BOOK REVIEW – D. H LAWRENCE – THE WOMAN WHO RODE AWAY
Story set in Mexico in the early 20th century, with an astonishing realistic look at Native American culture and some incredible description of the landscape of the region.
An un-named woman has followed her husband to Mexico where he runs a lucrative silver mining operation. However, World War One depletes the value of silver and the business goes through a lean period in which the couple have little to do. Losing faith in the work, her husband, and her religion, the woman decides to go off on a journey of exploration and to meet the Mexican Indians of an elusive tribe who are descended from the Aztecs. Her husband and child fail to talk her out of it and she rides away.
She meets the Indians who seem friendly enough, but won’t take orders from her. She realizes that while treating her well personally, they hold white people in contempt for the rape of their lands and that they plan to sacrifice her to their gods to save the land from her people. She slowly resigns herself to her doom, Her whole journey could be interpreted as self-sacrifice, rejection of materialism and possibly as a suicide.
A very human story, with the Indian tribe far removed from their depiction in early Hollywood movies. The sense of culture clash and the woman’s inability to understand the tribal rituals is very well handled. Lawrence at his finest and most unexpected. The description of their belief that white invaders stole the Sun from them, but that the Sun will burn us in its eagerness to return to its rightful place, is unforgettable. The woman wonders where she will be in the tribe’s cosmology but they tell her she is only like the space between the stars – in other words, she is nothing to them. Her sense of importance is destroyed and she accepts her fate with ease and dignity.
© Copyright. Arthur Chappell
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