Tony Hillerman
I am reading the tenth Leaphorn-Chee novel of Tony Hillerman, a quite will known mystery writer, whose subject in a series of eighteen novels was the Navajo Tribal Police in Arizona/New Mexico - particularly Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee, an older and younger officer with unique abilities to solve crimes.
Great reads if you are looking for relaxing stories and some insight to the American Indian culture. I would start with "The Blessing Way" to get a taste for it, and continue through them as I am. We biligaana can learn much about our predecessors in this land - their life, beliefs and religion.
The below paragraph is one that caught my eye the other day. I have driven across the dessert many times and I though this caught the feel of the Southwest Indian country quite well!
"Janet's Toyota topped the long climb out of the San Juan Basin and earth sloped away to the south - empty, rolling gray-tan grassland with the black line of the highway receding toward the horizon like the mark of a ruling pen. Miles to the south, the sun reflected from the windshield of a northbound vehicle, a blink of brightness. Ship Rock rose like an oversized, free-form Gothic cathedral just to their right, miles away but looking close. Ten miles ahead Table Mesa sailed through its sea of buffalo grass, reminding Chee of the ultimate aircraft carrier. Across the highway from it, slanting sunlight illuminated the ragged black form of Barber Peak, a volcanic throat to geologists, a meeting place for witches in local lore."
From "Coyote Waits", tenth in a series of eighteen Leaphorn-Chee mysteries, Chapter 6.
Great reads if you are looking for relaxing stories and some insight to the American Indian culture. I would start with "The Blessing Way" to get a taste for it, and continue through them as I am. We biligaana can learn much about our predecessors in this land - their life, beliefs and religion.
The below paragraph is one that caught my eye the other day. I have driven across the dessert many times and I though this caught the feel of the Southwest Indian country quite well!
"Janet's Toyota topped the long climb out of the San Juan Basin and earth sloped away to the south - empty, rolling gray-tan grassland with the black line of the highway receding toward the horizon like the mark of a ruling pen. Miles to the south, the sun reflected from the windshield of a northbound vehicle, a blink of brightness. Ship Rock rose like an oversized, free-form Gothic cathedral just to their right, miles away but looking close. Ten miles ahead Table Mesa sailed through its sea of buffalo grass, reminding Chee of the ultimate aircraft carrier. Across the highway from it, slanting sunlight illuminated the ragged black form of Barber Peak, a volcanic throat to geologists, a meeting place for witches in local lore."
From "Coyote Waits", tenth in a series of eighteen Leaphorn-Chee mysteries, Chapter 6.
Labels: Writing
posted by Jim | 11:15 AM
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