From Publishers Weekly
Just in time for the 125th anniversary of the Battle of Little Big Horn comes this provocative if uneven collection of essays by Nez Perc‚ fiction writer and critic Penn, who attempts, with commendable verve and insight, to take the measure of Native American studies today. Like many another successful academic (Penn is professor of literature and creative writing at Michigan State), the author is rather embattled and defensive in these works, and a bit chagrined to find himself at the heart of an often patronizing and reductive academy. Especially self-conscious about his precarious position as a Native American (Nez Perc‚ is his publisher's designation; Penn prefers "mixblood"), Penn employs a number of strategies to "keep it real," including the compelling form of these 10 extended essays. Penn is a passionate advocate of the oral tradition and an enemy of "purity," whether of racial designation or literary form, and his essays often incorporate fictional elements, showing a healthy respect for anecdote and digression as methodological tools. He uses such techniques most successfully in the book's opening essay, "Tonto Meets Chuang Tzu," which combines fiction, essay and autobiography to illustrate and explain Penn's hybrid methods and goals. Yet even when (as in the rambling "Donne Talkin") it is difficult to separate illustrative digression and core substance, or when he takes Pagliaesque cheap shots at such disparate figures as Courtney Love, Richard Ford, Bjork and Amy Tan, Penn refuses to take refuge in jargon or doublespeak, and his attempts to negotiate complicated cultural thickets prove winning.
Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
Review
“Feathering Custer points to the need for critical understanding of the literatures of Native America. Penn''s volume offers a challenge to all those interested in meaningful insights into these literary works to search the indigenous storytelling traditions, lives, and literatures of Native Americans.”—World Literature Today
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World Literature Today )
“Penn demonstrates his own mastery of critical theories as he weaves them into his life experiences.”—Choice
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Choice )
“Penn refuses to take refuge in jargon or doublespeak, and his attempts to negotiate complicated cultural thickets prove winning.”—Publishers Weekly
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Publishers Weekly )
"[Penn] attempts, with commendable verve and insight, to take the measure of Native American studies today. . . . Penn refuses to take refuge in jargon or doublespeak, and his attempts to negotiate complicated cultural thickets prove winning."—Library Journal
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Library Journal )
"At their best, the essays punch current notions of political correctness and academic protocol square in the chops. . . . It''s an entertainment to watch Penn as he escapes being pinned down, taking up apparently contradictory positions . . . just for the fun of it all, making friends and foes alike sweat a little. Penn has emerged as an important presence on the Native American literary front."—Kirkus Reviews
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Kirkus Reviews )
“James Joyce–certainly a canonical writer–once said he expected to forge the consciousness of his race through his writing. For Joyce, that was a choice; he could have swum with what had already been created. For W. S. Penn, there is no such freedom: he must forge what the white world long ago destroyed, and he must forge it passionately and alone.”—Southwest Book Views
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Southwest Book Views )
“Penn weaves in life experiences that grounded me from the academe. His arguments for a satire forming community, empowerment being false power and a mythic mind connecting all things prove his potent point that history reveals itself by telling us how we can continue to be (not what we have been).”—Meghan Saar, True West
(True West
Meghan Saar )
“Folklorists interested in these issues will benefit from Penn’s insightful and engagingly written commentaries.”—William M. Clements, Western Folklore
(William M. Clements
Western Folklore )
