Laughing Boy

Laughing Boy is a novel by Oliver La Farge, first published in 1929 and later awarded the 1930 Pulitzer Prize for the Novel.

Set in the American Southwest in the early 20th century, the story follows a young man raised within traditional ways who falls in love with a woman shaped by the assimilation pressures of government schooling and border-town life. Their relationship begins as an escape into intimacy and belonging, but quickly becomes a test of how much love can carry when two different worlds pull in opposite directions.

As the couple tries to build a life together, La Farge examines the cost of cultural dislocation, the tension between tradition and modern change, and the painful compromises demanded by survival. The novel’s tenderness is matched by an undercurrent of inevitability, as private choices collide with forces far larger than any one household.

Written with a close eye for landscape, craft, and community, the book aims for empathy rather than spectacle, inviting readers into a richly observed world while asking what is lost when identity is reshaped from the outside. It remains a haunting portrait of love under pressure and a serious reflection on belonging in a changing America.

"He was riding the hundred miles from T’o Tlakai to Tsé Lani to attend a dance, or rather, for the horse-racing that would come afterwards. The sun was hot and his belly was empty, but life moved in rhythm with his pony loping steadily as an engine down the miles."