INDenverTimes.com » Colorado Authors

Book review: ‘Forgetting the Alamo’

Benjamin Whitmer — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 23:20:03 +0000

Forgetting the Alamo
By Emma Pérez
University of Texas Press
218 pp., 1 map

There are few stories as foundational to American identity as the epic revenge tale. From the genocidal Indian haters of early American frontier novels, to the sidewalk vigilantes regurgitated by Hollywood every month or so, nothing seems to bring in the public like righteous vengeance.

The stories are all reasonably similar. A quiet everyman — and this genre has traditionally been the bailiwick of men — is going about living a quiet life, when he returns home one day to find that some portion of his family has been butchered and the women viciously raped by Indians, urban malcontents or some other assortment of bad guys. Much frothing at the mouth ensues, followed by a monomaniacal pursuit of vengeance, ending in the righteous extermination of said bad guys, usually attended by some buckets of blood.

It’s a narrative that recurs with such frequency in American letters that one is, at times, a little afraid for the sanity of American culture, particularly given that the bad guys are almost exclusively dark-skinned, while the good guys are almost always, well, not. In fact, the tale originates with the likes of Robert Montgomery Bird and Judge James Hall as a way of framing an argument for the wholesale extermination of American Indians and has been used as similar justification throughout America’s long history of racial warfare.

Emma Pérez’s award-winning historical novel Forgetting the Alamo, Or, Blood Memory falls within the tradition of this kind of revenge story, but only in the way that, say, Pynchon’s Inherent Vice falls within the tradition of detective fiction. It’s a delightfully playful deconstruction of the narratives used by Anglo-Americans to justify colonization, a deadly serious rumination on the consequences of that colonization, and, not least by anyone’s standards, an explosive adventure tale.

It takes place in the early half of the 19th century and follows the exploits and revenge attempts of a Tejana lesbian cowgirl who is dispossessed of her family’s ranch by a murderous, rapacious gang of marauders — otherwise known as Texas’ founding fathers — during the Anglo-American colonization of Texas.

The narrator, Micaela Campos, is as vivid as a character gets. She’s a drunken, foul-mouthed drifter tormented by the massacres she’s been witness to, and Perez’s prose leads us through her stark and violent world with the kind of deadpan humor and high style that her narrator deserves. Take, for instance, this description of the consequences visited upon an unfortunate gambler who makes the mistake of trying to force himself on Micaela’s lover, Clara:

At first I was polite. I stood and inched to the center table and locked his neck with my arm and choked the unfortunate slug until he spit. Then I knocked his head over and over against the table and blood poured out of his nose and he spit saliva mixed with blood onto the other boys, who got up and scattered. I didn’t care if they defended him or not. I was lunatic enough for the lot of them and I think they saw that I was crazy and that my lunacy came out of nowhere and none of them cared to test its sincerity. I shoved him on the floor and kick from his head to his groin and I kicked over and over and couldn’t stop and I have to say I was not inclined to stop.

Forgetting the Alamo deliberately evokes the 19th century world of Cormac McCarthy’s scalp-hunting epic, Blood Meridian, even stopping by a scalp-bounty massacre, but is no kind of McCarthy derivative. Blood Meridian is a modern masterpiece but not one that’s particularly interested in the nuances of individual character; Forgetting the Alamo, on the other hand, is as devoted to its protagonist as it is to its flawed minor characters, like Jed Jedediah, Micaela’s rakish, cowardly, and ultimately worthy cousin. If anything, Forgetting the Alamo is something of a cousin to Blood Meridian, with both sharing an ancestor in William Faulkner, and before him, Herman Melville. It’s a book that’s worthy of that lineage: a proud, raucous and wonderful novel, tearing like cannon shot through the far less proud history of America’s colonization of Texas.

Emma Pérez is a Colorado author. She teaches at the University of Colorado, Boulder. She published her first novel, Gulf Dreams, in 1996.

Author of Rocky tribute schedules book signings

News Desk — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 05:00:44 +0000

Michael Madigan, author of a popular, commemorative book about the 150-year history of the Rocky Mountain News, will be signing copies at several locations in the next few weeks.

