At some point in time during my youth my father gave me a tiny stack of paperbacks suggesting that it would be good if I read them. One of them was "Call It Courage", another was "Where the Red Fern Grows", and the third was this book. I proceeded to not read them and let them collect dust on my shelf.

Dozens of years later, I read "Call It Courage" with a student and loved it. I wondered about those other books my Dad had recommended and if they were as good.

"Where the Red Fern Grows" disappeared, but the copy of "The Light In The Forest" stayed with me, surviving several moves and book purges.

Last week I decided to finally pull it off the shelf and give it a go.

It was pretty good. The prose was lovely and Richter did an excellent job showing how racism can pollute a heart. I also totally believed the culture shock the main character feels when he switches from Indian life to Settler life.

There were a few times where the Indian voice felt very much like the formal-yet-stilted talk of a 1950s movie-Indian, and there were a few points where I thought Richer was nudging against noble savage clichés, but for a book done in 1953, I thought it fell on stereotypes a lot less than a book about Native Americans could.

Now... do I find a copy of "Where the Red Fern Grows" or wait another 20 years?