Customer Reviews

Tony Hillerman's Landscape: On the Road with Chee and Leaphorn

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Tony Hillerman, who died last October, was a wonderful writer about the Southwest, New Mexico and Arizona in particular. His fiction celebrated many locations in both states, and Jim Chee and Joe Leaphorn, Najaho tribal policemen, seem to live in my imagination as real as Sherlock Holmes.

His daughter Anne has written a excellent travelog describing the locations where the two detectives did their work. His son-in-law Don Strel has done a wonderful job of photographing the various sites (there are over 150 full color photographs), and Anne's quotations from her father's writings greatly enhance the journey.

"The New York Times" obituary described how important both Jim Chee and Joe Leaphorn were in Hillerman's writing:

"Hillerman's evocative novels, which describe people struggling to maintain ancient traditions in the modern world, touched millions of readers, who made them best sellers. But although the themes of his books were not overtly political, he wrote with a purpose, he often said, and that purpose was to instill in his readers a respect for Indian culture. The plots of his stories, while steeped in contemporary crime and its consequences, were invariably instructive about ancient tribal beliefs and customs, from purification rituals for a soldier returned from a foreign war to incest taboos for a proper clan marriage.

"It's always troubled me that the American people are so ignorant of these rich Indian cultures," Hillerman once told 'Publishers Weekly'. "I think it's important to show that aspects of ancient Indian ways are still very much alive and are highly germane even to our ways."

Hillerman began the series of 18 novels with The Blessing Way in 1970. Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn is experienced, cynical, logical and passionate about the Navajo Way. He believes in "the ordered, harmonious patterns of life that link man to the natural world. But he is not a fundamentalist in terms of religion;" he recognizes that all humans are frail and he is willing to make allowances for those weaknesses.

Sergeant Jim Chee appeared in the fifth novel in the series, and is younger and more idealistic, and seeks a more spiritual connection to Navajo tradition. "Over the course of several books, he studies to become a hataalii, a singer or medicine man. This ambition often creates friction between the religious faith he professes and the secular rules of criminal justice he is sworn to uphold."

Normally Leaphorn and Chee do not appear in the same novel but when they do, as in Skinwalkers (Joe Leaphorn/Jim Chee Novels) (1986), the two aspects of Navajo culture come to life.

This lovely picture book faithfully represents the physical surroundings of these novels, and a careful reader can see in the photographs hints of many aspects of the Navajo world as Tony Hillerman saw them. Anne Hillerman has done an excellent job of fleshing out many of those hints.

For example, she writes:

"Don and I head north toward Shiprock. We pass a store with a hay barn, horse trailers, bags of coal, and huge piles of wood for sale, a ready-mad setting for a Chee-Leaphorn novel."

At Zuni Pueblo, she describes a ritual: "I'll never forget the clear, bitterly cold November night, the crowd of mostly Indians, and the unearthly music." She quotes from her father's Dance Hall of the Dead which describes the same ritual, and Don Strel's photograph help bring the ritual to life.

If you have any interest in Hillerman as a writer or in Navajo culture in particular, this lovely book is a great introduction to the treasures of both.

Robert C. Ross 2009

Addendum: in addition to the novels linked above (a full list of the Chee and Leaphorn books appears in the first Comment), following are my favorite Hillerman books:

The Spell of New Mexico. Tony Hillerman did an exceptional job of writing the Preface and the Introduction, and in collecting the eleven other essays contained in this excellent compilation. If you have any interest in New Mexico, this book is essential reading.

The Great Taos Bank Robbery: And Other True Stories of the Southwest. Key words from the nine essays hint at the pleasures here: Dinetah, Rio Arriba County, Shiprock, Tierra Amarilla, Reies Tijerina, bubonic plague, Folsom Point, Las Trampas, Pecos Wilderness, Navajo mythology, Shalako, Black Death, Santa Fe County, rodents, Carson National Forest, Ales Hrdlicka, anthropologists, pressure flaking, Mount Taylor, pickup truck. Priceless Hillerman.

R.

Thank you so much for creating and publishing this book. I have been an "avid fan" of very few things, but I am a true fan of your father's books. I cried when he died in 08, not only that he had died, but, I realized, Chee and Leaphorn had died too. I love the great expanse of the southwest, and your book has made me realize that it is the land that lasts "forever" (at least, "forever" in human terms!). The book is also serving as a gentle closure to all his other books. I have them to reread, as I have done several times in the past, but I will always long to have one more new Hillerman mystery to relish as I begin reading it! Ah, well, life goes on. I am so glad your Dad wrote so many novels, and I thank you for adding a new perspective to them, and taking me back to the earth, which is their basis.

