The First Eagle by Tony Hillerman, and Bad Medicine by Ron Querry (review)

B o o k r e v i e w s 2 5 5 and whose destiny ultimately affirms hope in the midst of terrible loss. In the context of John Sutter’s fort, the first section of the novel, “Pedro and Maria,” establishes the primary story thread in the developing relationship between Maria, a Miwok Indian, and Pedro Valdez, a Mexican soldier, part Spanish and part Indian. The second section of the novel focuses on Elitha Donner, a fourteen-year-old survivor of the ill-fated Donner party, and her unfortunate marriage to Perry McCoon. The lives of these characters and many others are intertwined and persuasively por­ trayed in a sprawling narrative that draws the reader into the suspenseful drama and the very human experiences of individuals who were living what has become California history. I found the book addictive— I had to keep reading but was sorry to finish it because I didn’t want to leave these char­ acters I had come to know and care about. This is truly a multicultural, multiethnic portrayal of the California gold rush period. Yet I would not label it “politically correct.” Rather, it seems that the author’s vision was bom of a personal experience with the land, the places, the artifacts, with details then provided through historical research and interviews with descendants of the novel’s characters. The result is a work with the ring of truth, peopled with characters who come alive from the page. The author explores power in many forms. Ultimately, it is the power per­ sonified in Indian mythology which frames the narrative and inspires hope. Readers wanting to delve into California’s gold rush legacy have many choices, including Michael Kowalewski’s excellent collection of historical accounts in Gold Rush: A Literary Exploration (reviewed in WAL 33.3: 308-9). Naida West’s novel not only brings life to authentic historical accounts but imaginatively gives voice to those who have left no written record but whose story is equally important and must be heard. If not available through local booksellers, copies can be obtained ($23.00 postpaid) from the publisher at P.O. Box 809, Rancho Murieta, CA 95683. The First Eagle. By Tony Hillerman. New York: HarperCollins, 1998. 278 pages, $25.00. Bad Medicine. By Ron Querry. New York: Bantam, 1998. 368 pages, $23.95/$ 10.95. Reviewed by Robert Murray Davis University of Oklahoma Most people who read Tony Hillerman’s novel— and that will be a great many—will have done so long before this review appears, and most of those will be familiar with the setting, the major characters, and the relationships among them before they turn the first page. This is, after all, the thirteenth Hillerman novel featuring the Navajo detectives Joe Leaphorn, now retired, and Jim Chee, now acting lieutenant of the Navajo Tribal Police. Thus there 2 5 6 W A L 3 4 ( 2 ) SUMMER 1 9 9 9 seems little point in recounting the plot or offering a conventional critique. More interesting than what Hillerman does is how he does it. One way to see that is to compare The First Eagle with Ron Querry’s Bad Medicine, also published in 1998, also set on the Navajo Reservation, and also having at its core the outbreak of a virulent disease, though it is the hanta virus rather than the plague. But these similarities are far less striking than the differences between the novels. The most obvious is that while Querry goes to a great deal of trouble to establish characters who seem to be designed for single use, Hillerman is not so much creating them as reminding his readers of their chief qualities. Leaphom is skeptical and methodical; Chee, though a more traditional Navajo, is impetuous and impatient of routine. Leaphom’s wife died a number of books past; Chee has broken up with a (second) woman with white values. Both Leaphom and Chee are so clueless about women that one almost despairs about the continuation of the Navajo people. This may be less an indication of their characters than a feature of novels in a series. Hillerman uses the romantic problems of the...