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Adrian C. Louis's largely autobiographical verse is characterized by a bluntness born of self-irony and self-criticism. He attacks his subjects with an emotional engagement that is both tender and honest. Within the context of fallen ideals and lost spirituality among Native Americans, he composes elegies for his mentally disabled wife and describes scenes from "Cowturdville", his name for the town near a reservation where he lived. Mesmerizing the reader with the rhythm of his lively lines, Louis demonstrates a stylistic strength that is both accessible and demanding. His candid portrayals of Native American life and his social and moral critique of American consumerism and conformity are darkly hilarious odes to the cultural boundaries between Americans and Native Americans.
About the author
ADRIAN C. LOUIS (1946-2018) was born and raised in Nevada and was an enrolled member of the Lovelock Paiute Tribe. Louis has written eight books of poems, including
Fire Water World, winner of the 1989 Poetry Center Book Award from San Francisco State University, and he is the author of two works of fiction:
Skins, a novel that turned motion, and a collection of short stories,
Wild Indians & Other Creatures. Louis has won various writing awards, among them a Pushcart Prize and fellowships from the Bush Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Fund. In 1999, he was elected to the Nevada Writers Hall of Fame. He taught and Oglala Lakota College on the Pine Ridge Reservation of South Dakota and at Southwest Minnesota State University in Marshall, Minnesota.
Summary
A collection of poems confronting loneliness and cultural alienation. Adrian C. Louis's largely autobiographical verse is characterized by a bluntness born of self-irony and self-criticism. He composes elegies for his mentally disabled wife and describes scenes from a town near where he lived.
