Green Grass, Running Water

Green Grass, Running Water is a 1993 novel by Native-Canadian and Greek writer Thomas King. Set in a contemporary First Nations Blackfoot community in Alberta, Canada, the novel gained attention due to its unique use of structure, narrative, and the fusion of oral and written literary traditions. The novel is rife with humor and satire, particularly regarding Judeo-Christian beliefs as well as western government and society. Green Grass, Running Water was a finalist for 1993 Governor General's Award in Fiction. Green Grass, Running Water opens with an unknown narrator explaining "the... beginning," in which the trickster-god Coyote is present as well as the unknown narrator. Coyote has a dream which takes form and wakes Coyote up from his sleep. The dream thinks that it is very smart; indeed the dream thinks that it is god, but Coyote is only amused, labeling the dream as Dog, who gets everything backwards. Dog asks why there is water everywhere, surrounding the unknown narrator, Coyote, and him. At this, the unknown narrator begins to explain the escape of four Native American elders from a mental institution who are named Lone Ranger, Ishmael, Robinson Crusoe, and Hawkeye.
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