Deluge

By: Albertine Strong

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Synopsis: Deluge is the story of three generations of a Native American family and the Ojibwe teachings and legends that define, animate, and give meaning to their lives. The narrator is Aja, storyteller, teacher, and survivor, whose life moves from a youth immersed in her Ojibwe heritage through her odyssey to a small Eastern college, to her journey back to her people. Her mesmerizing narrative weaves together mythic and present times as it brings to life not only one woman's path toward self-actualization but also the emotional complexities of several generations. The novel opens with the unlikely, dramatic, and romantic story of the meeting and courtship of Aja's grandparents--Peke, an Ojibwe, and Isabel, a daughter of Swedish immigrants--whose stormy marriage presages the course of many of the relationships in the book. All must weather the deluges of the Ojibwe trickster Wenebojo, whose constant antics both baptize and devastate. Ultimately, Wenebojo's mischievousness leads Aja back to her homeland to take up the mantle of family storyteller, a legacy left to her by her grandfather.