Byline: JENNIFER LEVIN Jennifer Levin
Cheyenne Madonna by Eddie Chuculate, Black Sparrow Books, 143 pages
The first book by Institute of American Indian Arts alumnus and Stegner Fellow Eddie Chuculate is a novel-in-stories that tackles an impressive number of themes while never straying far from the life of its main character, Jordan Coolwater. Jordan appears in all but the first piece, "Galveston Bay1826," a tone-setting tale about four Indian men on a road trip. Chuculate brilliantly works the tension between the potential for clicha and the reality of the narrative; Old Bull, Red Moon, Sandman and Whiteshield share many of the troubles, and drives, of modern men. Set against the rest of the book, it is an origin story -- a context for comparison when faced with the question Chuculate ultimately poses: What has become of us?
When we meet Jordan in "YoYo," he is living with his grandparents, wiling away the summer days before seventh grade. He is mesmerized by his new neighbor, Yolanda, who is two years
older, black, and in possession of an unnerving charisma. Within their friendship, Chuculate explores the power dynamics between Jordan and the rest of the world and begins to look at relationships between Indians and blacks in Oklahoma, a topic that recurs in several stories. Chuculate is forthright in his treatment of race and prejudice, as well as socioeconomics, alcoholism, and abuse. Among his many strengths is his facility with dialect, a tricky issue for even the most experienced author. It's easy to write speech patterns that are based on broad assumptions rather than individual people, and even easier to mistake accents or regionalisms for characterization. In this passage, Chuculate writes:
"My grandma be havin' some Creek off in her, but Pops said I ain't got no Indian," YoYo said. She held her arm out in front of her. "See, if I had some Indian off in me I'd be light like you."
Her arm was darker than his but not exactly black, Jordan thought. Blackern' a charcoal grill, he'd heard Grandpa describe his friend Mr. Jones.
"Uncle Rodney say Indians got some dog off in them 'cause they be eating dogs but I don't believe his crazy ass." She paused. "You folks don't eat no dog, do you?"
Dialect isn't a trick here; YoYo's verbal quirkiness enhances her charm and makes her irresistible to Jordan (and the reader). Jordan falls under the sway of many smooth talkers, and though he becomes a bit of a cipher from time to time, it is never a mystery why he is so willing to lose himself to other people.
Alcohol, the downfall of nearly every character in Cheyenne Madonna, seeps into the stories slowly at first and then flows freely as Jordan reaches the age of majority. Everyone drinks, most notably the men in his life, a collection of wandering uncles who pop in and out of his childhood like so many hit-or-miss fathers, there for a day or two and then gone without a goodbye. Jordan's real father is the title character in "Dear Shorty" the book's longest piece and deepest foray into Jordan's inner world. Shorty is an alcoholic musician in Tulsa, where he lives mostly on the streets though he isn't homeless -- he simply prefers to be walking distance from the liquor store instead of outside of town in his well-maintained Cherokee Housing Authority home. Jordan's own struggles with addiction, women, and the law grow more pronounced in each story, as do the themes of cultural and personal alienation. Whenever the possibility of love presents itself, whether romantic or familial, Jordan leans into it, even when it means subverting his own interests as an artist. Painting and sculpting always come second to benders, and hangovers can last for days, even weeks.
In "Under the Red Star of Mars," Jordan has grown from angry young man to famous Indian artist, recently transplanted from Santa Fe back to Tulsa. But this isn't Jordan's story, it's Lisa's, a runaway woman from Oklahoma City who has made a new life for herself. Though we don't know it yet, this marks a turning point for Jordan, who is still trying to find out what kind of man he is or can be.
The title story brings about resolution, though very few happy endings. In the final pages, as Jordan faces a new tragedy, the underground current of the stories breaks the surface: "He couldn't bring himself to draw another Indian on a galloping horse plunging a spear into a buffalo's hump, or sitting cross-legged on a blanket stoically smoking a peace pipe or blowing a goddamned flute."
Chuculate presents a profound disconnect between the mythology of Indian art and the present-day reality of Indian artists, who rarely get to be artists without the cultural qualifier. He also lays bare the effects of widespread multigenerational addiction without making excuses for the way his characters treat each other. There are no saints in here, and no demons, either. Cheyenne Madonna is a fantastic debut.
