(Spoiler alert)
As I probably mentioned in my review of The Blessing Way last year, Tony Hillerman was my favorite mystery writer and one of my favorite authors. I believe I mentioned in that review how he wrote the Navajo Tribal Police (NTP) mysteries with main characters Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee. I recently learned that Hillerman died late last year. That’s too bad because it means I’ll eventually run out of his books to read. I think I currently have 4 more NTP novels and possibly 3-4 more of this other books to go. As is often the case I needed an audiobook to get some cleaning chores done and, as usual, the audiobook choices at the Covina Public Library were limited. I had listened to all the Hillerman mysteries on tape and CD that they had, but I noticed that they had Hillerman’s memoir, Seldom Disappointed, on CD. It was recorded by the author himself. I read some good reviews on amazon.com so I decided to give it a try.
Hillerman speaks with a slow, folksy Oklahoman accent. He’s not as good a reader as George Guidall, the reader of his mysteries on audiobook, but his personal commentary is better for the memoir. It was like he was actually talking to me, telling me his story. His life actually went through many stages before he even began his writing career. He did not grow up in New Mexico, Arizona, or Navajo country but in rural Oklahoma, home of the Patawatami Indians. He fought in World War II, studied journalism, worked in the newspaper business, worked in academia, and then started seriously writing novels in his 40s. He had quite a life and he wrote his memoir in 2001 so he still had seven more years and four more NTP novels after writing it.
For some reason I found the part about his childhood and youth the least interesting. That’s probably because he goes through so many changes (as we all do when we’re young) that it’s hard to follow. There isn’t much focus. It was interesting to learn that, when his parents married, his mother was 35 and his father was 47 and he was born five years later. So people had children at so-called “later” ages back in the 1920’s. There are some interesting anecdotes about games he played as a boy such as a game where they would run across a field. One boy would try to tackle the others and whoever he tackled would join him in the effort. The last boy left running won the game. He also describes “war” games with rubber band guns. He spends most of this time period in Sacred Heart, Oklahoma.
Hillerman’s account of his service in World War II is more interesting. He operates a mortar and also describes how he shoots a German soldier with a Colt pistol. His experience has some similarities to that of Captain Nathaniel Fick as described in One Bullet Away (see earlier review). Private Hillerman’s Charlie Company is always on the move, sleeping in foxholes, and enduring cold snow and rain. Higher command has its usual snafus and misinformation. Unlike Captain Fick in Afghanistan and Iraq, Hillerman and the other U.S. Army troops in France and Germany don’t get MREs for meals. They get three tiers of military rations. C-rations are the best, followed by the dreaded K-rations. The lowest are the D-bars: protein and meal bars that have to be boiled before they can be bitten and chewed properly. Going to the Army hospital yields the best treatment: hot food, clean cloths, etc. When Hillerman has a fever he is told by the medic that his temperature is only 102 and needs to be 103 to be sent to the hospital. The medic has him chain-smoke to bring his temperature up to the threshold.
There’s a humorous account of Hillerman’s stay in the Army hospital after he is badly wounded. He is maimed by a mine in a raid that is all but anticipated by the Germans. He nearly loses sight in both eyes and his foot and leg are damaged. He has many surgeries and gets to know many of his fellow wounded. They have this ritual before any of them has surgery where they conduct a mock wake for the patient to be operated on. They discussed the incompetence of army surgeons, claim dibs on the patient’s possessions, and compose a letter to his family describing his shortcomings. Sounds a bit morbid but I guess the humorous sarcasm helped maintain sanity.
It is the letters that Hillerman sends home from the war that lead to his career. His mother passes them along to a newspaper reporter in Oklahoma City who embellishes them and turns him into a local hero. When he returns home the reporter tells him that his letters show promise and he should consider writing as a career. Following her advice he goes to journalism school at Oklahoma State, graduates, and works for several newspapers in Oklahoma and later in New Mexico. It is during this time, I believe that he really learns how to write. He works as a crime reported for much of this time and that helps him later in writing mysteries. He also reports on politics. He describes how a common typographical error at the time was to have letters in a different font from the others. He works in a building with an art deco statue of an Indian outside whose name has this error. Therefore they call him Chief WrongFont and the building the WrongFont building. During this time he meets his future wife, also a student at OK State and they get married. They have one biological daughter and over time adopt five more children. Around that time the Pill wasn’t in wide use yet so there was a surplus of children for adoption. One of his adopted sons has an intolerance for both dairy (like me) and wheat. While in Santa Fe in the 1950’s he and his wife purchase a home for $9,100 and they are nervous about how much debt they had gotten into.
