Bluefeather Fellini

Born in New Mexico at the end of World War I, Bluefeather Fellini is half-Pueblo Indian and half-Italian. Throughout his life, Bluefeather enjoys roaming and seeking his fortunes elsewhere, but he is always drawn back to Taos, the home of his Indian mother. During times of danger, he is visited by Dancing Bear, his spirit guide, who interjects ageless humor into situations when needed. And his Aunt Tulip Everhaven usually has a brew made from sagebrush that helps Bluefeather put his troubles into perspective.

"[Max Evans is] a sage voice of the West."—The New York Times

The narrative tone changes dramatically to describe Bluefeather's participation in D-Day and the subsequent push into Germany in harrowing, unsentimental detail; these nearly surreal passages are war writing at its best. . . . a highly engaging epic."—Publishers Weekly

"A strong sense of place permeates the text; the high-desert world of northern New Mexico provides realistic and spiritual elements that add mythic quality to a leisurely-told tale with a large cast of colorful characters. This is a work of peculiar power."—Library Journal

This classic of American fiction tells the story of the travels of Bluefeather Fellini, a half-Pueblo Indian and half-Italian who always returns to his mother's home of Taos, New Mexico.

Publishers Weekly

Magic realism and grim naturalism are two of the styles successfully employed by Evans (who wrote the classic western, The Rounders ) in his picaresque tale of an archetypal American. Born in New Mexico in 1918, the half-Indian, half-Italian Bluefeather decides while still in his teens that his future lies with the earth and so becomes a prospector, although he will also spend time as a cardsharp, a soldier and a salesman. He roams across the Southwest, whose enchanting physical and spiritual terrain is captured in dreamy prose that recalls Latin American fiction: a humorous, enigmatic spirit guide named Dancing Bear intermittently appears to advise Bluefeather in times of danger, and other characters with one foot in the world beyond include Dr. Merphyn Godchuck and his aunt Tulip Everhaven, who distill a magic elixir from sagebrush leaves. The narrative tone changes dramatically to describe Bluefeather's participation in D-Day and the subsequent push into Germany in harrowing, unsentimental detail; these nearly surreal passages are war writing at its best. Bluefeather survives and endures, in the end personifying the hopefulness of a revived postwar nation. The first volume of fiction to be issued by this university press, this is a highly engaging epic. Paperback rights to Bantam. (Oct.)

Max Evans, the author of Bluefeather Fellini, The Rounders, The Hi Lo Country, and twenty-two other books, lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He received the Owen Wister Award for lifelong contributions to the field of western literature from the Western Writers of America.