-- Jennifer Levin COPYRIGHT 2010 The Santa Fe New Mexican
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
Publishers Weekly starred review, Sept. 20
“In seven interconnected stories Native American author Chuculate pursues the painful self-discovery of a Creek / Cherokee youth trying to distance himself from his family's chronic drinking, impoverishment, and racism. In ‘YoYo,’ Jordan, the dreamy protagonist of most of the stories, finds his myopic world abruptly pried open by the appearance of an older, and dazzlingly fast, black girl named YoYo. In ‘A Famous Indian Artist,’ Jordan describes the disintegration of his admiration for his uncle, Johnson Freebird, the only relative he has who has lived a creative life. In ‘Dear Shorty,’ Jordan depicts his alcoholic father, Shorty, in shockingly unsparing and unsentimental terms; after first following disastrously in his footsteps, Jordan achieves stature as an artist, yet continues to try to connect with his father, even after it's too late. Chuculate writes forthright prose in a somber key, examining without judgment the lives of Native American characters like Old Bull, a Cheyenne who, in ‘Galveston Bay, 1826,’ the collection's one stand-alone story, ventures out to see the ocean for the first time, only to get savaged by a hurricane. Memory and will converge here to powerful effect.” Conflict here is tense and nuanced, and this sleek prose yields a tale that is complex, thought-provoking, and darkly funny- — Publishers Weekly
Kirkus Reviews review
Seven linked stories dip in and out of the life of a Native American, a talented artist when he's not drinking.
Chuculate's debut starts with a historical rush. For some historical/cultural perspective, he shows us four Cheyennes, thrilled by their discovery of the Gulf of Mexico. "Galveston Bay, 1826" is punchy and resonant. The next story ("YoYo"), set in 1970s Oklahoma, introduces the future artist, Jordan Coolwater. He's in seventh grade, living in a small town with his impoverished grandparents. They have new neighbors, well-to-do black professionals. Their daughter YoYo is a sassy track star. She and Jordan hit it off. Class, race, prejudice, puberty—Chuculate finesses it all beautifully. Then come superficial character sketches of two uncles. Uncle Tony ("Winter, 1979") is a vicious racist; Johnson L. Freebird ("A Famous Indian Artist") is a hard-drinking blowhard. Both stories find their rhythms quickly. The longest story in this collection is "Dear Shorty , " a fascinating account of Jordan's relationship with his father. Shorty is a far-gone alcoholic, a barber before he got the shakes and his wife left him. Jordan's now a young man, with a joshing, nonjudgmental attitude toward Shorty. Ironically, their only bond is the bottle: "You can trace the progression of alcoholism in my family like a flying arrow and I'm the bull's-eye." It's a story that keeps a tight focus on father and son while veering off into Jordan's troubles with the law and his escape from an Indian Detention Center. The focus in "Under the Red Star of Mars" is on Jordan's future wife, Lisa Old Bull, about to ditch her abusive black boyfriend. Jordan, who's selling everything at his breakthrough show, is a welcome contrast. In the title story, they're married, but their baby is stillborn; Lisa leaves him and, in an ominous echo of Shorty's affliction, the tremors stop Jordan painting and sculpting.
The drama of an artist and his hereditary demons is portrayed well in this astonishing debut.
Chuculate's debut starts with a historical rush. For some historical/cultural perspective, he shows us four Cheyennes, thrilled by their discovery of the Gulf of Mexico. "Galveston Bay, 1826" is punchy and resonant. The next story ("YoYo"), set in 1970s Oklahoma, introduces the future artist, Jordan Coolwater. He's in seventh grade, living in a small town with his impoverished grandparents. They have new neighbors, well-to-do black professionals. Their daughter YoYo is a sassy track star. She and Jordan hit it off. Class, race, prejudice, puberty—Chuculate finesses it all beautifully. Then come superficial character sketches of two uncles. Uncle Tony ("Winter, 1979") is a vicious racist; Johnson L. Freebird ("A Famous Indian Artist") is a hard-drinking blowhard. Both stories find their rhythms quickly. The longest story in this collection is "Dear Shorty , " a fascinating account of Jordan's relationship with his father. Shorty is a far-gone alcoholic, a barber before he got the shakes and his wife left him. Jordan's now a young man, with a joshing, nonjudgmental attitude toward Shorty. Ironically, their only bond is the bottle: "You can trace the progression of alcoholism in my family like a flying arrow and I'm the bull's-eye." It's a story that keeps a tight focus on father and son while veering off into Jordan's troubles with the law and his escape from an Indian Detention Center. The focus in "Under the Red Star of Mars" is on Jordan's future wife, Lisa Old Bull, about to ditch her abusive black boyfriend. Jordan, who's selling everything at his breakthrough show, is a welcome contrast. In the title story, they're married, but their baby is stillborn; Lisa leaves him and, in an ominous echo of Shorty's affliction, the tremors stop Jordan painting and sculpting.
