I Hear the Train: Reflections, Inventions, Refractions [Hardcover]

Louis Owens (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 15, 2001 | ISBN-10: 0806133546 | ISBN-13: 978-0806133546 | Edition: 1St Edition

In this innovative collection, Louis Owens blends autobiography, short fiction, and literary criticism to reflect on his experiences as a mixedblood Indian in America.

In sophisticated prose, Owens reveals the many timbres of his voice--humor, humility,love, joy, struggle, confusion, and clarity. We join him in the fields, farms, and ranches of California. We follow his search for a lost brother and contemplate along with him old family photographs from Indian Territory and early Oklahoma. In a final section, Owens reflects on the work and theories of other writers, including Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Gerald Vizenor, Michael Dorris, and Louise Erdrich.

Volume 40 in the American Indian Literature and Critical Studies Series

 

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

In each section of this excellent collection, Owens's carefully crafted writing captures the reader with exceptional descriptions of place and people, the mix of native blood in America, and the strength of the individual: "He'd awakened to the river, rising out of sleep the way the winter river rose from its brushy bed, hearing before anything the throbbing of the current under the sand, his eyes opening to the sun caught like blood in the naked branches of the sycamores and cottonwoods out here in the river." In the autobiographical section, Owens (e.g., Dark River) describes his service on a hotshot fire-fighting crew in Arizona and later working at Glacier National Park. His quest to locate his brother and his visit with him captures the enormity of family, the Vietnam War, and the bond of brothers who grew up hunting and fishing for dinner. Then a collection of well-crafted short stories is followed by a final section in which Owens discusses the creations of other writers "who work in the field of native American literature this unsettled zone of frontier, interstitial scholarship." Recommended for all libraries. Sue Samson, Univ. of Montana, Missoula
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Owens, who is a "mixed blood" of Native American and Irish ancestry and professor of English and Native American studies at the University of California at Davis, presents an eclectic combination of autobiography, including personal musings, observations, and short fiction. The result is a revealing and often delightful glimpse into the life and attitudes of a brilliant and interesting man. Owens, who recounts his experiences as a forest ranger, firefighter, wanderer, and teacher, is a gifted writer whose prose is lyrical, elegant, and direct. He reveals his innermost thoughts, joys, and heartaches, yet he never descends to embarrassing self-absorption. The result is a portrait of the contemporary dilemmas faced by many Native Americans who have "made it" in white society. On the other hand, the appeal of this deeply felt and beautiful book is universal. Jay Freeman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press; 1St Edition edition (October 15, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0806133546
• ISBN-13: 978-0806133546
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,208,351 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Hearing the train and more, December 7, 2001

By 

"lcampi" (United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: I Hear the Train: Reflections, Inventions, Refractions (Hardcover)

This is an excellent volume of work that seamlessly blends essay and fiction, reminding us that history, truth, memory and fiction are often the same thing. The essays and stories, while clearly the outgrowth of one man's experience and imagination, represent the entire breadth of human emotions. There are stories that pivot on comedy and surreality in France, others about work and class structure, and adolescent efforts to identify oneself within a white American culture during the 60s and 70s. There is a lost brother, a conflicted hunter, a naive forest ranger. What the reader gets are layers of complexity buried beneath great stories. The pull of this book is extraodinary. It leaves you wanting more.