Customer Reviews

The Man Who Killed the Deer

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This is a subtle, poignant novel which explores cultural conflicts and personal struggles for identity and interbeing. It concludes with an awareness of the inevitable oneness of all people within the rhythms of the earth. The novel made me contemplate my own values and relationships. It moved me to tears and quiet joy. It gave me a strong sense of my place as a human being in the web of life. I did not want the book to end. Martiniano, the man who killed the deer, is a vivd, honest character who will remain in my mind

It helps to have visited the village of Taos to appreciate this novel dealing with the tribes sacred Blue Lake and metaphysical power. Given the circumstances of the plot, its unfolding has intense meaning to all who seek their souls true identy. The narrative insidiously leads from one attitude to another, from what was learned to what is felt. Going "back to the blanket" is an imperceptible reunion with the customs of the past that moves man to become what he really is and/or wants to be. The beauty of the idea can affect deeply readers searching for their own unincumbered identity and peace.

In this book, Martiniano, the main character, struggles to achieve a homeostasis amongst confining to the laws of the whites while still keeping the values, norms, and beliefs of his older Native American culture. There are a few sublots involving a religious sight that all come together to make a compelling conclusion to a beautifully written novel. The imagery involved within the piece make The MAn Who Killed The Deer a defined and rather extraordinary novel. It is a timeless claassic which should be read and enjoyed by all who still care about making themselves better persons.

Frank Walters' own words describe the initial release of this wonderful novel in 1942. It didn't sell well, despite a glowing review by Margaret Wallace in "The New York Times": "How close it comes to Pueblo Indian philosophy no one not qualified by personal association can judge. It comes close enough to the core of all philosophy to make it an immensely satisfying novel."

Luckily for this reader, Alan Swallow, the founder of Swallow Press, believed in the book. Waters wrote that Swallow's credo "was simple: to publish only the books he believed in, and to keep them in print whether they sold well or not." The book has been in print ever since Swallow championed it.

The novel tells a true story of a young Taos Pueblo brave who was arrested and fined for shooting a deer two days after the hunting season ended in Carson National Forest. The book is credited with convincing Federal authorities to return to the Pueblo Indians 48,000 acres of their sacred Blue Lake country.

Waters' wrote about his masterpiece: "My own reaction to its miraculous longevity contains no trace of false modesty. The book has never seemed 'mine.' It is an independent entity, with a life of its own, which has quietly made its own way . . . The story did not have to be contrived; it unfolded, like a flower, its own inherent pattern. The words came easily, unbidden, as the flow of ink from my old, red Parker. I don't mean to imply that it was anything like 'automatic writing,' whatever that is. Simply that it seemed impelled by the unconscious rather than by rational consciousness."

Others here on Amazon have described the relatively simple plot and the deep effect the book has had on them; a few passages will give a flavor of the writing here, including some passages that made a deep impression on me:

"Nothing is simple and alone. We are not separate and alone. The breathing mountains, the living stones, each blade of grass, the clouds, the rain, each star, the beasts, the birds, the invisible spirits of the air -- we are all one, indivisible. Nothing that any of us does but affects us all."

"A Council meeting is a strange thing.... one-half talk and one-half silence. The silence has more weight."

"Each waits courteously for another. And another until all the silence is one silence, and that silence has the meaning of all. So the individuals vanish. It is all one heart. It is the soul of the tribe. A soul that is linked by that other silence with all the souls of all the tribal councils which have sat here in the memory of man."

And, these thoughts by the trader Byers:

"Byers thought of the world of nature as the white man sees it: the sparkling streams and turbulent rivers as sources of potential electric power; the mountains gutted for the gold and silver to carry on the commerce of the world; the steel and iron and wood, cut and fashioned, smelted, wrought, and riveted from the earth to bridge with shining hills the illimitable terrors of the seas - a resistless, inanimate world of nature to be used and refashioned at will by man in his magnificent and courageous folly to wrest a purpose from eternity. And yet, what did he really know of the enduring earth he scratched, the timeless seas he spanned, the unmindful starts winking at his puny efforts?"

"And he thought of the world of nature as the Indian had always seen it. The whole world was animate - night and day, wind, cloud, trees, the young corn, all was alive and sentient. Of this universe man was an integral part. The beings about him were neither friendly or hostile, but harmonious parts of the whole. There was no Satan, no Christ, no antithesis between good and evil, between matter and spirit. The world was simply one living whole in which man dies, but mankind remains. How then can man be lord of the universe? The forests have not been given to despoil. He is equal in importance to the mountain and the blade of grass, to the rabbit and the young corn plant. Therefore, if the life of one of these is to be used for his necessity, it must first be approaches with reverence and permission obtained by ritual, and thus the balance of the whole maintained intact."

The book is short; it's wonderful to read my favorite passages, but even more fun to re-read this wonderful short novel one more time.

Robert C. Ross 2010

first read this in 1979-80. truly an experience that stays with you. only one other book has had a lasting effect on the depths of my being: robert pirsigs'zen & the art of motorcycle maintanence'. every 'man' needs to explore Frank Waters gift. every 'man' needs to give this to his 'son'.

The Man Who Killed the Deer is one of those rare novels that engage both the mind and the heart. It contains some fascinating insights into Pueblo Indian life while telling a compelling story. While the book is not long as novels go, don't expect to finish it in a few hours. To appreciate the subtleties of the book, you need to savor the language and match the pace of your reading to the pace of Pueblo life. Don't hurry. You'll be rewarded with insights and a quiet pleasure you'll otherwise miss.