Review: Hillerman

I just finished Tony Hillerman's Sacred Clowns. I'd read it years ago, but barely remembered it, and this time I read it to answer some questions.

1. What did the book evoke?

The book evokes "misfit". Every major character somehow doesn't fit with his or her current circumstances. The Cheyenne federal agent who is trying to cope with Navajo culture. The lady attorney who is Navajo, in Navajo land, but grew up in the city, separated from her culture. The two detectives, Leaphorn and Chee who feel lonely for different reasons and often challenged by the ethics of their work and cultures.

The writing continually evokes this feeling of being a misfit, a feeling we all become familiar with in junior high school, and frequently face as adults. It's what makes us shy in new settings, sets us to asking odd questions like "What will people wear to the pcinic?" We've all experienced that moment when we showed up for a group function and, for some reason (dress, hair cut, age, shoes, time), we didn't fit in.

I remember going to a party in our hometown. Many couples our age were there. It had been talked about for weeks, this particular party. Within a few minutes I realized that we were the only couple who had brought a child. Our cute two-year-old daughter, dressed in pink, was running through the legs of adults -- by herself. Oops! Here we were, smart competent adults, suddenly misfits. We left very soon afterwards.

So by evoking "misfit", Hillerman tapped a universal unease. A reader could think, "I don't know what it's like to be a Navajo tribal policeman, but I sure know what it's like to not fit in."

2. What makes Tony Hillerman a good writer?

I found numerous writing "errors" in the book. Several times Hillerman's sentence structure was confusing, even twisted. I could stop and straighten out the sentence to make it better. The editor in me is good at that. Also, words were ocassionally mis-used. But these problems did not slow down the story.

The story is about misfit people in an exotic location -- the very rural reservations of the south west. Also, the story is filled with vivid details about this exotic place: the names of rural roads, the DJ at a radio station, sunsets against multi-colored mesas, the kachina dance at a pueblo, the smell of the school wood shop.

He explored the location with vivid details, and used precise words and phrases to express beauty or frustration or exhaustion.

3. Why is Tony Hillerman a best-selling author?

See above. Plus, the man can craft an excellent mystery plot.

Have you read any of Tony Hillerman's books? What do you think of his writing?