Back in the 1980s, about the time I began assembling the first issue of Reading, we visited Santa Fe and discovered the novels of Tony Hillerman. Nancy and I were intrigued with New Mexico and with Hillerman's stories. Most of them are mysteries set in the Navajo nation accurately and lovingly portrayed by an Oklahoman of German Catholic extraction. We read all the Hillerman fiction and we went back to Santa Fe twice (so far). So I shelled out the big bucks for Tony Hillerman's memoir Seldom Disappointed. For me, it was worth the expense to learn more about the man who had created so much enjoyment in his version of the native world of Arizona. Hillerman turns out to be both more and less than I had imagined. Much of the book is his story of World War II. He was in the infantry and in battle. His soldiering days ended when he stepped on a land mine that left him blind in one eye. But I don't think the war is over for him. He has now told his tale twice. The first telling was the book he always wanted to write. By the time he got around to writing it, he set it in Vietnam and called it Finding Moon. But it was finished and published in the midst of his success as a mystery writer who wrote about Navajo policemen, and the book he always wanted to write never found an audience. I had hoped Hillerman would write more about observing and learning about the Navajo culture and about writing the Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee mysteries, but he had other things to say. Like stories about his reporting career. Like descriptions of his family and where the kids are now. I didn't get all I wanted out of this book, but I did get more familiar with a good man whose creativity I've enjoyed for years. He hints there's another mystery coming. I look forward to it. If you're a Hillerman fan, this one is worth asking for at the library if it's not on the shelf.
