The Journal of Antonio Montoya by Rick Collignon (review)

88 Western American Literature this story is a golden grail (money) of British tradition. The British grail, however, is unholy—implying that the Holy Grail of the Anglos is wrong for Native Americans. And so begins the profound irony of this book: the question Owens presents (“Whom does this serve?”) and the manner in which he answers it. Readers of Nightland will find far more wealth than just an enjoyable story. Owens thoroughly understands the history of Native American lit­ erature—a history that consistently asks the question, “Is there a place for Native American tradition in contemporary America?” In the past, answers to this question have tended to be accidental, implicit in the evo­ lution of Native American literature; Owens seems to make it the focus of his novel (his grail question). A Native American literature class would be incomplete without the likes of McNickle, Momaday, Vizenor, Silko, Erdrich, and Welch. It seems to me that a complete Native American literature class will also contain two of Owens’s most recent books: Other Destinies (his scholar­ ly essays) and either Sharpest Sight or Nightland. My choice is all three. DAVID E. HAILEY, JR. Utah State University The Journal of Antonio Montoya. By Rick Collignon. (Denver: MacMurray & Beck, 1996. 217 pages, $17.00.) In this short novel of northern New Mexico, struggling artist Ramona Montoya returns to her girlhood village of Guadalupe after her grandfa­ ther dies and leaves her the family adobe home. In the next dozen or so years Ramona captures Guadalupe in her paintings; yet she irritates the townspeople by refusing to be social—that is, make small talk at Felix’s Cafe and attend her fair share of the town’s seemingly countless funerals. Ramona’s self-imposed isolation abruptly ends with the death of her younger brother José and his wife Loretta in a car wreck. After the funer­ al Loretta’s ghost stops Ramona at the cemetery to insist that she raise lit­ tle José, Jr. Within hours Ramona’s grandparents return to “life” to help her out. “Magical realism” in the tradition of Gabriel García Márquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude, Rick Collignon’s The Journal of Antonio Montoya is both beautifully written and hard-edged. Readers simultane­ ously experience the unexplained fantastic and the earthily mundane on the same page and, at times, in the same paragraph or sentence. Reviews 89 Title character Antonio Montoya is a long-dead distant cousin of Ramona. In the mid-1920s Antonio was Guadalupe’s arbiter of disputes and local historian. Now, seventy years later, Antonio’s journal is unearthed in the ruins of the old town hall. In the journal’s dank pages Ramona comes to relive Guadalupe’s past and, not unsurprisingly, in pon­ dering it finds a meaningful place for herself in the current village’s life. Vivid descriptions of northern New Mexico coupled with a dozen or more well-drawn major and supporting characters prove Collignon’s two strongest points. Collignon knows the land and the people. However, both Publishers Weekly and the New York Times Book Review faulted The Journal of Antonio Montoya for its lack of plot. If the truth be told, they’re right. After the middle of the tale, you want something more than you’re getting, you want Collignon to push himself and his story harder and farther into the realm of literary magic. And because he doesn’t, you’re disappointed. Nonetheless, Rick Collignon’s first novel is a dazzling study in geo­ graphic place and characterization. JAMES B. HEMESATH Colorado Springs, Colorado Aspen Marooney. By Levi S. Peterson. (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1995. 216 pages, $15.95.) In his latest novel, Levi Peterson uses the tableau of a forty-year high school class reunion to explore the tension between how we would like to live our lives and how we actually do. Where, between passion and moral­ ity, do each of us exist and how comfortable are we in the world we have, over the years, created for ourselves and our loved ones? Have we been able to learn the lesson of life, which, according to Aspen, is “to get the better...