Madigan, a longtime editor at the Rocky, released Heroes, Villains, Dames & Disasters / 150 Years of Front-Page Stories from the Rocky Mountain News in June. INDenverTimes published a five-part series.

The original series started publication in the newspaper and was to have run for 150 days. The closing of the Rocky on Feb. 27 ended the series after barely 100 chapters.

MADIGAN BOOK SIGNINGS:

Saturday, Sept. 19: Borders at Flatirons Crossing, Broomfield, 1-3 p.m.

Sunday, Sept. 20: Borders at Twenty Ninth Street mall, Boulder, 3-5 p.m.

Saturday, Oct. 2: Author Fest of the Rockies, Manitou Springs; program at 1:45 p.m., author showcase at 4:30 p.m.

Monday, Oct. 12: Tattered Cover in lower downtown Denver, 7 p.m.

Book Review: ‘The Long Trial of Nolan Dugatti’ an odd duck even by Jones’ standards

Benjamin Whitmer — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 20:31:14 +0000

The Long Trial of Nolan Dugatti

by Stephen Graham Jones

Chiasmus, 2008

196 pages

One the greatest pleasures of reading a new novel by Stephen Graham Jones is the disoriented feeling you get about three-quarters of the way through, when you happen to realize that he’s written an entirely different book from the one you thought you were reading. His novels exist well outside the boundaries of polite categorization, and, not being content just to exist as such, they tend to break down the reader’s categorizations as well. As the back matter of The Long Trial of Nolan Dugatti puts it:

Not quite horror, not quite science fiction, but like his five or six other books, a story trembling at some pupal stage between meat and the game, where words will sometimes stop their crawl across the page and crane their neck around at the sky, nod about what they see there — you — then unfold their wings, drift up into another world altogether.

Besides being some of the finest prose to ever grace the back matter of a novel, that’s also about as good a description of any Stephen Graham Jones novel as you’re likely to get. Whether writing experimental fiction like last year’s exceptional Ledfeather, the hyper-annotated literary horror of Demon Theory, or the serial-killer thriller All the Beautiful Sinners, the only sure bet is that the reader will be mesmerized. And more than a little unsettled. And it’s a feeling that, as I can attest, only increases as one tries desperately to find new way to pigeon-hole Jones in second and third readings.

That said, even by the standards one must apply to any Jones novel, The Long Trial of Nolan Dugatti is an odd duck. Beautifully written and smart and a whole hell of a lot of fun, absolutely. But most definitely an odd duck. The half of the book written from Nolan Dugatti’s point of view chronicles his job as a technical support representative for an obsolete video game featuring an existential time traveling narrative, an insect alien called a Camopede, and blind ninja. If that hasn’t caught your attention, the other half consists of notes penned by Nolan Dugatti’s father as he plots a progressively more lunatic series of failed suicide attempts. Plots which, by way of example, include a tantalizing contrivance that contains, “the mime I didn’t know was a prostitute (promise) and the windshield wiper fluid and that parasail rig.”

Mostly, however, The Long Trial of Nolan Dugatti contains the kind of backbreaking shame and remorse that come with dysfunctional father-son relationships. Most fathers don’t make their sons an integral part of their alcoholic suicide fantasies – at least explicitly – but there’s nothing unrecognizable in the guilt-riddled attempt to make some kind of sense to your progeny of your own immense failings. And, as every father – or son – knows, those efforts are always absurd, always doomed, and almost always destructive. It’s the kind of book that makes one want to spend Father’s Day heaving Molotov cocktails through the windows of neighborhood bars. And because Jones’ writing is so elegant, so willing to take chances with form, the result is that much more crushing. Especially as the reader realizes that there was never any kind of game being played, not by Nolan or his father; that everything was always at stake.

Book review: ‘Stick It’ levels the playing field with attitude

Steve Haigh — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 17:40:24 +0000

Stick it to The Man
By Ronald Lewis
Skyhorse Publishing
182 pages
$12.95

Ron Lewis grew up questioning the validity of money. Now 29, Lewis is out to do battle with unfeeling corporations and ineffective government.

