TONY HILLERMAN---American Authors Challenge December 2020

SO, here it is, the last month of this awful year. Let's celebrate with the work of a master storyteller, Tony Hillerman.

Tony Hillerman is best known for his Joe Leaphorn/Jim Chee series of Southwestern mysteries set in the Four Corners area of New Mexico and Arizona, and featuring two Navajo Tribal Police detectives with contrasting views of life on and off the Reservation. He has also published several non-fiction works and two children’s books. Hillerman himself was not Native American, but he attended an Indian boarding school in Oklahoma through the elementary grades, and maintained close ties with the school and the Navajo, Hopi and Zuni communities throughout his life. He studied their history and traditions all his life as well. He stated that he submitted his work to Navajo friends to be vetted for authenticity, and often held classroom discussions with Native American adolescent students in which he asked their opinions of plot lines and character development in his novels.

Hillerman was a WWII combat veteran, who was wounded near the end of the war. He used his Army experiences to inform his fiction, and also contributed narrative to an acclaimed collection of war photography entitled Kilroy Was There; A GI’s War in Photographs. After being discharged from the Army, Hillerman married, and embarked on a career in journalism. He covered crime and politics for several newspapers in the American Southwest, eventually becoming the Editor of the Santa Fe New Mexican. In 1963, he made the decision to return to school, to obtain a degree in creative writing at the University of New Mexico, where he also joined the journalism faculty and taught for 20 years.

Hillerman’s fiction often incorporates the culture and history of American Indian tribes, including supernatural elements inherent in their belief systems. He has been subjected to occasional criticism for revealing aspects of those belief systems that some tribal members felt should not be shared with the outside world. By and large, however, Hillerman’s work has been accepted and respected by Native American readers and praised for its insight into cultural clashes and the conflicts of assimilation faced by his Indian characters.

Listen to him talk about his landscape and his writing habits.

Hillerman died in 2008, at the age of 83. His daughter, Anne, has followed in her father’s footsteps in many ways, including taking up the Leaphorn/Chee series where he left it. Three of Hillerman’s novels were adapted for TV as part of the PBS Mystery series, with Robert Redford as Executive Producer.

For more depth and detail on Hillerman’s life and work, The Tony Hillerman Portal website maintained by the University of New Mexico is a priceless resource.

I first read one of Hillerman's books twentysome years ago when We were visiting my sister and she had one of his novels sitting on an end table. I wish I could remember what it was but I can't. What I do remember is idly picking it up and reading the beginning and settling down in a chair and reading the rest of the evening while everyone else went about that visiting business. I finished it up the next morning. My wife has read almost all of his books since then so we have many here. I've read several of the Chee/Leaphorn books. I'm planning to read Finding Moon later this month.

>2 RBeffa: do you have one you'd recommend for a first-time Hillerman reader?

>3 fuzzi: I must defer to someone who has read Hillerman more recently, as well as more of him. There was a group read about 4-5 years ago of his series books but I didn't get further than the first two. I've probably read about 6 of his but the others were long ago.

>3 fuzzi: The first book in the Leaphorn/Chee series is The Blessing Way. That's where I'm going to start.

Sorry about the wonky links in >1 laytonwoman3rd:. I forgot that the "_"s don't travel properly from my word processing document to LT. Fixed now.

>3 fuzzi: >5 laytonwoman3rd:

Went back to re-read all the Tony and Anne Hillerman books from the Keep Shelf and found that The Blessing Way started off too dark for me...

...back to my favorites - Tony's A THIEF OF TIME and TALKING GOD.

Anne's SPIDER WOMAN'S DAUGHTER delves deeper into Navajo art
and delivers a compelling plot, one that Tony would likely have been proud to write!

HILLERMAN Country offers a non-fiction journey written by Tony,
with photographs by his brother, Barney Hillerman.

This is a not-to-be-missed tall soft cover book that enhances the Hillerman experience.

>5 laytonwoman3rd: >6 m.belljackson: thanks for the suggestions. I will check our used bookstore for availability.

I admit I'm not a fan of "dark" stuff...

I'll be starting with A Thief of Time. I've read a few others, but this one caught my eye at the top of the LT popularity list (I have to assume) for Hillerman. It sounds like my cup of coffee ("archeological excavations").

Karen O.

>6 m.belljackson: good news! Our used bookstore had a lot of Hillerman books, including two of Talking God, so I brought a copy home with me.

