Chancers (American Indian Literature & Critical Studies)
In this darkly comic and satiric novel, academics in the Native Studies Department of the University of California are being sacrificed in the name of Native remains repatriation, their skulls exchanged for Native bones to let the spirit chancers (resurrected Natives) return. Demons and tricksters, solar dancers and round dancers, irony and victimization, death and eroticismDall do battle in the department, leading to a graduation conflagration, complete with guest appearances by Pocahontas and the spirit of a bawdy hand puppet. Vizenor (Native American literature and studies, Univ. of California, Berkeley; Griever: An American Monkey King in China) weaves together characters from his other novels, along with shamanism and the works of Samuel Beckett, to capture the dilemmas of modern Native life without succumbing to rage or despair. Sexy, violent, and bitingly funny, this book is not for everyone, but readers of Tom Robbins looking for another author will want to give this a tryDas will anyone interested in fiction that doesn't play it safe.DEllen Flexman, Indianapolis-Marion Cty. P.L.Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.