ^ "A Council of Dolls Reading Group Kit" (PDF). HarperCollins. Mariner Books. Retrieved 14 October 2023.
  9. ^ a b "Author of "A Council of Dolls" joins WCCO Saturday Morning's". CBS News Minnesota. CBS Broadcasting Inc. 19 August 2023. Retrieved 1 November 2023.
  10. ^ Geger, Annalisa; Jensen, Kaitlyn (22 December 2023). "An Interview with Mona Susan Power". The Missouri Review. University of Missouri. Retrieved 14 October 2023.
  11. ^ Power, Mona Susan (18 April 2023). "Naming Ceremony". The Missouri Review. Curators of the University of Missouri. Retrieved 4 November 2023.
  12. ^ Uschuk, Pamela, ed. (Spring 2019). "FINALISTS 2019 RICK DEMARINIS SHORT STORY PRIZE" (PDF). CUTTHROAT, A Journal of the Arts. 24 (1&2): 4. Retrieved November 3, 2024.
  13. ^ "Mona Susan Power (with Guest star Dr. Lindsey Claire Smith of NYU fame)". Reel Indigenous (Podcast). Retrieved July 25, 2024.
  14. ^ Power, Mona Susan (September–October 2024). "Animate Pages". Writer's Digest. Vol. 104, no. 5. Active Interest Media, Inc. p. 22 – via EBSCOhost.
  15. ^ "Book offers history through children's eyes". ICT News. 18 August 2023. Retrieved 14 October 2023.
  16. ^ Memmott, Carol (3 August 2023). "Review: Minneapolis writer explores the inanimate friends who save us in 'A Council of Dolls'". Star Tribune. Retrieved 2 November 2023.
  17. ^ Mona Susan Power (October 22, 2024). One Book, One Community: A Council of Dolls (video). Pablo Center at the Confluence, Eau Claire, Wisconsin: Chippewa Valley Book Festival, L.E. Philips Memorial Public Library. Event occurs at 32:25. Retrieved October 23, 2024. A Council of Dolls is my attempt to be part of a long overdue, ferociously suppressed healing ceremony.
  18. ^ Power, Mona Susan (2023). A Council of Dolls. New York: Mariner Books. ISBN 978-0-06-328109-7.
  19. ^ Greenblatt, Leah (7 August 2023). "After a Long and Painful Absence, Writing Her Way Home Again". The New York Times. Retrieved 2 November 2023.
  20. ^ "In The Field: Conversations With Our Contributors—Mona Susan Power". WaterStone Review. 12 September 2022. Retrieved 2 November 2023.
  21. ^ "Mona Susan Power: A Council of Dolls Publication Celebration". Eventbrite. Retrieved 2 November 2023.
  22. ^ Hoffert, Barbara (2023). "A Council of Dolls". Library Journal. 148 (3): 118. Retrieved October 23, 2024.
  23. ^ "A Council of Dolls Beadwork Print by Holly Young". Old Cedar Native Arts. Retrieved October 20, 2024.
  24. ^ "Holly Young". Mdewakanton: Dwellers of the Spirit Lake. August 25, 2020. Retrieved October 20, 2024.
  25. ^ "Book Marks reviews of A Council of Dolls by Mona Susan Power". Book Marks. August 8, 2023. Retrieved November 3, 2024.
  26. ^ Letosky, Rachel (August 2023). "A Council of Dolls". Publishers Weekly. Retrieved 14 October 2023.
  27. ^ Johnson, Sarah. "A Council of Dolls." Booklist, vol. 119, no. 21, 1 July 2023, p. 26. Gale In Context: Biography, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A760091459/GPS?u=wikipedia&sid=bookmark-GPS&xid=9041ee5f. Accessed 21 June 2024.
  28. ^ a b "A Council of Dolls." Internet Bookwatch, Sept. 2023, p. NA. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A768703817/GPS?u=wikipedia&sid=bookmark-GPS&xid=176faf08. Accessed 23 Oct. 2024.
  29. ^ "A COUNCIL OF DOLLS | Kirkus Reviews". Kirkus Reviews. 8 June 2023.
  30. ^ a b Tateyuskanskan, Gabrielle (Fall–Winter 2023). "A Council of Dolls: A Novel by Mona Susan Power (review)". Studies in American Indian Literatures. 35 (3–4). University of Nebraska Press: 84–86. doi:10.1353/ail.2023.a928908. ISSN 1548-9590. Retrieved June 20, 2024.
  31. ^ "Library of Congress Centers for the Book Choose 'Great Reads' Titles for Each State, Territory for 2024 National Book Festival." Targeted News Service, 17 May 2024, p. NA. Gale OneFile: News, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A794162835/GPS?u=wikipedia&sid=bookmark-GPS&xid=4217dda0. Accessed 23 Oct. 2024.
  32. ^ Schumer, Lizz (2 November 2023). "All of Our Feel-Good Book Club Reviews". Good Housekeeping. Hearst Magazine Media, Inc. Retrieved 2 November 2023.
  33. ^ "Celebrate the holidays with an Indigenous gift guide". ICT News. The Arena Group. 6 December 2023. Retrieved 19 December 2023.
  34. ^ Schumer, Lizz; Vincent, Sarah (September 30, 2024). "30 Must-Read Books by Native American and Indigenous Authors". Good Housekeeping. Retrieved October 12, 2024.
  35. ^ Nora Krug, Becky Meloan. Beach bag refill: Books to get you to the end of summer and beyond. Washington Post, The. 2023, 7AD. Accessed June 21, 2024. https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bwh&AN=wapo.06f4b27c-2bd3-11ee-a7a5-21b2a306e86e&site=eds-live&scope=site
  36. ^ Winik Movies M, Vanhoose B. Picks. People. 2023;100(9):27-31. Accessed June 21, 2024. https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=f6h&AN=169960703&site=eds-live&scope=site
  37. ^ "National Book Awards Longlist 2023". The Washington Post. Retrieved 14 October 2023.
  38. ^ "A Council of Dolls". National Book Foundation. Retrieved 19 November 2023.
  39. ^ "Minnesota Book Awards Winners & Finalists". The Friends of the Saint Paul Public Library. January 27, 2023. Retrieved May 15, 2024.
  40. ^ "2024 Longlist". Carol Shields Prize for Fiction. Retrieved April 9, 2024.
  41. ^ Sparber, Max (May 8, 2024). "Minnesota Book Awards announces 2024 winners". MPR News. American Public Media. Retrieved May 15, 2024.
  42. ^ "Finalists for the High Plains Book Awards diverse group". Daily Inter Lake. June 20, 2024. Retrieved June 20, 2024.
  43. ^ "About Us". High Plains Book Awards. Retrieved June 20, 2024.
  44. ^ "Winners". High Plains Book Awards. Retrieved October 12, 2024.
  45. ^ "RTB Radio News". State Services for the Blind. Minnesota State Employment and Economic Development. Retrieved June 20, 2024. Choice Reading. Monday – Friday 2:00 p.m. A Council of Dolls – Fiction by Mona Susan Power, 2023. A profoundly moving novel spanning three generations of Yanktonai Dakota women from the 19th century to the present day. Read by Pat Muir. 12 broadcasts; begins Tuesday, May 28.
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