Indian Time

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

For nearly a year the author lived in northern New Mexico researching and writing a public television documentary on contemporary Native Americans. Fein, who portrays herself as naturally reticent, overcame her reservations enough to explore ancient ruins, make friends with people from an alien culture, take part in native rituals and even arrange a ceremony that would bring together the traditionally antagonistic Hispanics and Indians--this while battling an uncooperative Native American writing partner and unsympathetic television producers back home in Los Angeles. Fein attributes her newfound courage to new ways of thinking about life she learned from the Indians. Her receptiveness to their customs and philosophy is admirable, but unfortunately her wide-eyed idealization of all things Native American has resulted in a breathless book replete with such dictums as ``we must heal ailing personal and cultural relationships to get in touch with our hearts'' and ``the universe will keep us afloat.'' The cumulative effect is cloying. (Sept.)

Library Journal

Readers acquainted with the Southwestern locations discussed in this book will be pleased to read Fein's personal insights into the people and culture of the area. The book is a collection of letters and diary entries composed by the author on a trip to Sante Fe, New Mexico, in 1991 with her husband to research a public television documentary. They witness not only their everyday life, concerns, and problems but also their religious ceremonies and public events. While experiencing a totally different world from her native Los Angeles, the author underwent a personal transformation, going from a fearful urban dweller to a confident and happier world dweller. Recommended for public libraries needing personalized views on contemporary Native American customs, religious practices, and social problems.-- Bruce Alan Hanson, Wayzata East J . H.S. Lib., Minn.

Judie Fein, an L.A. screenwriter terrified of everything from bugs to heights, traveled to New Mexico to work on a television series about Pueblo Indians and experienced a sea change. This delightful volume is based on her frank and animated letters to friends and family over the course of this revelatory year. Readers will find themselves enthralled by Fein and her unflagging curiosity, startling intuitiveness, sensitivity, humor, and candor. Her fascination with Indian and Hispanic cultures lifted her right out of her urban phobias and led her to discover her innate affinity for a way of life more directly linked to nature. As she witnesses various ceremonies, visits sacred sites, and learns to intensify her powers of observation, Fein is flooded with spontaneous insights into Indian beliefs in particular and the complexity of human nature in general. In between riveting accounts of journeys, conversations, and epiphanies, Fein ponders the tangled history of Indian-Hispanic relationships, recognizes how both cultures are engaged in keeping their traditions alive and vital, and, most impressively, manages to write about spiritual matters without a shred of preciousness or pretension. A radiant and big-hearted chronicle of the wisdom, beauty, and conflicts of contemporary southwestern Indian culture by an inspired outsider who was welcomed within.