“People lack the motivation to stand up against authority,” says Lewis, an activist, speaker and entrepreneur whose book, Stick it to The Man, offers a balance of practical tips and light-hearted advice.

A central theme in Lewis’ book is that “consumers have a voice and a choice.” His Stick It recipe mixes self-advocacy and determination with a big helping of patience and preparation. Solutions range from using common sense to insightful twists

Problem: Customer service agent refuses to cancel your service over the phone, without your knowledge.

Solution: Cancel your account online.

Problem: Unprofessional truck driver is riding your bumper.

Solution: Don’t give him the finger. Reduce your speed by 5 to 10 mph and then smile in your rearview mirror.

He doesn’t use the word, but some of his advice borders on the radical.

Problem: You don’t have the cash for your taxes.

Solution: “If you really, really, really never want to be bothered by the IRS again . . . expatriate by giving up your U.S. citizenship.

And some is a little sneaky. The book’s subtitle is, after all, “How to Skirt the Law, Scam Your Enemies, and Screw Big, Fat, Stupid, Lazy Corporations . . . for Fun and Profit!”

Problem: Your cell phone company says the pink dot inside your phone , indicating wet, has voided your warranty.

Solution: Buy replacement white dots on eBay.

Lewis is seeking sponsors to promote his book on a nationwide tour, and he’d like to inspire Americans to take back their country from a “broken government.”

“I’m going to start encouraging Americans to silently demonstrate in D.C.,” Lewis says. “Our government has dug a hole for our country and left it to die.”

As an entrepreneur, an activist and a high-tech consultant, Lewis is mapping out his future to add motivational speaker to his resume. “I’ve discovered my purpose in life is to be a moral leader with a genuine voice,” he says.

Lewis was raised in Detroit by his mother. At the age of 13, he started writing letters to successful people to learn their secrets. He counts Bill Gates and Randy Pausch, the late computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon University, among his role models.

“I’m always hoping for guidance and knowledge, Lewis says.”

Ron Lewis will host a live conversation on the INsider Channel at 2 p.m. Friday.

Heroes, Villains, Dames & Disasters — 2000: Three centuries of newspapering

Michael Madigan — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 04:22:52 +0000

The original series, written by Michael Madigan, a longtime editor at the Rocky, started publication in the newspaper and was to have run for 150 days. The closing of the Rocky on Feb. 27 ended the series after barely 100 chapters.

A few of the excerpts have been expanded for the book, which is now on sale at the Colorado History Museum, 1300 Broadway, and all Tattered Cover locations. It can be requested at any Colorado bookstore.

No. 135: Jan. 1, 2000

One hundred years after the Rocky Mountain News postponed recognition of the dawn of the next century on Jan. 1, 1900, there was no delaying the arrival of the 21st century. Something called Y2K wouldn’t allow it.

On New Year’s Day, 1900, the newspaper published what it boasted was “the best paper ever printed in Colorado.” An ambitious 54-page special section heralded the new year. But it didn’t recognize the date as the start of the new century. The reasoning then – and even by some a century later – was that technically the century was from 1801 through 1900 because theoretically there was no “zero year.” The Rocky reasoned that the last day of the century wasn’t until Dec. 31, 1900.

In the final days of 1999, there still was some debate in the newsroom – even around the world – about the mathematics of century-changing, when it ended, when it began. But there was a whistling-through-the-graveyard urgency that it was now.

The concern was that after decades of advancing technology, no one was really sure what would happen when all the world’s clocks and timers and computers and odometers rolled over to read “000.” The Rocky was pretty sure its own computers, needed to write stories and run its presses, would work. But no one was taking any chances. Thousands of hours of planning were devoted to setting up backup plans as well as marking the new millennium.

So the banner headline of a decidedly nontraditional front page on Jan. 1 carried a very real tone of relief.

The world was OK. And the paper ran photos of jubilant celebration from around the world to prove it. Its lead story chased the arrival of the new century around the globe.

The magic moment sped westward, from a windswept atoll in the South Pacific to the skyscraper canyons of Manhattan to the rock-ribbed foothills of the Front Range.

