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Portraits from Life

It seems that all semester we've been discussing in class how nice it is to get away from Beowulf or whatever and just read good stories. If this is the case, then Portraits from Life has got to be the favorite so far.

I'm thinking specifically of the story of Grey Owl:


Hi "real" Grey Owl!

The story of Grey Owl is framed by the story of the man traveling to draw the picture of his cabin. It takes all sorts of tangents (the bit about his childhood) like a real oral story would. There's breaks in the story's narration to go back to the present-time of the narrators, like what happens when real people are telling stories and you have to pause because the person you're talking to has to pee or something.

I may not know anything about Saskatchewan or Canada in general or who any of these people in the story are, but I know a good storytelling, and I think this qualifies.