When Dolls Are More than Toys: Mona Susan Power’s Ocean County Library Virtual Author Talk

TOMS RIVER – Mona Susan Power’s research of Native American cultures and rights bring gravitas to her new novel A Council of Dolls. The significance of these emotional support objects in Native American life are the core of her book and of her Ocean County Library Virtual Author Talk, 7 PM Wednesday, November 20.

A Council of Dolls, longlisted for a National Book Award, is available in print, audiobook, eAudiobook and digital versions at the Ocean County Library, along with her PEN/Hemingway Prize winner The Grass Dancer.

It follows the lives of three women in vastly different eras and circumstances, partly told through the dolls that provided companionship and comfort:

• Sissy, born 1961, whose doll Ethel smooths her a contentious family life, whispers wisdom and might just be credited with saving her life. 
• Lillian, born 1925, whose doll Mae helps her cope with being far from home against her will in an oppressive “Indian boarding school.” 
• Cora, born 1888, whose doll Winona’s spirit lingers and fuels her defiance after it was set afire by the people who separated her from her family.

An enrolled member of the Standing Rock Sioux Nation who resides in Minnesota, Mona Susan Power is a graduate of Harvard and the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop.

Please register at https://libraryc.org/theoceancountylibrary to attend this free program, to view the upcoming schedule, and to view previous talks. Registrants may submit questions for the author at signup and will receive links to the program by email.

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