In the 1960’s Hillerman goes back to school at University of New Mexico (UNM) to get a masters in journalism. He describes how, “I was now a student. In 1963 neither the Civil Rights laws nor Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation covered that bottom of the barrel category of citizenship.” His masters thesis consists of stories from New Mexico’s history and is eventually published as The Great Taos Bank Robbery and Other Stories. While at UNM, Keen (sp?) Rafferty, the dean and founder of the school of journalism wants to make Hillerman his successor. To do so, Hillerman must get a doctorate, but he also must make a living so he’s hired as a special assistant to the UNM president. One task he’s given is to go down to Quito, Ecuador where UNM has an exchange program and bail some students out of jail. I’ve also been to Ecuador as an exchange student, though I never needed to be bailed out of jail. While there Hillerman visits a casino where he notices that the casino workers look the same as those at Binion’s in Las Vegas and the Mulan (sp?) in Manila.
Hillerman also mentions the Philippines in the large latter section of his memoir about his writing career. He does research for his book Finding Moon, another Non-NTP, novel by going to the Philippines. He flies there on Philippine Air Lines (PAL). He spends time at Palawan Prison, an island prison where the escapees always return because it’s an island. They can either try to make it in the jungle or return. Swimming is out of the question. I think Finding Moon actually takes place in Vietnam. His mentioning Finding Moon and his other non-NTP novels such as The Great Taos Bank Robbery and The Fly on the Wall makes me want to check them out sometime. The latter book is about a newspaper reporter and is a bit autobiographical. In the first edition of it he accidently has the main character go shoeless through the last few chapters.
It takes him several years to finish his first novel, The Blessing Way, in the late 1960’s. He writes most of it on a Radio Shack TR-81 computer. I didn’t know they had personal computers in the late 1960’s. In guess they weren’t very good because his nickname for it is the “Trash-81”. His writing career develops slowly. He gets interesting in Navajo culture when he’s much younger and just back from World War II. He sees two Navajos on their way to an Enemy Way. He gets interested and is allowed to attend so long as he “doesn’t get drunk or make a fool of himself”. Later he has many Navajo friends since he lives in Albuquerque and he’s always picking their brains. The Navajos find his books to be respectful of their culture. In the mid 1980’s he is given an award as a “Special Friend of the Dinaee (sp?)” The Dinaee is how the Navajos refer to themselves. Some reservation schools include his books in their required reading.
Hillerman is even included on a committee to decide what Indians will call themselves. They don’t like to be called Native Americans because they didn’t evolve from animals on the American continent. They came over from Asia, most likely over the “Land Bridge” between Eastern Russia and Alaska. Thus, they are immigrants just like every else in the American continent. They prefer to be called by their tribe name, but if you don’t know that, it’s fine to refer to them as “Indians”. One council member said he was glad Columbus wasn’t looking for Turkey when he discovered America.
Hillerman describes how his books have evolved over the years. Lt. Joe Leaphorn is originally only supposed to be a minor character in the first book but an editor suggests developing him further. He creates Sgt. Jim Chee because he wants a main character that is younger, less sophisticated, and more traditional than Leaphorn. When a fan at a book signing can’t tell the difference between Leaphorn and Chee, Hillerman includes both of them in his next book, Skinwalkers. His “breakout” book is A Thief of Time that’s also the first book I read by him. As I’ve mentioned, it was a Christmas gift from my brother at the recommendation of my grandfather. Hillerman describes how some of his books such as A Fly on the Wall and Hunting Badger are partially based on true events. He enjoys interacting with fans and has no plans to give up writing. His last novel, The Shape Shifter, came out in 2006, two years before his death.
Hillerman had quite a life that was much more than simply that of a mystery novelist. His recall of past memories is incredible, though he does admit some things he doesn’t remember such as names and exact sequences of events. I like how he put some of his books in context and talked about his non-NTP novels. I have four NTP novels left to read: People of Darkness (1980), The Ghostway (1980’s), The Fallen Man (1990’s) and The Shape Shifter (2006). Now I also have his non-NTP books: The Great Taos Bank Robbery, The Fly on the Wall, and Finding Moon. Hilerman mentions how he was lucky to have the life he had. When he was young his mother told him not to expect too much in life and you will seldom be disappointed. So far, none of his books have disappointed me.
