A Mind Spread Out on the Ground

Amazon.com Review
Elliott’s honest, sometimes darkly funny personal stories illuminate how identity can be both a bludgeon and a backbone. The daughter of a white Catholic woman and a Haudenosaunee man, Elliott is at once part of both cultures and separate from them, crafting and navigating her sense of self as best she can. Thorny brambles block her path: her mother’s severe mental illness, deep prejudice against Natives, and poverty so extreme that Elliott lives with head lice from elementary school until she leaves home. Elliott’s magnetic writing and keen sense of self guides her and the reader through moments that are terrible, wonderful, and ultimately unforgettable.
—Adrian Liang, Amazon Book Review
Editors' pick: Elliott’s magnetic writing and keen sense of self guides her and the reader through moments that are terrible, wonderful, and ultimately unforgettable."—Adrian Liang, Amazon Editor