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In this deeply moving collection of short stories and essays, Gordon Lee Johnson (Cupeo/Cahuilla) cements his voice not only as a wry commentator on American Indian reservation life but also as a master of fiction writing. In Johnson's stories, all of which are set on the fictional San Ignacio reservation in Southern California, we meet unforgettable characters like Plato Pena, the Stanford-bound geek who reads Kahlil Gibran during intertribal softball games; hardboiled investigator Roddy Foo; and Etta, whose motto is "early to bed, early to rise, work like hell, and advertise," as they face down circumstances by turns ordinary and devastating. From the noir-tinged mystery of "Unholy Wine" to the gripping intensity of "Tukwut," Johnson effortlessly switches genre, perspective, and tense, vividly evoking people and places that are fictional but profoundly true to life. The nonfiction featured in Bird Songs Don't Lie is equally revelatory in its exploration of complex connections between past and present. Whether examining his own conflicted feelings toward the missions as a source of both cultural damage and identity, sharing advice for cooking for eight dozen cowboys and -girls, Johnson plumbs the comedy, catastrophe, and beauty of his life on the Pala Reservation to thunderous effect.
About the author
Gordon Lee Johnson, Cahuilla/Cupeño, lives and writes on the Pala Indian Reservation. A former newspaperman, he was last a columnist and feature writer for the
Press-Enterprise, covering Southern California's Inland Empire. Prior to journalism, he studied literature and philosophy at the Universities of California at Santa Cruz, San Diego, and Berkeley. He graduated with a degree in creative writing from Vermont College and went on to earn a master of fine arts from Antioch University, where he concentrated on Native fiction. He is currently enrolled in the Institute of American Indian Arts' MFA screenwriting program. Johnson has a book of newspaper columns called
Rez Dogs Eat Beans that was translated and published in the Czech Republic. In 2007, Heyday published another compilation of his newspaper columns titled
Fast Cars and Frybread. He is the former Indigenous Writer in Residence for the School of Advanced Research in Santa Fe. He has four children, eleven grandchildren, and a feral tabby cat named Trouble who growls from the back porch when hungry.
Summary
In this deeply moving collection of short stories and essays, Gordon Lee Johnson (Cupeño/Cahuilla) cements his voice not only as a wry commentator on American Indian reservation life but also as a master of fiction writing. In Johnson's stories, all of which are set on the fictional San Ignacio reservation in Southern California, we meet unforgettable characters like Plato Pena, the Stanford-bound geek who reads Kahlil Gibran during intertribal softball games; hardboiled investigator Roddy Foo; and Etta, whose motto is “early to bed, early to rise, work like hell, and advertise,” as they face down circumstances by turns ordinary and devastating. From the noir-tinged mystery of “Unholy Wine” to the gripping intensity of “Tukwut,” Johnson effortlessly switches genre, perspective, and tense, vividly evoking people and places that are fictional but profoundly true to life. The nonfiction featured in Bird Songs Don't Lie is equally revelatory in its exploration of complex connections between past and present. Whether examining his own conflicted feelings toward the missions as a source of both cultural damage and identity, sharing advice for cooking for eight dozen cowboys and -girls, or recounting an influx of New Age seekers of enlightenment in the Pushcart-nominated “100 White Women,” Johnson plumbs the comedy, catastrophe, and beauty of his life on the Pala Reservation to thunderous effect.