As I probably mentioned in my review of The Blessing Way last year, Tony Hillerman was my favorite mystery writer and one of my favorite authors. I believe I mentioned in that review how he wrote the Navajo Tribal Police (NTP) mysteries with main characters Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee. I recently learned that Hillerman died late last year. That’s too bad because it means I’ll eventually run out of his books to read. I think I currently have 4 more NTP novels and possibly 3-4 more of this other books to go. As is often the case I needed an audiobook to get some cleaning chores done and, as usual, the audiobook choices at the Covina Public Library were limited. I had listened to all the Hillerman mysteries on tape and CD that they had, but I noticed that they had Hillerman’s memoir, Seldom Disappointed, on CD. It was recorded by the author himself. I read some good reviews on amazon.com so I decided to give it a try.
Hillerman speaks with a slow, folksy Oklahoman accent. He’s not as good a reader as George Guidall, the reader of his mysteries on audiobook, but his personal commentary is better for the memoir. It was like he was actually talking to me, telling me his story. His life actually went through many stages before he even began his writing career. He did not grow up in New Mexico, Arizona, or Navajo country but in rural Oklahoma, home of the Patawatami Indians. He fought in World War II, studied journalism, worked in the newspaper business, worked in academia, and then started seriously writing novels in his 40s. He had quite a life and he wrote his memoir in 2001 so he still had seven more years and four more NTP novels after writing it.
For some reason I found the part about his childhood and youth the least interesting. That’s probably because he goes through so many changes (as we all do when we’re young) that it’s hard to follow. There isn’t much focus. It was interesting to learn that, when his parents married, his mother was 35 and his father was 47 and he was born five years later. So people had children at so-called “later” ages back in the 1920’s. There are some interesting anecdotes about games he played as a boy such as a game where they would run across a field. One boy would try to tackle the others and whoever he tackled would join him in the effort. The last boy left running won the game. He also describes “war” games with rubber band guns. He spends most of this time period in Sacred Heart, Oklahoma.
Hillerman’s account of his service in World War II is more interesting. He operates a mortar and also describes how he shoots a German soldier with a Colt pistol. His experience has some similarities to that of Captain Nathaniel Fick as described in One Bullet Away (see earlier review). Private Hillerman’s Charlie Company is always on the move, sleeping in foxholes, and enduring cold snow and rain. Higher command has its usual snafus and misinformation. Unlike Captain Fick in Afghanistan and Iraq, Hillerman and the other U.S. Army troops in France and Germany don’t get MREs for meals. They get three tiers of military rations. C-rations are the best, followed by the dreaded K-rations. The lowest are the D-bars: protein and meal bars that have to be boiled before they can be bitten and chewed properly. Going to the Army hospital yields the best treatment: hot food, clean cloths, etc. When Hillerman has a fever he is told by the medic that his temperature is only 102 and needs to be 103 to be sent to the hospital. The medic has him chain-smoke to bring his temperature up to the threshold.
There’s a humorous account of Hillerman’s stay in the Army hospital after he is badly wounded. He is maimed by a mine in a raid that is all but anticipated by the Germans. He nearly loses sight in both eyes and his foot and leg are damaged. He has many surgeries and gets to know many of his fellow wounded. They have this ritual before any of them has surgery where they conduct a mock wake for the patient to be operated on. They discussed the incompetence of army surgeons, claim dibs on the patient’s possessions, and compose a letter to his family describing his shortcomings. Sounds a bit morbid but I guess the humorous sarcasm helped maintain sanity.
It is the letters that Hillerman sends home from the war that lead to his career. His mother passes them along to a newspaper reporter in Oklahoma City who embellishes them and turns him into a local hero. When he returns home the reporter tells him that his letters show promise and he should consider writing as a career. Following her advice he goes to journalism school at Oklahoma State, graduates, and works for several newspapers in Oklahoma and later in New Mexico. It is during this time, I believe that he really learns how to write. He works as a crime reported for much of this time and that helps him later in writing mysteries. He also reports on politics. He describes how a common typographical error at the time was to have letters in a different font from the others. He works in a building with an art deco statue of an Indian outside whose name has this error. Therefore they call him Chief WrongFont and the building the WrongFont building. During this time he meets his future wife, also a student at OK State and they get married. They have one biological daughter and over time adopt five more children. Around that time the Pill wasn’t in wide use yet so there was a surplus of children for adoption. One of his adopted sons has an intolerance for both dairy (like me) and wheat. While in Santa Fe in the 1950’s he and his wife purchase a home for $9,100 and they are nervous about how much debt they had gotten into.
