Men on the moon : collected short stories / by Simon J. Ortiz.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Ortiz, Simon J., 1941-

Contributor:

Ortiz, Simon J., 1941-

Series:

Sun tracks ; v. 37.

Sun tracks ; v. 37

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Indians of North America--New Mexico--Social life and customs--Fiction.

Indians of North America.

New Mexico.

Manners and customs.

Acoma Indians--Social life and customs--Fiction.

Acoma Indians.

Acoma Indians--Social life and customs.

Genre:

Fiction.

Physical Description:

x, 203 pages ; 23 cm.

Place of Publication:

Tucson : University of Arizona Press, [1999]

Summary:

When Faustin, the old Acoma, is given his first television set, he considers it a technical wonder, a box full of mystery. What he sees on its screen that first day, however, is even more startling than the television itself: men have landed on the moon. Can this be real?

For Simon Ortiz, Faustin's reaction proves that tales of ordinary occurrences can truly touch the heart. "For me, " he observes, "there's never been a conscious moment without story."

Best known for his poetry, Ortiz also has authored 26 short stories that have won the hearts of readers through the years. Men on the Moon brings these stories together -- stories filled with memorable characters, written with love by a keen observer and interpreter of his people's community and culture.

True to Native American tradition, these tales possess the immediacy -- and intimacy -- of stories conveyed orally. They are drawn from Ortiz's Acoma Pueblo experience but focus on situations common to Native people, whether living on the land or in cities, and on the issues that affect their lives. We meet Jimmo, a young boy learning that his father is being hunted for murder, and Kaiser, the draft refuser who always wears the suit he was given when he left prison. We also meet some curious Anglos: radicals supporting Indian causes, scholars studying Indian ways, and San Francisco hippies who want to become Indians too.

Whether telling of migrants working potato fields in Idaho and pining for their Arizona home or of a father teaching his son to fly a kite, Ortiz takes readers to the heart of storytelling. Men on the Moon shows that stories told by a poet especially resound with beauty and depth.

Contents:

Preface

Men on the moon

Home country

Howbah Indians

Kaiser and the War

The way you see horses

Feathers

More than anything else in the world

Something's going on

The killing of a state cop

Where o where

Loose

The panther waits

The end of old horse

To change life in a good way

The San Francisco Indians

You were real, the white radical said to me

What Indians do

Anything

A story of Rios and Juan Jesus

Feeling old

3 women

Distance

Woman singing

Crossing

Hiding, west of here

Pennstuwehniyaahtse: Quuti's story.

Notes:

"The stories reproduced here were originally published , some of them in a somewhat different form, in Fightin': new and collected stories, Howbah Indians, and The man to send rain clouds"--T.p. verso.

Related Work:

Ortiz, Simon J., 1941- Fightin'.

Ortiz, Simon J., 1941- Howbah Indians.

ISBN:

0816519293

0816519307

OCLC:

40543029