Skins [Hardcover]

Adrian Louis (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 30, 1995

Rudy Yellow Shirt, a full-blooded Oglala Sioux and a criminal investigator with the Pine Ridge Public Safety Department, spends most nights locking up drunk and disorderly Indians, frequently including his own ciye, his older brother Mogie. They live on the Pine Ridge Reservation, the home of Crazy Horse's tribe, where the Indian wars ended with the massacre at Wounded Knee, and where so many Oglala people try to maintain their ancient dignity while living on welfare checks and cans of surplus commodity foods distributed by the government. But when Rudy falls and hits his head on a rock, the spirit of Iktomi, the trickster, starts messing with his life.

Soon Rudy finds himself taking on the alter ego of the Avenging Warrior and dispensing swift vigilante justice to unlucky criminals. Then, one night, the Warrior decides to fire-bomb one of the liquor stores that hug the border of the reservation, and Iktomi plays his most diabolical trick, starting a chain of events that will change Rudy and Mogie's relationship forever.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The title of this accomplished first novel by Native American poet Louis is short for "redskins," a common term reservation Indians use for themselves. Set on the Pine Ridge Reservation (S.D.) where the author makes his home, the book tells the story of Rudy Yellow Shirt. Rudy's job, as a tribal policeman, is to protect the Oglala that inhabit the "rez" from themselves, and he's reaching the end of his tether. His marriage has fallen apart, the medicine he takes for high blood pressure has ruined his sex life and his rowdy, alcoholic brother Mogie is constantly in trouble with the law. Rudy's fed up with the spousal beatings, the alcohol and the drugs he confronts in his daily routine ("all major crimes" are the province of the FBI). But everything changes when a knock on the noggin suffered while chasing a suspect causes unusual side effects for the weary cop. First, his sexual prowess returns with more vigor than he bargained for. It also brings out Rudy's alter ego, the "Avenging Warrior," a vigilante bent on dispensing rough justice beyond the bounds of the law. First, he knee-caps a couple of punks who brutally sodomized and murdered a young boy. Then he moves on to torching a liquor store on the reservation border. The question then becomes whether Rudy will be able to achieve the reintegration of self and the comity in personal relations that elude much of Indian society. Employing an incisive blend of satire, fantasy and grim realism, and aided by a good eye for detail and an ear for natural dialogue, Louis presents a picture of contemporary Native American life that is often as funny and warm as it is disturbing.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Although this novel addresses issues of unemployment, domestic violence, and drug and alcohol addiction as they pertain to American Indians, it is ultimately a tale of two brothers, Rudy and Mogie Yellow Shirt, whose love is the only constant through their tumultuous lives. The brothers carry the baggage of their family's alcoholism and abuse, but react differently. Rudy gains a college education and becomes a policeman on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation; Mogie lacks ambition and succumbs to the destructive cycle his parents and grandparents began. After tripping and hitting his head on a rock, Rudy releases a kind of alter ego, a vigilante "avenging warrior." Retribution and removal of negative temptations (namely, alcohol) are his means to save his people. Tremendously tragic and, unfortunately, highly realistic, this book could easily be another indictment of white people and a reminder of the human capacity to destroy and oppress. Yet, Louis somehow transcends simple blame by examining the many causes, including those self-induced and self-perpetuated, of the serious hardships facing American Indians today. Janet St. John

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 296 pages
• Publisher: Crown; 1st edition (May 30, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0517799588
• ISBN-13: 978-0517799581
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.7 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,376,471 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Straight from the heart of the rez . . ., November 6, 2004

By 

Ronald Scheer "rockysquirrel" (Los Angeles) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Skins (Paperback)

Poet, short story writer, and former journalist, Adrian Louis presents a harshly comic vision of Indian life in this novel set on the Pine Ridge Reservation in southwest South Dakota. He immerses the reader in a compelling mix of Indian and white cultures and the resulting ambiguities, competing worldviews, and conflicted values.

Rudy, the Indian cop, portrays these confusing conflicts beautifully, representing both the law in his tribal police uniform and vigilante justice in his blackface and pantyhose mask. Revealing other dimensions of Rudy's confusion, Louis explores his relationship to the women in his life. Married and estranged from his wife, Rudy indulges his growing attraction to his cousin's wife, Stella, while he carries on with other men's wives as well. Meanwhile, afflicted with hypertension, he takes meds that affect his sexual performance, and much of the novel traces the rising and falling cycles of his libido, all of which are unpredictable and seemingly under the spell of forces beyond him. It is significant that Iktomi, the trickster spirit and shape-shifter, is a central theme in the novel, for appearance and reality, wisdom and stupidity, pride and shame, love and rage are all in a continuing dance for dominance.

Also at the center of the story is Rudy's relationship with his alcoholic older brother, Mogey. While casting an unblinking eye on the devastating impact of alcohol consumption on the reservation, Louis both condemns and forgives those who seek oblivion in the bottom of the bottle. In his hands, Mogey is a wonderful creation. While there are vague allusions to the grim effect of two tours of duty in Vietnam, Louis doesn't excuse Mogey for choosing his path of self-destruction. Yet through his brother Rudy, the reader can begin to understand the deep love possible for someone unable to resist the pull of despair.

This book is not for everyone, as some of the reviews already posted here indicate. However, I recommend it highly for what it has to say about the Indian nations - in their own voices and without the moralizing or sentimentality of those who have never walked in their shoes. Also worth watching is the film "Skins" (2002, available on DVD), which is based on the book.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars EASILY THE MOST INTERESTING BOOK I EVER READ!!!, September 10, 2002

By A Customer

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This review is from: Skins (Paperback)

Adrian Louis is a genius! I could NOT put this book down! I even snuck it into work with me.
It is sad, funny, gut-wretching, sweet---it has it all! If you don't thoroughly enjoy this book--CHECK YOUR PULSE!!!!!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "Brilliant", February 5, 1998

By 

[e-mail] (Baltimore, Maryland) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Skins (Hardcover)

This is a hardcore book of life on the rez. It is so accurate that I can only catorgize Louis's writting as "Brilliant". I highly recommed this book and guarentee that this will leave you craving for more!