Editing Always Coming Home (section)

== Literary significance and criticism ==
It has been noted that ''Always Coming Home'' underscores Le Guin's long-standing [[anthropology|anthropological]] interests. The Valley of the Na [River] is modeled on the landscape of California's [[Napa County, California|Napa Valley]], where Le Guin spent her childhood when her family was not in Berkeley.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Bernardo |first1=Susan M. |last2=Murphy |first2=Graham J. |title=Ursula K. Le Guin: A Critical Companion |date=2006 |publisher=Greenwood |location=Westport, CT |isbn=9780313332258 |page=19}}</ref>

Like much of Le Guin's work, ''Always Coming Home'' follows [[Native American (U.S.)|Native American]] themes. According to [[Richard Erlich]],<ref>{{cite book |first1=Richard D. |last1=Erlich |chapter=Always Coming Home |title=Coyote's Song: The Teaching Stories of Ursula K. Le Guin |page=247 |publisher=Wildside Press |series=The Milford Series Popular Writers of Today |year=1997 |isbn=978-1-4344-5775-2 |issn=0163-2469 |url=http://www.sfra.org/Coyote/alwayshome.htm |access-date=2013-02-20 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120318004152/http://www.sfra.org/Coyote/alwayshome.htm |archive-date=2012-03-18 |url-status=dead }}</ref> "''Always Coming Home'' is a fictional retelling of much in [[Alfred L. Kroeber|A. L. Kroeber]]'s [Ursula's father] monumental ''Handbook of the Indians of California''." There are also some elements retrieved from her mother's ''[[The Inland Whale]]'' ([[Traditional narratives (Native California)|Traditional narratives of Native California]]), such as the importance of the number nine, and the map of the Na Valley which looks like the Ancient [[Yurok]] World.<ref>{{cite book |first1=Theodora |last1=Kroeber |title=[[The Inland Whale]] |location=Berkeley and Los Angeles |publisher=University of California Press |year=1963 |page=10}}</ref> There are also [[Taoist]] themes: the heyiya-if looks like the ''[[taijitu]]'', and its hollow center (the "hinge") is like the hub of the wheel as described in the ''[[Tao Te Ching#Emptiness|Tao Te Ching]]{{Broken anchor|date=2024-12-02|bot=User:Cewbot/log/20201008/configuration|target_link=Tao Te Ching#Emptiness|reason= The anchor (Emptiness) [[Special:Diff/819364781|has been deleted]].}}''. Le Guin had described herself "as an unconsistent Taoist and a consistent un-Christian".<ref>letter responding to the chapter about ''[[The Left Hand of Darkness]]'' in David Ketterer's book, ''New Worlds For Old: The Apocalyptic Imagination, Science Fiction, and American Literature'', see {{cite journal |first1=Ursula K. |last1=Le Guin |title=Ketterer on The Left Hand Of Darkness |journal=Science Fiction Studies |publisher=SF-TH |volume=2 |issue=6 |date=July 1975 |page=139 |url=http://www.depauw.edu/sfs/backissues/6/ketterer6forum.htm#leguin}}</ref>

One of its earliest reviews, by [[Samuel R. Delany]] in ''[[The New York Times]]'', called it "a slow, rich read... [Le Guin's] most satisfying text among a set of texts that have provided much imaginative pleasure"<ref>{{cite news |last1=Delany |first1=Samuel R. |title=PAPERBACKS; THE KESH IN SONG AND STORY |newspaper=The New York Times |date=29 September 1985 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1985/09/29/books/paperbacks-the-kesh-in-song-and-story.html |access-date=17 July 2018 |language=en}}</ref>

[[David Langford|Dave Langford]] reviewed ''Always Coming Home'' for ''[[White Dwarf (magazine)|White Dwarf]]'' #82, and stated that "Among many rich strangenesses it also includes a critique of its own improbabilities (as seen through twentieth-century eyes)."<ref name="WD82">{{cite journal  | last =Langford | first =Dave | author-link =David Langford | title =Critical Mass  | journal =[[White Dwarf (magazine)|White Dwarf]]  | issue =82  | pages =8   | publisher =[[Games Workshop]]  | date = October 1986  }}</ref>