Y2K advanced relentlessly Friday, hurtling across 24 time zones and joining the world’s nations in an unprecedented global block party.
. . . In Denver, the party was on in the bars and restaurants of LoDo and at the Pepsi Center, where Neil Diamond performed in front of 15,000. Much of downtown, though, was a no-parking zone with a heavy police presence in an attempt to prevent a repeat of rioting that struck after the Broncos’ Super Bowl victories the past two years.”

Jan. 2, 1978: Super day for Colorado

Aug. 27, 1964: Going helter-skelter

April 15, 1865: Death of a president

April 23, 1859: Rolling out a rich history

For all 150 complete chapters, with accompanying original front pages from the Rocky, plus the book Foreword written by State Historian William J. Convery, ask for Heroes, Villains, Dames & Disasters at your favorite bookstore or order online at www.michaelmadiganauthor.com.

Heroes, Villains, Dames & Disasters — 1978: Super day for Colorado

Michael Madigan — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 13:00:51 +0000

The original series, written by Michael Madigan, a longtime editor at the Rocky, started publication in the newspaper and was to have run for 150 days. The closing of the Rocky on Feb. 27 ended the series after barely 100 chapters.

No. 102: Jan. 2, 1978

Going to the Super Bowl, this very first time, turned out to be much more exciting for Colorado and its beloved Broncos than playing in it.

After 18 years – first as an American Football League stepchild, then a National Football League afterthought – the Broncos finally made Denver and Colorado feel like they were big-time.

The Rocky made it a tradition, unspoken and unplanned, to feature the Broncos on page 1 on most Mondays after games. Unless war or pestilence broke out. On Jan. 2, 1978, the football team really was a front-page story. The Broncos had beaten The Hated Raiders and were going to play America’s team, the Dallas Cowboys, in Denver’s first championship game.

SUPER NEW YEAR!

Ring out the old – the Oakland Raiders – and ring in the new – the Denver Broncos.

Denver’s Destiny Darlings are headed to the Super Bowl.

On New Year’s Day, before 75,000 Broncomaniacs, the Broncos turned a chilly afternoon into the warmest day in Denver history by winning the National Football League’s American Conference championship over the Raiders 20-17.

. . . There was dancing in the streets Sunday after the Broncos provided Denver with its most exciting sports moment ever.

Even the cliché-filled sports writing was acceptable on this day. Broncomania truly had been born.

Aug. 27, 1964: Going helter-skelter

April 15, 1865: Death of a president

April 23, 1859: Rolling out a rich history

Heroes, Villains, Dames & Disasters — 1964: Going helter-skelter

Michael Madigan — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 05:57:00 +0000

The Beatles at Red Rocks on Aug. 27, 1964. Lisa Gedgaudas photo

With the publication of Heroes, Villains, Dames & Disasters / 150 Years of Front-Page Stories from the Rocky Mountain News, INDenverTimes is posting an excerpt each day this week from five different chapters of the book.

The original series, written by Michael Madigan, a longtime editor at the Rocky, started publication in the newspaper and was to have run for 150 days. The closing of the Rocky on Feb. 27 ended the series after barely 100 chapters.

No. 85: Aug. 27, 1964

The Rocky’s concert review the day after the Beatles’ only show in Denver was brief but warm – like the Fab Four’s performance.

Beatles Rock
Happy Fans

By Ralph Veatch
Rocky Mountain News Writer

The Beatles, whom some have called ‘the greatest thing to hit America since cotton candy,’ rocked and socked through a musical review Wednesday night at Red Rocks Amphitheater, and more than 9000 young people ate it up, you might say, as they shrieked almost nonstop through a tuneful half hour performance.

There was no cute letter grade or row of stars to rate the act. Just 13 inches of restraint, back on page 102, with a 2-inch filler at the bottom, about a fire in New York, because the review didn’t completely fill its allotted hole. Veatch went on to write:

The unsung hero of the group is Ringo Starr, the hard-working drummer-boy. He’s often been touted as a presidential candidate of the young folk. He should win everyone’s vote for his 100 percent strong rhythmic performance.

