The Bird is Gone: A Manifesto [Paperback]

Stephen Graham Jones (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1, 2003

Imagine a world where the American government signed a conservation act to "restore all indigenous flora and fauna to the Great Plains," which means suddenly the Great Plains are Indian again. Now fast-forward fourteen years to a bowling alley deep in the Indian Territories. People that bowling alley with characters named LP Deal, Cat Stand, Mary Boy, Courtney Peltdowne, Back Iron, Denim Horse, Naitche, and give them a chance to find a treaty signed under duress by General Sherman, which effectively gives all of the Americas back to the Indians, only hide that treaty in a stolen pipe, put it in a locker, and flush the key down the toilet. Ask LP Deal and the rest what they will trade to get that key back--maybe, everything.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

All natural and narrative laws are suspended in the hallucinatory whirl of Jones' cuttingly funny and fantastic third novel. A Blackfoot writer with a wry yet tragic, earthy yet cosmic view of Native American life who combines bizarre murder investigations with whipsaw commentary, Jones (author most recently of All the Beautiful Sinners [BKL Ap 15 03]) imagines the consequences of a law requiring "the restoration of all indigenous flora and fauna to the Great Plains," including the establishment of an autonomous Indian Territory because Indians qualify as fauna. A bowling alley serves as a microcosm for this new New World, and its moody denizens, including manifesto-writing LP Deal; Nickel Eye, the prime suspect in a series of tourist murders; and Cat Stand, once a dairy industry poster girl, try to stay beneath the radar as undercover cops and annoying anthropologists intrude. Caustically surreal in the manner of Hunter Thompson, even William Burroughs, Jones brilliantly and audaciously critiques the ironies inherent in our frontier mythologies, racial stereotypes, and inchoate longings for justice and a meaningful life. Donna Seaman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review

"For a while now I have felt that we Native American writers (and I most certainly include myself in the "we") keep writing about the same damn things. Stephen Jones writes with a whole new aesthetic and moral sense. He doesn't sound like any of the rest of us, and I love that." --Sherman Alexie, author of Ten Little Indians

"In The Bird is Gone, Stephen Graham Jones follows his brilliant first novel, The Fast Red Road, with another work of pure originality and quirky brilliance. No unintended clichés or stereotypes here. With Vizenor-like deftness and completely unexpected moves, Jones is taking Native American fiction in a new, necessary direction. We see a literature coming of age in these pages." --Louis Owens, author of Nightland

"The Bird is Gone is one of the most strikingly original novels I've read in a long, long time. And yet, extraordinarily, its originality never overwhelms its humanity. What a thrill it is to see the world through Stephen Jones's sensibility. He is unquestionably one of our finest young writers." --Robert Olen Butler, author of A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain

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Product Details

• Paperback: 175 pages
• Publisher: Fiction Collective 2; 1 edition (August 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1573661090
• ISBN-13: 978-1573661096
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #191,351 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Born and raised in Texas. Forty. Blackfeet. Into werewolves and slashers and zombies. Would wear pirate shirts a lot if I could find them. And probably carry some kind of sword. More over at http://demontheory.net.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing, September 22, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: The Bird is Gone: A Manifesto (Paperback)

THE BIRD IS GONE is one of the best, and most orginial books i've ever had the pleasure of reading. his prose, once again, carry their own rhythm and read like poetry. read it, get lost in it, and then read it again, because its magic. mr. jones is without question one of our most talented writers writing today. do yourself a favor and read this book, then read his other two books, because he's just that good.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars once again, YES, March 8, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: The Bird is Gone: A Manifesto (Paperback)

so, not only is this book one of the most original and deftly structured to come along in recent years, but, as has been pointed out: the sentences!! Jones' sentences will take root in your head and grow, bloom, wither, rot, be reincarnated as a time travelling coyote. seriously, get on this one.