Reviews

"Parade"Kenn Harper has written a remarkable narrative.

"USA Today"Fascinating and sad...well-researched and simply told. "Give Me My Father's Body" is not only about cultural misunderstanding and scientific arrogance, but one man's life as an outsider and his search for a place to call home.

"The Boston Globe"A startling success.

"The Boston Globe"A startling success.

"Parade"

Kenn Harper has written a remarkable narrative.
"USA Today"

Fascinating and sad...well-researched and simply told. "Give Me My Father's Body" is not only about cultural misunderstanding and scientific arrogance, but one man's life as an outsider and his search for a place to call home.
"The Boston Globe"

A startling success.

"The Boston Globe"

A startling success.

Originally self-published in Greenland in 1986, this affecting work details the short, sad life of Minik, an orphaned Eskimo raised in America at the turn of the 20th century. On the surface, it is a tragic tale of a boy caught between two cultures, but more than that it is an expos‚ of the intellectual arrogance that permeated the race to explore the Arctic region during this period. In 1897, explorer Robert Peary brought Minik and five other Greenland Eskimos to New York to be studied as live "specimens" by the American Museum of Natural History. When four of them died, including Minik's father, Qisuk, their bodies were used for scientific research and kept for exhibit at the museum. Minik's accidental discovery of his father's remains, his unsuccessful attempts to have them returned to him, and the museum's refusal to acknowledge the truth or relinquish the bones reveal the inherent racism and pettiness of the scientific community. (Pressure created by the publication of this book finally caused the museum to release the remains in 1993.) Told in unembellished prose with heartbreaking excerpts from Minik's own writings, this powerful book is recommended for all public and academic libraries. [A foreword by Kevin Spacey is included.--Ed.]--Rose M. Cichy, Osterhout Free Lib., Wilkes-Barre, PA Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.