On the Rez (review)

Book Reviews249 his moving comprehension that this fact will be another building block in his memory's assemblage, the way grief constructs the past for everyone in every time. Whistling a disconsolate tune outside of his mother's house, Goldbarth reaUzes that he's "a mouth harp. . . . Professor [Zeitgeist] is bent to me, is playing an intimate music." At many moments in Dark Waves and Light Matter I ponder the degree to which Goldbarth fictionalizes his nonfiction. The aforementioned conversation between Monroe and Burroughs, for example, is not documented. Certainly Goldbarth imagines this dialogue; where else does he invent? Goldbarth includes a list of sources in the afterword, though he coyly begs forgiveness for its incompleteness, citing an "unorganized, weU-intentioned but haphazard record-keeper's life."A reader can be forgiven for wondering what might remain in an Albert Goldbarth essay if the many weakly documented sources were removed, but such a reduction would be the equivalent of removing three quarters of a painter's color palette: the innumerable arcane books, newspaper accounts, and scholarly references in these essays are the tools with which Goldbarth prods the past and present to reveal the lines between the dots. And his wildly searching, seemingly haphazard connections work best in the ambitious essay form. Essays, PhiUip Lopate has recently written, "are both arguments and coUections, which exhibit conflicting impulses: on the one hand, to plead the case, like a good lawyer; on the other hand, to keep expanding and digressing, like a Whitmanesque poet, so as to take in more of the amusing, infuriating world" (TheArt ofthe Essay 1999, xi). Goldbarth amuses us with his far-flung searches, and repudiates the notion that history is a story told in a straight line. Reviewed byJoe Bonomo On the Rez by Ian Frazier Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2000 279 pages plus notes and index, cloth, $25.00 Recently a librarian gave me his definition of a good essay. "A good essay," he said, "makes me interested in something I didn't know I was interested in in the first place." Though we tend to limit essays lengthwise to something less than 7,000 words, aU of Ian Frazier's nonfiction books fit the librarian's definition. Who cares about the Great Plains, possibly the most 250Fourth Genre boring strip ofland in the world? Who cares about Mr. Frazier's Family history ? Who cares about the people holed away On the Rez in Pine Ridge, South Dakota? Isn't that why they're there in the first place? Because nobody cared? And yet we do care, and Frazier's books enjoy great success. His own involvement in the things he writes about, his focus on individuals and their stories, his alert description and masterful blending of impersonal history (dates, places, numbers) with real people and real lasting effects aU make for engaging reading and ignite sparks of interest where none existed before. On the Rez is at once personal, investigative, and historic. Frazier's ruminations and wanderings take him from his chüdhood interest in Indians and things Western, to a chance encounter with LeWar Lance, an Oglala Sioux, in NewYork City (Le first appeared in Great Plains), to a continuing friendship , to reservation visits and research leading to this book. The book is a testament to the Indian way oflife; it is a reminder ofthe importance ofthis first American people in the formation of the American consciousness and the American nation. Frazier shares his experience and learning as he makes his way from "wannabe" to "Little Brother," as he contemplates the great role of the Indian by focusing his writings on the Oglala Sioux. Interwoven with Frazier's own experiences visiting the Pine Badge reservation , we get statistical overviews of Indian populations and migrations, abbreviated tribal histories of the Oglala and others, and more recent history of American Indian Movement protests (including the weU-known clash with FBI agents atWounded Knee in 1973). He touches onAnheuserBusch , General Custer, missionary work, an instructive list of practical homespun Indian advice and sayings, a fascinating list of Indian names such as "Buttock on Both Ends," "Toby Shot to Pieces," "Carla Respects Nothing," and a sampUng of words...