The drama of an artist and his hereditary demons is portrayed well in this astonishing debut.
Notre Dame review
'Cheyenne Madonna' author Eddie Chuculate weaves a shocking and memorable read
3.5 shamrocks
Published: Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Updated: Tuesday, September 28, 2010 23:09
Book jacket image courtesy of Black Sparrow Books
Chuculate won the O. Henry Prize in 2007 for his short story "Galveston Bay, 1826," the first of the seven short stories in "Cheyenne Madonna." Just published in July, "Cheyenne Madonna" is Chuculate's first book.
"Galveston Bay, 1826" describes Cheyenne Indian Old Bull travelling to the ocean for the first time with his friends. An unexpected hurricane leaves Old Bull the only survivor. The remaining six interconnected short stories of "Cheyenne Madonna" detail Jordan Coolwater's adventures 150 years later as he leaves Oklahoma and travels to the West to become a sculptor.
Jordan Coolwater is introduced as a seventh grade boy spending the summer with his grandparents on Creek Indian land. YoYo, a self-assured and sexually explicit ninth grade African American girl, moves into a nearby house. YoYo quickly escalates their friendship into a shocking evening alone at her house. The events are at first baffling, but Chuculate's narrative is daring. His plot twists and climatic scenes earn him appreciation as an articulate and masterful storyteller.
Chuculate's plot digs deeps into human emotions and situations. Chuculate does not spare any topic from discussion. Alcoholism, racism and sexual abuse are only a few of the difficult topics Chuculate seamlessly weaves into his text.
Each situation and plot detail is unexpected. The book manages to enlighten, question and enrage the reader all within a short span of text. "Cheyenne Madonna's" plot is sometimes shocking, but the surprising and unsettling parts of its story only add to its appeal.
Alcohol and art become driving forces of the text's plot. Alcoholism permeates Jordan's family as both his uncle and father are heavy binge drinkers. Jordan also cannot escape alcohol, and his addiction becomes more apparent as he seeks to further his artistic career.
Jordan's relationship with his father, Shorty, is expressed more clearly in the story "Dear Shorty." Chuculate foreshadows later despair in its opening paragraph when he writes, "What a lonely feeling that is, at the edge of the earth, the edge of your hopes, to look out over a balcony as spooky nighttime fog creeps in, and not be able to see the water but only hear it, hear it boil to a hushed roar, then release."
Beautiful descriptive details such as this make the reader engage with Chuculate's text. Not only are his details descriptive, but his characters are realistic and honest. Each character suffers, makes mistakes and learns through pain.
Jordan's life takes a myriad of twists and turns which ultimately end with him in prison. After prison, Jordan begins his artistic career anew and rediscovers love.
Chuculate successfully weaves a unique plot. The text's realistic character descriptions, fast-paced plot and unexpected outcomes keep the text a mystery until the end.
Although the plot's outcomes are sometimes sad, Chuculate's eloquent story relates a message of hope. The text is hopeful for a new beginning, for a new chance of self-discovery and for the possibility of achieving a person's dreams and goals. "Cheyenne Madonna" is a shocking and evocative read not soon forgotten.
On campus
What: "Cheyenne Madonna" reading by author Eddie Chuculate
Where: Hammes Notre Dame Bookstore
When: Thursday, Sept. 30, 7:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.
How much: free
Learn more: nai.nd.edu
Monday, December 27, 2010
Minnepolis/St. Paul Star-Tribune review
By Anthony Bukoski
This magical short-story collection concerning Jordan Coolwater begins in 1826 when four Cheyennes search for Galveston Bay. A "heatwave gauze ... rose off the plain and made things shimmer and seem not as they were," author Eddie Chuculate writes. "Something extraordinary was happening." Nearing the Gulf, the explorers encounter "wolves and coyotes ... throwing backward glances" at them, a fire that "rose up like the bluffs of a red canyon," and finally Indians who perform unusual ceremonies and wear "the strangest rainbow-colored feathers and necklaces of teeth."
Returned north after surviving a tornado, Old Bull, the leader of the party, "didn't speak of the trip for some time" until gradually it "assumed a dream-like quality in his mind, and children and grandchildren loved to hear the stories of turquoise-colored fish, screaming pigs," and other wondrous sights.