I'm Tony Hillerman's daughter, Anne, and I spent three years working on this book with photographer Don Strel, and Tony himself as
our consultant. We traveled and photographed many of the places Dad loved and wrote about. The final essay is a piece Tony wrote
for a book HarperCollins planned on why author's live where they do, a book they never published. I'm sorry my Dad wasn't around to
see the book, although he did see many of the beautiful photos. The places included range from well-known Hillerman Country landmarks like Shiprock and
Canyon de Chelly, to obscure locations like Baby Rocks. The text includes quotes from Dad's novels, often with Chee or Leaphorn describing the country
that we've photographed.

Even if you weren't brought to tears upon hearing about Tony Hillerman's death, this book is a worthy companion to his novels. His daughter's writing and her husband's photography really bring to life the world that made up the background for Hillerman's stories. It also touches upon how his life unfolded to give us Jim Chee and Joe Leaphorn.

My only complaint is that the printing really has a strong smell, but that goes away over time if left out to air. I still would have purchased this book even if I had been able to smell it first! For us, it's a good tribute to Tony's life and work and makes our heartache over his loss more bearable.

As a devoted fan of the Leaphorn/Chee works of Tony Hillerman,I was pleasantly surprised with this work.The photography was excellent and one could almost feel the presence of the "Legendary" Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee pervading the book.I suppose the only thing better than this would be someone discovering a hidden stash of Leaphorn/Chee work crammed in a footlocker.

We have read all the Hlllerman books and travelled extensively through the Four Corners area, but we were still unfamiliar with many of the places mentioned in the books. This book helped quite a bit. It may be of interest to one who has not read any of the books, but will certainly be beneficial to his readers. The book is grouped in loose collections, book by book, for example, the Zuni stories. This means the book can be read as needed. There is a bried overview of the book with commnets by Hillerman usually about why he wrote it. Then there are quotes from the book concerning the landscape followed by narrative and photos. Having visited the area, I frankly found the photos wanting. Inspite of the shortcoming, the book was helpful, informative, and somewhat entertaining. We would recommend it for anyone who has enjoyed Chee and Leaphorn as they traversed the Four Corners.

I was really excited to get this book, especially after reading the reviews here. When it came, though, I was really disappointed because so many (most, really) of the photos are dark and muddy... not just "moody" with dark shadows, but genuinely poor reproduction that is dark throughout all the ranges. They just look muddy, and much of the detail--which I am sure was in the digital originals--is just gone. Maybe I got a poorly printed copy; I ordered it online and did not see it until it came. Had I picked it up at a bookstore and flipped through it, I would never have bought it because of the printing quality. Too bad, because it is an interesting book, and I've enjoyed reading what I have so far. But I was looking for a coffee-table type photo book, and this sure did not meet my expectations.

I used to be a print buyer, by the way, so I do understand how poor printing (or separations, whatever) can affect the outcome of a book. If this one had better reproduction, it would have been delightful.

TONY HILLERMAN'S DAUGHTER AND SON-IN-LAW COMPLETED A BOOK THAT SHARES SO MUCH OF WHAT HILLERMAN WAS ABOUT. TRULY AWESOME SCENERY, NATIVE AMERICAN LIVES AND LORE TREATED WITH RESPECT, AND TIDBITS FROM HILLERMAN'S LIFE THAT MAKE ME WANT TO READ MORE ABOUT HIM. IF YOU HAVEN'T READ THE LEAPHORN AND CHEE MYSTERIES READ THIS, THIS BOOK WILL LEAD YOU ON INTO THE FULL STORIES WITH THEIR TWISTS AND TURNS AND WONDERS.

I have read all of Tony Hillerman's books both fiction and nonfiction. I have never read one that I didn't thoroughly enjoy. I especially enjoyed the Chee & Leaphorn books. This book authored by Mr. Hillerman's daughter with photographs by his son-in-law brought most of the places described by Mr. Hillerman in his books to life and is a great tribute to a great author. I will miss Chee and Leaphorn and Tony Hillerman

This book is arraigned by Tony Hillerman's novels and describes the location and explains some of the beliefs that are mentioned in the books. Great photography. I found this book added to my enjoyment of the novels.