Customer Reviews

Gloryland: A Novel

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This book is a masterpiece! A brilliant new author has arrived!

On the surface, Gloryland brings to life some important and exciting history - that of the African-American "Buffalo Soldiers" who were not only courageous campaigners, but recently were re-discovered to have established Yosemite National Park and served as the first Park Rangers there, as well as build the trails to the top of Mount Whitney - the highest mountain in the lower 48 states (14,505 feet).

But far more than that, Shelton Johnson is a spell-binding and magical writer, linking the world of nature and that of African-American young men to whom freedom was but a recent acquaintance, weaving this tale with lyrical threads that in places read like a stream of poetry. Dig a little deeper, and the reader cannot help but consider the relationship between the deepest of concepts - beauty, happiness, freedom, love, hope.

Though coming from entirely different times and cultures, somehow I could only compare Johnson's writing to that of Yasunari Kawabata - Japan's greatest modern novelist, whose prose was also known for its intimacy with the natural world and spareness of expression.

It has been a long time since I have read such magnificent work!

I welcome the young Mr. Johnson - and hope that we will hear much more from this uniquely gifted voice!

I was only going to read the first few pages, perhaps a chapter; next thing I knew, I was sitting at a coffee shop crying over Elijah's grandmother. Johnson's description of his main character's (Elijah), grandmother struck a chore with me and I was hooked. His poetic verses and natural flow (like the running river/water theme in the book) took hold of me and I walked along with Elijah on his meandering journey of discovery and pursuit for and of freedom, of the Gloryland.

Mesmerizing and Powerful !

If you saw the Ken Burn's National Parks series, it's not hard to recall USNP Ranger Shelton Johnson and his touching accounts of personal moments in Yellowstone and Yosemite. In his first novel, Gloryland, Johnson shares a riveting philosophical journal of post-emancipation life for a slave's son as he makes his way across a torn and wounded landscape to become a Buffalo Soldier protecting Yosemite. A great read for those that seek rich historical writings in our American experience, lovers of the boundless natural wonders in our National Parks, and aspiring writers. A deeply introspective and poetic soliloquy of a quest for inner peace and freedom.

Shelton Johnson's beautiful, poetic and masterful book kept me enthralled from the time I picked it up until I reluctantly read the last page. Having seen Shelton as Elizy Boman,Yosemite Buffalo Soldier in "Legacy of the Buffalo Soldier," and as himself in "The National Parks, America's Best Idea," I appreciate that he has been able to transfer himself to the written page. I did not experience my usual temptation to skip a descriptive word here and there. Every word has meaning, every word belongs. Thank you Shelton, I love it!

"I was born into Spartanburg, but I woke up in Yosemite," says Elijah Yancy, the narrator in this sometimes sad, yet compelling and inspiring novel, which has particular meaning and relevance for those who, like me, live in the penumbra of this great National Park. The author, Shelton Johnson, is himself a black man, and a ranger in Yosemite with the National Park Service, and thus he draws not only on his family background, but also on his intimate familiarity with the Park, as he intertwines fact and fiction. He's a featured speaker in the latest documentary by Ken Burns, "The National Parks: America's Best Idea," and what a fine ear Shelton has for expressing the internal monologue of thought! We see through Yancy's mind a whole era of history and growth and change and all the complexities and paradoxes which comprise it. Born on the day the Emancipation was issued in 1863, Yancy comes of age in that period known as the Reconstruction, when there arose in the disillusioned and defeated South a bitterness perhaps even more intense than in the days ante bellum. In Yancy there awakens a yearning really to be free, and when his new found "attitude," as it's called, leads him to stride down a sidewalk reserved for whites, there awaits nothing for him in Spartanburg except an early death, a lynching from some big old tree on which many a black has been hanged before. This prospect is all too clear to Yancy's family, who advise him to go north, to get out of South Carolina before it's too late, to escape from what surely lies ahead if he stays.