Following this originary tale, roughly 150 years pass. During the time between Old Bull's journey and the book's narrative present, the Creek, Cherokee and Cheyenne people in Jordan Coolwater's extended family have loved, married, drunk on reservations and in towns and cities, drunk some more, and either gone insane or died. "The word for 'drunk' in Creek is about the same as 'crazy,'" Chuculate notes. Now comes Jordan's chance to fail or succeed in life.
In "YoYo," Yolanda, a precocious black girl whose family moves nearby, introduces him to the magic of first love. In "Winter, 1979," he regrets the time his uncle Tony, visiting Jordan's grandparents outside of Muskogee, assaulted a black friend, Lonny. In the elegiac "A Famous Indian Artist," another uncle brags about knowing Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson and Johnny Paycheck. Though doubting him, Jordan learns in time that his uncle was a famous artist with connections until "drinking binges had thrown his diabetes out of whack and ... [t]he show ... was over."
The three remaining stories, two of them memorable, deal with Jordan's travels, his father Shorty's drunken death in a Tulsa park, and his relationship with Lisa Old Bull, descendant of the warrior who saw Galveston Bay. Now middle-aged, Jordan himself battles alcoholism, regaining sobriety, sanity, by sculpting. Art becomes the way to express what he has learned about nobility, loss, struggle and failure from his grandparents, uncles, fathers, from Lisa Old Bull, from all of those he's known. An often dissolute life still holds for him the possibility of redemption through art and love.
The collection ends with the hope that began it, though now this hope is reined in, restrained in the way the warrior Old Bull in 1826 would have restrained a palomino or a pinto pony from galloping too quickly into the unknown. What an amazing, moving debut for Eddie Chuculate -- rich, thoughtful, eloquent and honest.
Anthony Bukoski, author of five short-story collections, lives in Superior, Wis
This magical short-story collection concerning Jordan Coolwater begins in 1826 when four Cheyennes search for Galveston Bay. A "heatwave gauze ... rose off the plain and made things shimmer and seem not as they were," author Eddie Chuculate writes. "Something extraordinary was happening." Nearing the Gulf, the explorers encounter "wolves and coyotes ... throwing backward glances" at them, a fire that "rose up like the bluffs of a red canyon," and finally Indians who perform unusual ceremonies and wear "the strangest rainbow-colored feathers and necklaces of teeth."
Returned north after surviving a tornado, Old Bull, the leader of the party, "didn't speak of the trip for some time" until gradually it "assumed a dream-like quality in his mind, and children and grandchildren loved to hear the stories of turquoise-colored fish, screaming pigs," and other wondrous sights.
Following this originary tale, roughly 150 years pass. During the time between Old Bull's journey and the book's narrative present, the Creek, Cherokee and Cheyenne people in Jordan Coolwater's extended family have loved, married, drunk on reservations and in towns and cities, drunk some more, and either gone insane or died. "The word for 'drunk' in Creek is about the same as 'crazy,'" Chuculate notes. Now comes Jordan's chance to fail or succeed in life.
In "YoYo," Yolanda, a precocious black girl whose family moves nearby, introduces him to the magic of first love. In "Winter, 1979," he regrets the time his uncle Tony, visiting Jordan's grandparents outside of Muskogee, assaulted a black friend, Lonny. In the elegiac "A Famous Indian Artist," another uncle brags about knowing Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson and Johnny Paycheck. Though doubting him, Jordan learns in time that his uncle was a famous artist with connections until "drinking binges had thrown his diabetes out of whack and ... [t]he show ... was over."
The three remaining stories, two of them memorable, deal with Jordan's travels, his father Shorty's drunken death in a Tulsa park, and his relationship with Lisa Old Bull, descendant of the warrior who saw Galveston Bay. Now middle-aged, Jordan himself battles alcoholism, regaining sobriety, sanity, by sculpting. Art becomes the way to express what he has learned about nobility, loss, struggle and failure from his grandparents, uncles, fathers, from Lisa Old Bull, from all of those he's known. An often dissolute life still holds for him the possibility of redemption through art and love.
The collection ends with the hope that began it, though now this hope is reined in, restrained in the way the warrior Old Bull in 1826 would have restrained a palomino or a pinto pony from galloping too quickly into the unknown. What an amazing, moving debut for Eddie Chuculate -- rich, thoughtful, eloquent and honest.
Anthony Bukoski, author of five short-story collections, lives in Superior, Wis
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