Tony Hillerman, A Life.
James McGrath Morris
University of Oklahoma Press
October 14th, 2021
Tony Hillerman A Life by James McGrath Morris gives readers a full insight into the author’s backstory. Between 1970 and 2006 he published 37 books, eighteen of which were mysteries involving the Navajos.
His best-selling novels featured detectives Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee. Leaphorn is older, combines the Navajo and Anglo methods, and is sophisticated. Chee is younger, more inquisitive, more curious, tried to understand the Anglo’s culture, but was immersed in the Navajo’s traditions. Joe used the western investigative techniques, while Chee used the Navajo beliefs of spirits.
Morris also delves into Hillerman’s life. Readers see what impacted the author from living in Oklahoma during the depression, his near-death experience in WWII causing PTSD, his journalism years in New Mexico, his marriage, and his connection with Navajo spirituality. In addition, Morris explains how Leaphorn was created and the circumstances that led to the addition of Jim Chee as his partner.
Elise Cooper: Why did you choose to write a book on Tony Hillerman?
James Morris: My motivation comes from thinking his achievement as a writer is under appreciated. I wanted to bring attention to how he fundamentally altered the mystery genre. In the 1970s there were primarily white male detective crime solvers. He introduced Navajo detectives and in doing so unraveled the Navajo culture to the world. I am also a fan, someone who read his books for thirty years.
EC: How would you describe Joe Leaphorn?
JMM: He was an accidental creation in the first novel, The Blessing Way. There was a white protagonist and Joe was introduced as a secondary character. He is more bicultural than Chee.
EC: How would you describe Jim Chee?
JMM: He is younger and more traditional than Leaphorn. He came about in the fourth novel, struggling to balance the white world and the Navajo world.
EC: How would you describe Tony Hillerman?
JMM: He was a complicated soul. Deeply Catholic. I believe part of his devotion and fascination with Navajo spirituality was to find a harmonious way in life. He had to reconcile the horrors of the war he saw with his strong moral code and humbleness. A good soul.
EC: What about his journalism?
JMM: It was important training for him, especially when he worked for United Press. He never believed in writer’s block because he had to deal with deadlines. He always mixed in the real world with his fiction.
EC: There is a quote about his novels?
JMM: You must be referring to this one. “For years he longed to leave what he called the ‘hard rock of journalism,’ and ‘move into the plastic of fiction’. To him journalism was limited. Fiction had the power to get to a deeper truth because it was not bound by accuracy. He could improve the character’s language and have them say things he wanted. Fiction has plasticity, a flexibility to pursue the bigger story.
EC: Did people accuse him of appropriation?
JMM: Not when he started writing in the 1970s, but later. People felt he was making millions of dollars based on the Navajo culture. There was also the reverse where many Navajos were thrilled by his writing and how he highlighted, not the poverty, corruption, and coal mines, but the wonderful aspects of their culture. Some felt he revitalized their spiritual and cultural traditions. I think had he started writing his books today he probably could not have written them. He managed to do the novels in a respectful manner before the door closed.
EC: What is your favorite book and what do you want readers to get out of your book?
JMM: The third novel, Dance Hall of the Dead. Besides being a classic detective story about two boys who go missing, it also has details about the culture through Leaphorn’s eyes. I think Hillerman’s writing is an act of genius.
THANK YOU!!