… About the only untoward event, if it was that, was the intermittent shower of jelly beans which the crowd threw onstage. But, undaunted, the British foursome played on.

The Beatles, who professed an especial interest in singing at Red Rocks, proved by their performance that the early reports were not idle publicity. The Beatles really poured it on and the energetic audience poured it right back.

April 15, 1865: Death of a president

April 23, 1859: Rolling out a rich history

Heroes, Villains, Dames & Disasters — 1865: Death of a president

Michael Madigan — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 05:31:04 +0000

The assassination of President Lincoln at Ford's Theatre - after the act. Harper's Weekly, April 29, 1865

No. 12: April 15, 1865

To any reader, the front page of The Daily Rocky Mountain News on April 15, 1865, looked like any other edition. At the top of the page there were the usual subscription rates ($24 for a year). The rest of page 1 was taken up with text ads for attorneys, business cards, hotels and saloons. Even the single graphic element on the page — a set of dentures fashioned by Dr. Eugene C. Gehrung — was familiar.

But it took only a glance at page 2 to know there was terrible news. The entire page was bordered in black, and the gutters between columns of text were black as well.

Latest by Telegraph
ASSASSINATION
OF
PRESIDENT LINCOLN
AND
SECRETARY SEWARD.
A NATION
IN
Mourning.

WASHINGTON, April 15, 1:30 a.m. – Last evening, about 9:30 p.m., at Ford’s Theatre, the President, while sitting in his private box with Mrs. Lincoln, Mrs. Harris and Major Rathborne, was shot by an assassin, who suddenly entered the box and approached behind the President. The assassin then leaped upon the stage, brandishing a large dagger, and made his escape in the rear of the theatre.

The pistol ball entered into the back of the President’s head, penetrating nearly through the head. The wound is mortal, and the President has been insensible ever since it was inflicted, and is now about dying.

About the same hour an assassin, whether the same or not, entered Mr. Seward’s apartment, and under pretence of having a prescription . . . inflicted two or three stabs in the throat and two in the face.

Another story followed with more details:

The screams of Mrs. Lincoln first disclosed the fact to the audience that the President had been shot, when all present rose to their feet, rushing towards the stage, many exclaiming ‘hang him.’

April 23, 1859: Rolling out a rich history

Heroes, Villains, Dames & Disasters — 1859: Rolling out a rich history

Michael Madigan — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 04:25:12 +0000

The first office of the Rocky Mountain News in 1859. Image courtesy of the Denver Public Library Western History Collection, photoswest.org.

No. 1: April 23, 1859

A cheer went up along Cherry Creek late the night of April 22, 1859. William Newton Byers, 28, and a crew of three men — not all experienced printers, as you will learn — cranked out the first edition of the Rocky Mountain News, beating its very first competitor, The Cherry Creek Pioneer, to the streets of Denver by 20 minutes.

Colorado had its first newspaper.

Byers had arrived from Omaha only one night earlier, setting up shop on the second floor of a log building operated by Uncle Dick Wooton as a general store and saloon. Immediately, he found himself in a race against the Pioneer, as he explained on page 3 in the first edition:

QUICK WORK. — On the 21st, at 7 p.m., the wagons carrying our press were driven to the door and we began unloading. We set up our press, arranged our matter, and the next day at 10 p.m. began printing the outside of our first issue.

One man working with Byers, Ike “Buckskin” Chamberlain, may have had some printing experience. But Byers apparently wasn’t so sure that he could outrace the Pioneer that he would turn down help from an unlikely volunteer. The following account appeared in the paper’s anniversary edition 38 years later:

O.P. Wiggins, the well-known policeman . . . was in the city on the day and had never seen a press. Hearing that one was about to be operated he went to The News office and requested to be allowed to assist in the printing. Mr. Byers gave him a chance to run the roller which distributed the ink over the type. He accepted the offer and worked faithfully for an hour . . . Chamberlain was killed about a year later on the trail between Pueblo and Taos. Mr. Wiggins subscribed for The News at that time and has been a continuous subscriber ever since. Amos Steck divides the honor with Mr. Wiggins, having taken the paper as regularly.