Critical Perspectives on Native American Fiction ed. by Richard F. Fleck (review)

Reviews 219 Many of the other stories here contain similarly stark images of people, particularly girls and women, who live unfulfilled, sometimes abused, and lonely lives. Some characters relish the West, but for most it seems to confine. MaryClearman Blewand KimBarnes, the editors ofthis anthology, state in their introduction that they wanted to draw together the voices of women writing about the American West in the last twentyyears. Theywant their book to “function as a whole,”not linearly or chronologically, but spatially, like the quilt on the book’s cover or the geography of the Rocky Mountain West. The “whole” characterized here is a story of ranch girls and women, images that resonate with Blew’s collection of short stories Runaway and her collection of personal essays AllBut the Waltz, and are in clear literary dialogue with western revisionist historians. Although I believe women’s experience in the Rocky Mountain West is more diverse than portrayed here, this collection isan important contribution to the literature of the American West. And there’sa lot to savor: Leslie Ryan’s “The Other Side of Fire,” the story of teaching survival to at-risk kids in the Great Basin,Judy Blunt’s poem “At the Stockman Bar, Where the Men Fall in Love, and the Women Just Fall,” and Alison Baker’s hilarious “How I Came West, and Why I Stayed,” to name a few. One of the anthology’s greatest strengths is the number of new authors it includes. I hope to see Christina Adam, Ruth McLaughlin, Mary Golden, Kim Barnes, and Leslie Ryan on the shelves ofmy local bookstore soon. Many of these authors—whether newly or frequently published—are ex­ perimenting with the personal essay. It’s difficult, for instance, to tell at first whether ChristinaAdam’s“Fires”or MaryGolden’s“ACoyote Is LopingAcross the Water”are fictions or personal essaysor both, a blurred line that maydrive some people crazy. Like the sow in the flood and the flash in the desert—one imagined and believed to be real, the other real and thought to be imagined— the lines between fiction and nonfiction blur. But that’snot a problem ofreading; it’sa problem of memory. LYNNCOTHERN GeorgeWashington University, Washington, D. C. CriticalPerspectivesonNativeAmericanFiction. Edited and Compiled byRichard F. Fleck.. (Washington, D. C.: Three Continents Press, 1993. 294 pages, $35.00/ $16.90.) In his CriticalPerspectivesonNativeAmericanFiction, Richard Fleckwrites that “the process of liberation from completely Eurocentric biases is far from com­ plete” and proceeds to introduce a collection of American Indian authors whose works significantly eclipse Eurocentric dogma. As a collection of critical essays, the text focuses upon criticism of a general background and selected 220 WesternAmerican Literature Native American authors including D’Arcy McNickle, Scott Momaday, Gerald Vizenor,James Welch, Leslie Marmon Silko, and Louise Erdrich. Reflecting the development of American Indian literary criticism, Fleck reprints several historically seminal contributions to the field authored by Priscilla Oaks, Charles Larson and Alan Velie, as well as an important contex­ tual world view essay contributed by Simon Ortiz. Included are many leading scholars such as Louis Owens, William Bevis,James Ruppert, Lawrence Evers, La Vonne Ruoff, Paula Gunn Allen, Gretchen Bataille, Linda Hogan, and Kathleen Sands. Despite the work of these many fine scholars, there is some unevenness across the spectrum ofcollected essays. Inclusion ofsomecompara­ tive criticism outside of Native America detracts from the theme of escaping Eurocentric bias and isalso outside the scope ofthis scholarship. In addressing specific authors, it is unfortunate that Fleck wasn’t more comprehensive in scope. Moreover, the selections chosen forJamesWelch solelyaddress Winterin theBlood and are all reprints, thereby ignoring his other significant and newer works. This criticism can in part be extended to the treatment of D’Arcy McNickle. Among the most exciting new criticism contributed to the volume is an essay byJanet St. Clair concerning mixed-blood women. Gretchen Bataille’s study of The Beet Queen should also be noted for its importance as a new contribution. By and large, Fleck has given us a significant contribution to the critical study of American Indian fiction and thereby advanced the liberation of the Native American worldviewfrom the dominant Eurocentric biases. JAYHANSFORD C. VEST Arizona State University West...