Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

A Thief of Time by Tony Hillerman

1989; University of Nebraska Press; Volume: 23; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1353/wal.1989.0054

1948-7142

Barbara Waters,

American Literature and Culture

376 Western American Literature though the wife clings to her Catholic “superstitions.” Events around the hus­ band’s illness, however, provide a charming avenue for a role reversal. “What Is This Movie?” looks at the current love-lives of three genera­ tions of women; it is the mother (to the granddaughter’s delight) who lets the air out of the tires of her daughter’s faithless lover’s car. This, and “Pretend We’re French,” are the most high-spirited of the stories. The others, despite fast pace and brisk dialogue, share a vague sense ofdoom. Most include a death or a major illness. Though each story comes to some small but positive turn for the better, a melancholy mood prevails. Nevertheless,Freeman captures the intricacies offamilylife—singleparent households, new love, marriages in trouble or working things out, and the tension (and bonds) between parent and child. Her stories are good reading and indicate that, despite the trouble, families—in whatever form—are worth having. JANET L. JACOBSEN Scottsdale, Arizona A Thief of Time. By Tony Hillerman. (New York: Harper & Row, 1988. 209 pages, $15.95.) Kokopelli the Flute Player, symbolic protagonist of this absorbing mystery, pervades its pages as he does Indian myth. The humpbacked bearer of seeds usually journeys through Indian America’s rock art as a petroglyph repre­ senting fertility. In Hillerman’s novel, he becomes a universal symbol of affirmation and continuity. Fusing with Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn, the human protagonist, he also highlights aspects of the Navajo detective mirrored in other characters. Despondent over his wife’s death and about to retire, Leaphorn drifts lethargically into a search for Dr. Eleanor Friedman-Bernal, missing Jewish anthropologist. Through their pottery, she has been tracing the hypothetical route of Anasazi Indians who disappeared approximately 750 years ago from Chaco Canyon in northwest New Mexico. Interest in her theory and in the Old Ones’valuable pottery leads to several murders. Friedman-BernaPs shadow is seen metaphorically in the opening scene as the living spirit of Kokopelli, an affirmation of her work. She mirrors the familial emotional side of the grief-stricken Leaphorn, himself trained in anthropology. Affirming a wilderness existence away from society, an Anglo schizophrenic plays the flute like Kokopelli—seeming to represent both that aspect of Leaphorn temporarily unbalanced by grief and his independent self attuned to nature. In a brooding scene deep in a canyon while paddling down a body of water symbolizing the unconscious, Leaphorn finally becomes “Kokopelli, with his humped back full of sorrows.” His dual search within and without ends in affirmation of life. Harmoniously, Leaphorn’s commem­ oration of the dark past concludes with a ceremonial blessing of his life path. Reviews 377 The story’sslower psychological pace is unusual for this author. Some will find the murderer’s primary motive implausible. And development of female characters falls short of what women readers may desire. The “hyphenated” central female is absent or comatose after Chapter One; other token women are absent, blurred or ons-dimensional. Hillerman has created his own tradition of masterful storytelling, none­ theless. His delineation of Indian survivors in a rugged Southwestern land­ scape remains unique in the mystery genre. One Navajo compares her people to Picasso’s defiant, pregnant goat sculpture. “It’s starved, gaunt, bony, ugly. But look! It’s tough. It endures.” Readers unfamiliar with Chaco country will find themselves mesmerized by its ancient magic. BARBARA WATERS Taos, New Mexico Dan De Quille: Dives and Lazarus. Their Wanderings and Adventures in the Infernal Regions. Edited and Introduced by Lawrence I. Berkove. (Ann Arbor: Ardis, 1988. 141 pages, $19.95.) Dan De Quille, the pen name of William Wright (1829-98), is known as the Virginia City colleague of Mark Twain and author of The Big Bonanza, but there ismuch more where that came from, asthis well-made edition attests. Wright wrote an enormous amount of material—journalism, much potboiling fiction, and a few items aiming higher—for the Territorial Enterprise, other western newspapers, and some national magazines. There isa lot ofwriting still in manuscript at Berkeley’s Bancroft Library, which Lawrence Berkove is beginning to bring to light. Dives and Lazarus is the longest of the previously...