Customer Reviews

Crazy Weather

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This book first appeared in 1944 and has been reissued by the University of Nebraska Press. Supposedly a book for adolescents, it is far more that that. It is the story of a search for one's identity and an introduction the the culture of the Mojave. Internal evidence places the story in about the last quarter of the nineteenth century. The location is around the lower part of the Colorado River. The nearest city seems to be Needles, California. The book is of interest to adolescents, but perhaps even more to those interested in the lives of the desert dwellers in that part of the world. About the story: in four days of scorching heat, South Boy and his Mojave friend, Havek, set out on a quest to do a "Great Thing". Great Things are done, but they leave South Boy even more uncertain as to who he really is, caught as he is between the Mojave and white cultures. Along the way the reader learns a great deal about Mojave culture and rituals and meets some fascinating desert dwellers, both Indian and white. There is almost a dream-like quality to the story as we feel the heat of the Crazy Weather and move through the customs of the desert tribes. When rain finally breaks the heat, South Boy acts as the man he has become and understands the path he is to take. You may not like the outcome, but the quest itself is haunting.

Having recently moved to Mohave County in Arizona (not far from the Colorado River), I was interested in reading "Crazy Weather" to get a little of the "flavor" of the area, and to learn something about the Mojave Indian culture as well. The book lived up to my hopes in both of those respects, but what surprised me was how absorbed I became in the story itself. On one level, it's a simple adventure story involving South Boy (who's actually white but was partially raised by Mojaves and was given that name by them) and his best friend Havec (a Mojave) as they travel up the Colorado River into Piute territory --- and in some places it almost reminded me of Huck Finn travelling along the Mississippi with the runaway slave, Jim, and meeting an assortment of characters along the way. On another level, though, it's really about the challenges of truly understanding another culture and way of thinking --- and in the end the pull of their respective societies is too strong and the two friends inevitably have to part and follow their separate destinies.

The author seems quite knowledgable about Mojave culture and history, as I've confirmed from subsequent readings on the subject. If you're interested in the American Southwest, the Colorado River, native American cultures, or just a good story, I think you'll enjoy this book.

McNichols crisp writing, detailed knowledge of Mojave Indian and Colorado Desert ranching, and realistic plot make this a genuinely timeless work., My tattered copy was given to me 45 years ago by the writer Madge Harrah. Every half decade or so I dig it out and read it again. It taught me to write and, in a way, was a model for my North Of Nowhere. Bravo Charles!

South Boy goes with his friend Havek on a Mojave name-quest. It sounds simple -- but under the surface is a breath-taking wealth of experience, mythology and understanding of the many personalities in one person, or one horse, or one culture. Every sentence of this book is laden with knowledge of its time and place. Even the mention of the "little yellow catfish," about which no more is said than that they "make good eating," reflects the fact that in this period the US Government seeded the Colorado river with the Yellow Catfish, a transplant from Texas. This is the key to the book -- that everything is in flux, as two cultures melt together, and new ways try to live with old ways. The ending seems to be a conclusion -- until you realize that it's only one more step to escape from final decisions. The book begins a long way before the first sentence -- and would finish a long way after the last. Dreams and visions reverberate through the telling, and Great Things are done.

This little-known book is, IMHO, one of the greatest books ever written. Reading it as a boy, I was puzzled by how it made everything seem so real in so few words - everything in it seems to have a life off-camera that we had just glimpsed part of.

This book reflects historical perspective of Mohave Valley area (AZ) and Mojave Indian tribe. Very interesting for children (ages 8-14) as a read aloud, or for independent readers (readability level = grade 6). Great addition to a classroom library or home.

I've decided to write reviews of the books that not only caught my attention early on, but lived in my memory all of these years, words and phrases coming unbidden to mind occasionally from a literary experience far removed but not forgotten - a spirit residing within your own as an old friend. This book was one that probably never got the acclaim it deserved, although I never spoke with anyone who didn't like it. If your culture or experiences spring from a youth originating in the West or Southwest, you will be enchanted with it because you will recognize parts of it as your own.

This is the "long hot summer" story of two boys, friends since infancy, South Boy, a white youth, son of an Arizona rancher, and Havek, a Mojave Indian boy - whose intertwined trails to maturity took one last summer to complete for them.

During the course of the summer,it takes you through the complex and oftentimes uneasy coexistence between white and indian culture; and the coexistence between the "cultured white" and the "earthy ranch people" is equally tenuous. In the words of the long haired outlaw foreman that ran the ranch for South Boy's father during one of South Boy's Learning Sessions: "Don't put no stock in those wild ideas of you mother's. She's a Lady. Naturally, she's ignorant!"

The adventure begins with the rising thermometer and a youth sleeping in the shade of the grape arbor - he makes his way to the river under the blazing summer sun, goes to sleep on an overhanging limb with the muddy water flowing beneath him; and there Havek finds him "with a dream on his face". Havek is aspiring to become a "great person", is of an age to take a better name for himself in the Mohave tradition; and reads into South Boy's slumber something South Boy is reluctant to dissuade him from for appearances sake, so he agrees to travel "name taking" with him.

They spend one last glorious summer together as adolescents blundering through the Arizona mesquite and greasewood, in a variety of scenarios, some curiously noble, some ill-conceived and dangerous - before the final departing from the comfortable innocence of childhood, where a friend is a friend regardless of anything else; and moving into the complex world of the adult where nevermore will their friendship be as simple as it was on the banks of the slow-flowing, muddy river that day. It is evident in a very poignant scene as they are returning home after the adventure of death, rituals, ignorance, survival, all stunningly woven by Mr. McNichols into a tale spawned from the living of some of it, you can tell. The mesa is awash in rain water dropped by a violent storm after a long draught; South Boy suddenly applies the teachings of the "Foreman" to his immediate reality and comes up with the idea that he can make a lot of money putting weak, cheap cattle on it. Havek, on the other hand, is on his way home to celebrate his new name with his people, and "financial gain" is of absolutely no interest to him - and there they go their separate ways, each to the world he springs from, the same physical world, but in all other ways as different as the ideals and teaching that shaped them.

One feels a certain sadness that it should be so and most of us probably secretly wish that we could reside in our youth forever, never growing up.