Have to visit the local new/used for a couple or three books for my swappee, and I'll see if they have any Hillerman novels. Hmm, The Blessing Way or A Thief of Time or Talking God. Got it. See if I still have it tomorrow. Heh.

>9 fuzzi: >10 weird_O:

The Blessing Way, Tony's Hillerman's first Leaphorn, I think,
didn't work for me because it started with a megadose of hunting scenes.

Two night ago. I started COYOTE WAITS, stopping before any scene that could
result in scary dreams, then read the entire book the next morning.
This featured a surprising Chee and an odd Leaphorn!

Last night, I started reading THE FALLEN MAN.
If you like mountain climbing and cattle rustling, you may enjoy it.
It is the only of Tony's books I've read that I skipped to the end after 30 pages.

I was successful in my quest for a Hillerman novel to read. A Thief of Time. I'll get through it by Dec. 31.

Got 2 mass market paperbacks, used, from an on-line seller. I'll be starting The Blessing Way in a day or two.

>13 laytonwoman3rd: I get a lot of my books through eBay. It's been my experience that if the book is not as described I have a better chance of getting a refund than through Amazon third-party sellers.

>14 fuzzi: Good to know. I've also ordered a lot of used books through eBay. I've been lucky, and have only had one issue with any used book from anywhere, and that was easily resolved. I do know some people have experience both new and used books from Amazon arriving damaged due to being mishandled in the packing/shipping process, and it seems to be localized to a particular warehouse.

>15 laytonwoman3rd: I've had Amazon 3rd party sellers ship a book that was NOT as described, such as a stained paperback when the description said "like new hardcover". (rolling eyes) Then I had to fight with them to get a refund due to their inability to deliver what was promised.

Ebay is easy, everyone wants good feedback.

Started reading Talking God last night. So far I am enjoying it.

Talking God by Tony Hillerman

This was my first Hillerman novel and I thoroughly enjoyed it. An activist Navajo wannabe gets arrested for graveyard robbery while an older man is found dead by the railroad tracks, without identifying information including teeth. The story had Native American aspects that I found interesting, the characters were believable, and the mystery plausible. I gave it an extra 1/2 star for keeping me up past my bedtime to finish the last 30 or so pages.

>18 fuzzi: *soft applause* I'm enjoying The Blessing Way, but it has a couple "first-in-the-series" weaknesses. The main character isn't very well developed, and his sections of the story are actually the least interesting part, so far.

ETA: Finished this one, and am looking forward to reading more Hillerman. I found this story quite engaging, but I really want to learn more about what happens to two characters other than Leaphorn!

>19 laytonwoman3rd: wait til you see what I got today at the used book store...

The Blessing Way
Dance Hall of the Dead
The Dark Wind
Listening Woman
The Tony Hillerman Companion

😁

>20 fuzzi: Well done! I can just picture multiple Hillerman titles on the paperback shelves of Too Many Books, in Roanoke, VA, the last time I visited there...none of them came home with me, unfortunately.

>20 fuzzi:

Great list - sure hope you still find my favorites:

A THIEF OF TIME
and
HILLERMAN COUNTRY: A Journey Through the Southwest with Tony Hillerman!

>21 laytonwoman3rd: thank you. There were a lot more but I only grabbed the first few in the same series.

>22 m.belljackson: thanks for the recommendations. I like to read series in order, but I'll get to your favorites, eventually.

I finished A Thief of Time and really liked it. I've read other Hillermans before, but this one really grabbed me, with its plot concerning the archeological legacy of the American Southwest. Loved the glimpse into cultures that I have so little knowledge of.

This book kept me on the edge, wanting to know what happened next--I love it when that happens. I'm all set to continue in the series, starting from the start. Great pick for the AAC!

Karen O.

Happy to report I've just finished the second Leaphorn outing, Dance Hall of the Dead, and enjoyed it a lot. Joe Leaphorn is taking shape as a person now, and I like him. He isn't a typical fictional detective hero for many reasons, not the least of which is that he doesn't manage to save the day every single time, and he isn't always getting shot, beat up or half-frozen to death (I'm looking at you Longmire). I'm going to spend a lot of time in his world, I think.

My Hillerman's are buried, and not available on Kindle heigh ho.

I've joined the Thief of Time party and started reading it last night. This will be a re-read for me. I first read it roughly 20+ years ago but I immediately recognized the story and know that it was one of my favorites.

>27 RBeffa: I finished up a re-read of A Thief of Time a couple days ago and really enjoyed it. It put me in the mood to read more Hillerman. I was planning on Steinbeck for the January AAC but I will probably do a Hillerman also.