Yancy starts his long walk to freedom and ends up in Nebraska, where he enlists in the US Army, an institution not entirely divested of the smoldering fire of racism, but even then one which offered a chance at a new life and the possibility of a profession and a career. The wars with the Indians were not entirely over, and we hear the mixed and poignant feelings inside Yancy, who has a Seminole grandmother, as he engages in the callous and unfeeling campaign to exterminate these native Americans, as though they had no right to be here on white man's land, no right even to exist. With the Indians subdued, America then flexes its muscle with imperialist might as it engages in the war with Spain. Yancy is sent to the Philippines, where he sees the so-called Insurrectos fighting against colonialism for their freedom, exercising that same primal urge which brought him into the Army and to where he is then. Nor is he immune to the magic of the Orient, which casts its spell on all of us who have spent time there.

However it's when he is sent as part of the small Army detachment to guard Yosemite, which then only recently had been declared something new--a national park--that he finds the glory, the meaning in what for him is indeed Gloryland. He writes home that finally he has become a church-going man, and Yosemite, with its awe-inspiring beauty and its ever-present reminders of God, has become the cathedral in which he worships. Yosemite overwhelms him, and with its power comes the beginning of that inner peace which we all seek and which somehow yet remains so often so elusive: "...in what they called a park. If this is what a park meant, then what did cliff mean here or canyon or river?" It's so immense and inspiring that surely God is here, drawing Yancy closer, ever closer, as on his faithful mule he climbs the upward trails. All of his mixed emotions and feelings approach a resolution here in Yosemite, which is to Yancy, and perhaps to Shelton Johnson too, the crowning not just of a career, but of a life.

Johnson writes with an easy grace, and we see so very much of America, such a broad expanse, in this finely tuned and thoughtful and thought provoking novel. It's a pleasure to read, and one cannot put it down unmoved.

I absolutely loved Ranger Johnson's novel, Gloryland. It's been a long time since I found a novelist so authentic and fresh. From the first few pages I realized I was reading poetry in every line like the quote below:

"You learn a lot about yourself, about the world, by just watching water when it moves and when it's still. Still water's rare on a creek, but it's only then that you can see yourself in it. Only then can you see your reflection in something that's got a life of its own but still got the grace to show you to yourself."

I'm now a fan and hope that this accomplished man continues to write.

Beautifully written, poetic and descriptive. I was transported by this story of a Buffalo Soldier who after overcoming many obstacles, comes to terms with his life and delights in the beauty of the west. Highly recommend.

Shelton Johnson's debut novel "Gloryland" is destined to become a classic of American literature. The author commands language as few others do, and uses it brilliantly throughout the progress of the story. It is a story that takes the reader into the heart of a time and place that is far less well known in our history than it should be. Johnson has clearly done his research thoroughly, and every aspect of the action feels true.

The book arrived just days after I'd returned from a winter visit to Yosemite, and I couldn't wait to start reading it. I also couldn't put it down. It is impossible not to get deeply involved in the story of the hero character, Elijah Yancy. The author develops his character smoothly, allowing us to enter his life as if it were our own. There are no plot points or set pieces glued on just for effect; everything in this book feels organic to the story.

Johnson's poetic ability to describe the landscape of the novel, whether it be the sharecropper backwaters of South Carolina or the magnificent high country of Tuolomne, brings the reader into the scene alongside the character. In short, this is a book you'll be required to read in high school English ten years from now. Since you are already past that, don't wait; read it now.

As if you're sitting with your great uncle or grandparent as they tell you a story. Very vivid imagery from his words. You truly don't want to stop reading.
After reading the excerpt I had to get the book.
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My bookchat group read this book at my suggestion because I had seen it mentioned on Sierra Club and it was connected to a visit by Oprah's visit to Yosemite. Historically the book is correct and I liked the writing style but not all my chatters agreed -- some lost interest and some did not finish. I liked the author's writing style, the subject ( A Black man traveliing crosscountry to seek a different who joins the army and fights Indians and Filipinos -- people of color like himself. He ends up in Yosemite as a buffalo soldier and finds himself and happiness and beauty.