The Death of Jim Loney (Contemporary American fiction) (Paperback)

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Editorial Reviews

Review

“ An undying story told with the austerity of Camus’s The Stranger, of a wounded soul seeking to become whole.”
—Ivan Doig

“The Death of Jim Loney is an American classic.”
—William Kittredge --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Description

Jim Loney is a half-breed Indian living in a small Montana town. He's 35 years old, and he's slowly going mad. A compelling story of the modern American Indian, out of warpaint and costume, with no tribe and no home in nature or the cheap substitutes available to him.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics) (November 3, 1987)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140102914
• ISBN-13: 978-0140102918
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #281,385 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful and poignant prose..., July 24, 1999

By	[e-mail] (London, UK) - See all my reviews

Having read Fools Crow I was aware that James Welch has a wonderful way with words. However, I was unprepared for this book - it was like sitting in the head of the principal character, Jim Loney. I found myself so involved that I was willing Jim to come out of his predicament in one piece before I reached the back cover of the book. I don't want to give too much of the plot away, but I went through a roller-coaster of emotions reading this book. It brought to mind some people I knew, but I think that it was most poignant because I thought, 'a flame extinguished even before it had enough time to burn bright... at last he seems to have found some happiness.... why didn't they try harder to save him....why did he give up so easily, etc. etc.'It's a stark and wonderful story....read it!!!

12 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Concise, well-written, and effective, July 27, 2001

By	LaLoren - See all my reviews

Reading this, I could not help making comparisons with the play, "Death of a Salesman." While James Welch may not appreciate his story of a half-breed American Indian being compared to a play about a very white, middle-class male, I found my reaction to both very similar. Despite the sense of doom, from the very beginning, I found myself foolishly hoping, as I did with Willy Loman, that Jim would latch on to one of the opportunities offered him, and change his fate. At the same time I knew that Jim, like Willy, was a finished product by the time I'd met him, and that simply changing locations (or jobs) would not make any real difference. Of course, Willy was more a product of his own choices, while Loney is more a product of other peoples'disregard. This is where the story of the white man and the Indian diverge.

Welch is an excellant writer. This book is concise and neat. Very little is extraneous or superfluous to the story. There are a couple of small flaws, however. While he does an excellent job of portraying the feelings and emotions of Loney's sister, I thought he did not do as good a job with his white girl friend. To me she came off just a bit one-dimensional, but then, it is often difficult for a male writer to explain the female side of a relationship. I also thought he could have done away with some of the explanations at the end regarding Indian alienation from the white culture, and Officer Painter's sudden realization of Loney's "plan." Perhaps Welch didn't trust in his own abilities to bring this out within the story, but he had already done an admirable job, and it didn't require repetition.

All in all, I would recommend this book very highly. You will probably end up, like I did, reading it in one night, and then wishing that you hadn't finished it so quickly, so that you would still have it to look forward to.

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Simple, yet extraordinary, May 17, 2000

By A Customer

Ýt is a compeling novel with unique descrpýtýons of a modern Native American who is caught between his past and present.Jim ,a half- breed with a blurry past, is struggling with self-identification.While trying to reinvent his lost identity, Jim is offered help from people who love him.However,neither social relations nor cheap wines help him get over his identity crisis.As he gets more involved with his subconcious thoughts and dreams, he starts to become a non-person in the small town of Montana.As he refuses to get help from people who try to bring order to his life, he realizes the liveliness of the land and as a result identifies with it for a regeneration of his soul. Even though,the plot is quite simple, the intriguing descriptions make the novel an extraordinary one.Inarguably,everyone can find certain points or characters to identify with himself.