Not Enough Indians: A Novel [Hardcover]

Harry Shearer (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 14, 2006

Meet the residents of Gammage, NY, a town on the verge of declaring bankruptcy, when inspiration strikes. Why not go native, and open a casino? With Not Enough Indians, actor, writer, producer, and former Saturday Night Live cast member Harry Shearer joins the ranks of such comedian/authors as Steve Martin and Michael Palin, with a brilliantly funny, whip-smart satire of greed, collusion, distrust and betrayal in the halls of Washington and the casinos of Native America.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Shearer, probably best known for his work on The Simpsons and This Is Spinal Tap, sets his farcical first novel in the world of Native American–owned casinos. After being "savaged by downsizing, by outsourcing, by plant-closing," the citizens of withering Gammage, N.Y., successfully petition Washington to be recognized as the Filaquonsett tribe so they can build a casino. Their gambling operation has a negative impact on the casino of a neighboring tribe, and that tribe settles the score by having a toxic waste dump built next to the Filaquonsett casino. It's a silly setup, and Shearer uses it to beat home points about greed, materialism and ethnic identity. The book often becomes a morass of easy one-liners ("the process was proceeding at a pace that glaciers and snails would envy"). Stereotypes about Italian-Americans and Native Americans similarly fail to go over the top, instead occupying the queasy middle ground between funny and unfortunate. One bit of inspired nonsense involves a group of diaper-wearing grownups (they consider holding DiaperCon XII in the Filaquonsett reservation), but the scatological humor won't be enough to pull readers through. (Oct.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Prolific comic actor and writer Shearer, a Saturday Night Live alumnus and the voice of more than a dozen characters on The Simpsons, lodges tongue firmly in cheek for this wickedly funny debut novel. The fictional town of Gammage, New York, seems on the brink of financial ruin until one of its citizens proposes a fiendishly clever plan: petition for Indian tribal status, open a casino, and bask in the glow of cash flow. The "long-lost" Filaquonsett tribe is soon up and running, despite the fact that there's not a Native American in the bunch. From mercurial casino magnates to buzz-cut government drones, Shearer pokes merciless fun at human foibles. There's irony-deficient Gammage school superintendent Roger Gardner, who uses product placement to turn a profit at local schools; Jewish Indian casino owner Joseph Catspaw, obsessed with collecting bad TV figurines; and Indian Affairs bureaucrat Hap Matthews, who would "fade into the woodwork if only the woodwork weren't so colorful." Though Shearer's ending falls a bit flat, readers can bet on lots of guffaws along the way. Allison Block
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 212 pages
• Publisher: Justin, Charles & Co.; 1ST edition (September 14, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1932112464
• ISBN-13: 978-1932112467
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 5.5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,579,328 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Laughed Until I Cried, October 20, 2006

By 

Sally Friend "Sally" (Greenwich, CT) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Not Enough Indians: A Novel (Hardcover)

As a long time Simpsons fan, I was thrilled to see that Harry Shearer had written his first novel, NOT ENOUGH INDIANS, and even more thrilled to see it was partially set in a fictitious town in upstate New York, very much like the type of town I grew up in. Once I started reading, the exciting and hilarious rollercoaster ride began: With his finely honed eye for the absurd and the outrageous, Shearer swept me into the ever-amusing world of small town politics with its overly earnest, self-important players, the machinations of government lobbying, and the well oiled, craftily calculated operatons of a glitzy, cheesy Vegas-style casino, plopped in the middle of New England. Without missing a beat, Shearer nailed every hilarous nuance, and made me laugh so hard, I cried. If you like your comedy sharp, smart and biting, and love a novel populated with a host of characters entirely unaware of their horrific yet charming flaws, then NOT ENOUGH INDIANS is the perfectly delightful and satisfying read you're looking for.

15 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Smart, funny ensemble cast, October 19, 2006

By 

Finster (Chicago, IL) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Not Enough Indians: A Novel (Hardcover)

I'm a fan of Harry Shearer. His work tends to fall into one of two categories: singular and personal (like his weblog or radio show); and ensemble (like The Simpsons, or Spinal Tap). Not Enough Indians is interesting because, as a novel, you'd expect it to be personal, but it is actually a wickedly funny ensemble comedy, in the same vein as A Mighty Wind. The characters are all engaging oddballs, and the whole situation (a nowhere town invents itself as an Indian tribe and opens a casino) is both funny and political. I give it an A.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Worth it to me, but I don't know about you, September 14, 2008

By 

Richard K. Carson (Vashon Island, WA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Not Enough Indians (Paperback)

I enjoy this book on more of a micro than a macro level. That is, the laughs are to be found more in isolated turns of phrase than in the story. There are many, many funny sentences (example: "Her physical appearance revealed a refreshing lack of vanity"), but the overall experience is less than profound.

There are a lot of characters, and at first I had trouble keeping track of them. Before you dive in, I strongly recommend that you study the major character profiles in the front and form a mental picture of each. If you don't familiarize yourself with these names beforehand, you may find it hard to tell whether the character being introduced is a major one. I recall thinking that with some of the lesser characters, it wasn't really necessary to give them names and a generic description would have been easier to keep straight.

Some readers will consider this book not worth the effort. On the other hand, because the jokes are consistently plentiful, a small random sample might be enough to help you decide whether you want to own the book or not.