In the 1960’s Hillerman goes back to school at University of New Mexico (UNM) to get a masters in journalism. He describes how, “I was now a student. In 1963 neither the Civil Rights laws nor Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation covered that bottom of the barrel category of citizenship.” His masters thesis consists of stories from New Mexico’s history and is eventually published as The Great Taos Bank Robbery and Other Stories. While at UNM, Keen (sp?) Rafferty, the dean and founder of the school of journalism wants to make Hillerman his successor. To do so, Hillerman must get a doctorate, but he also must make a living so he’s hired as a special assistant to the UNM president. One task he’s given is to go down to Quito, Ecuador where UNM has an exchange program and bail some students out of jail. I’ve also been to Ecuador as an exchange student, though I never needed to be bailed out of jail. While there Hillerman visits a casino where he notices that the casino workers look the same as those at Binion’s in Las Vegas and the Mulan (sp?) in Manila.
Hillerman also mentions the Philippines in the large latter section of his memoir about his writing career. He does research for his book Finding Moon, another Non-NTP, novel by going to the Philippines. He flies there on Philippine Air Lines (PAL). He spends time at Palawan Prison, an island prison where the escapees always return because it’s an island. They can either try to make it in the jungle or return. Swimming is out of the question. I think Finding Moon actually takes place in Vietnam. His mentioning Finding Moon and his other non-NTP novels such as The Great Taos Bank Robbery and The Fly on the Wall makes me want to check them out sometime. The latter book is about a newspaper reporter and is a bit autobiographical. In the first edition of it he accidently has the main character go shoeless through the last few chapters.
It takes him several years to finish his first novel, The Blessing Way, in the late 1960’s. He writes most of it on a Radio Shack TR-81 computer. I didn’t know they had personal computers in the late 1960’s. In guess they weren’t very good because his nickname for it is the “Trash-81”. His writing career develops slowly. He gets interesting in Navajo culture when he’s much younger and just back from World War II. He sees two Navajos on their way to an Enemy Way. He gets interested and is allowed to attend so long as he “doesn’t get drunk or make a fool of himself”. Later he has many Navajo friends since he lives in Albuquerque and he’s always picking their brains. The Navajos find his books to be respectful of their culture. In the mid 1980’s he is given an award as a “Special Friend of the Dinaee (sp?)” The Dinaee is how the Navajos refer to themselves. Some reservation schools include his books in their required reading.
Hillerman is even included on a committee to decide what Indians will call themselves. They don’t like to be called Native Americans because they didn’t evolve from animals on the American continent. They came over from Asia, most likely over the “Land Bridge” between Eastern Russia and Alaska. Thus, they are immigrants just like every else in the American continent. They prefer to be called by their tribe name, but if you don’t know that, it’s fine to refer to them as “Indians”. One council member said he was glad Columbus wasn’t looking for Turkey when he discovered America.
Hillerman describes how his books have evolved over the years. Lt. Joe Leaphorn is originally only supposed to be a minor character in the first book but an editor suggests developing him further. He creates Sgt. Jim Chee because he wants a main character that is younger, less sophisticated, and more traditional than Leaphorn. When a fan at a book signing can’t tell the difference between Leaphorn and Chee, Hillerman includes both of them in his next book, Skinwalkers. His “breakout” book is A Thief of Time that’s also the first book I read by him. As I’ve mentioned, it was a Christmas gift from my brother at the recommendation of my grandfather. Hillerman describes how some of his books such as A Fly on the Wall and Hunting Badger are partially based on true events. He enjoys interacting with fans and has no plans to give up writing. His last novel, The Shape Shifter, came out in 2006, two years before his death.
Hillerman had quite a life that was much more than simply that of a mystery novelist. His recall of past memories is incredible, though he does admit some things he doesn’t remember such as names and exact sequences of events. I like how he put some of his books in context and talked about his non-NTP novels. I have four NTP novels left to read: People of Darkness (1980), The Ghostway (1980’s), The Fallen Man (1990’s) and The Shape Shifter (2006). Now I also have his non-NTP books: The Great Taos Bank Robbery, The Fly on the Wall, and Finding Moon. Hilerman mentions how he was lucky to have the life he had. When he was young his mother told him not to expect too much in life and you will seldom be disappointed. So far, none of his books have disappointed me.
RSS Feed