From Publishers Weekly
This schematic satire pits Native Americans against naturalized ones, much to the detriment of the latter. Divorced from nature, Vizenour fictionally contends, non-Indians have lost the stories that liberate the mind and hold the world together; now they are "wordies," hearing only the dead voices of the printed page and the university lecture. The Native American wise woman Bagese, in contrast, hears great stories. She and the novel's unnamed narrator (a lecturer in "tribal philosophies") play a meditation game in which they actually become animals by entering into the beasts' images on tarot-like cards. As the shape-shifting duo transform themselves into bears, fleas and other creatures, the narrator learns from Bagese to hear the voices. Vizenour ( The Heirs of Columbus ) has always been the literary equivalent of a drive-by shooter; anything can become the target of his satiric sensibilities. Here, anthropologists are revealed to have been created out of excrement, and a shaman makes money by using her power to clean up a chemical company's wastes on weekends. The author's words tumble over one another with a poetic ferocity as he celebrates the "crossblood" and the drive to survive in a world where the tribes are gone and the voices are dead. He is a true Native American original. Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
Chippewa author Vizenor ( Interior Landscapes , LJ 7/90) continues his exploration of urban mixed-blood Indians, whom he calls crossbloods, in this cycle of trickster tales told by a woman/bear named Bagese. Using the "wanaki" game, a device to meditate on animal voices in the natural world, Bagese explores urban crossblood society through the eyes of a bear, beaver, squirrel, crow, flea, praying mantis, and, finally, a trickster. Sly and humorous, these stories poke fun at the ways of the "wordies" (white people) as interpreted by the various animal tricksters. Full of fantastic images presented in a lyrical writing style, Vizenor's work demands an acceptance of other realities while it challenges the New Age shamans.- Lisa A. Mitten, Univ. of Pittsburgh Lib.Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Kirkus Reviews
The creatures of Native American myth and the urban realities of Oakland, California, come together in Vizenor's (The Heirs of Columbus, 1991, etc.) latest excursion, making full use of his penchant for transforming the commonplace into the mysterious and comic. With chapters and contents conforming to seven cards in the wanaki (which means ``to live somewhere in peace'') game of chance, a variety of animal experiences interweave amusingly with the human condition. The worlds of bears, fleas, squirrels, mantis, crows, beavers, and tricksters--the wild card in the game--appear in turn, all triggered by an encounter with an old tribal woman, Bagese Bear, in an aviary as she conversed with a cage of crows. In her apartment cluttered with mirrors, stones, and other elements of the game, she tells her stories to the narrator (``Laundry'')--tales of the living voices of the tree line that are meant to counteract the dead voices of the city. Thus a society of fleas organize themselves to wage total war against an exterminator, a war they win through an alliance with neighborhood birds; the male mantis Mikado, seasoned warrior, escapes a trap set by a coldhearted blond scientist more predatory than her female mantis counterparts; in the trickster segment, a young tribal woman builds a thriving company based on Touch the Earth birch cups, which decompose quickly and are made to be thrown away as trash, prompting a congressional inquiry. Bagese disappeared without a trace from her Oakland apartment one day, but can still be glimpsed in the form of a bear in one of her mirrors, now belonging to the narrator, who celebrates her wisdom by publishing her stories even though she asked him not to. Lively and evocative tales--loosely linked as a single narrative yet closely tied to the game's ritual actions--that reveal much about the survival of Native American traditions in the cities and the perils involved in listening to dead voices. A witty but serious warning. -- Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Gerald Vizenor gives life to traditional tribal stories by presenting them in a new perspective: he challenges the idyllic perception of rural life, offering in its stead an unusual vision of survival in the cities--the sanctuaries for humans and animals. It is a tribal vision, a quest for liberation from forces that would deny the full realization of human possibilities. In this modern world his characters insist upon survival through an imaginative affirmation of the self. In Dead Voices Vizenor, using tales drawn from traditional tribal stories, illuminates the centuries of conflict between American Indians and Europeans, or "wordies." Bagese, a tribal woman transformed into a bear, has discovered a new urban world, and in a cycle of tales she describes this world from the perspective of animals--fleas, squirrels, mantis, crows, beavers, and finally Trickster, Vizenor's central and unifying figure. The stories reveal unpleasant aspects of the dominant culture and American Indian culture such as the fur trade, the educational system, tribal gambling, reservation life, and in each the animals, who represent crossbloods, connect with their tribal traditions, often in comic fashion. As in his other fiction, Vizenor upsets our ideas of what fiction should be. His plot is fantastic; his story line is a roller-coaster ride requiring that we accept the idea of transformation, a key element in all his work. Unlike other Indian novelists, who use the novel as a means of cultural recovery, Vizenor finds the crossblood a cause for celebration.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

This schematic satire pits Native Americans against naturalized ones, much to the detriment of the latter. Divorced from nature, Vizenour fictionally contends, non-Indians have lost the stories that liberate the mind and hold the world together; now they are ``wordies,'' hearing only the dead voices of the printed page and the university lecture. The Native American wise woman Bagese, in contrast, hears great stories. She and the novel's unnamed narrator (a lecturer in ``tribal philosophies'') play a meditation game in which they actually become animals by entering into the beasts' images on tarot-like cards. As the shape-shifting duo transform themselves into bears, fleas and other creatures, the narrator learns from Bagese to hear the voices. Vizenour ( The Heirs of Columbus ) has always been the literary equivalent of a drive-by shooter; anything can become the target of his satiric sensibilities. Here, anthropologists are revealed to have been created out of excrement, and a shaman makes money by using her power to clean up a chemical company's wastes on weekends. The author's words tumble over one another with a poetic ferocity as he celebrates the ``crossblood'' and the drive to survive in a world where the tribes are gone and the voices are dead. He is a true Native American original. ( Sept. )

Library Journal

Chippewa author Vizenor ( Interior Landscapes , LJ 7/90) continues his exploration of urban mixed-blood Indians, whom he calls crossbloods, in this cycle of trickster tales told by a woman/bear named Bagese. Using the ``wanaki'' game, a device to meditate on animal voices in the natural world, Bagese explores urban crossblood society through the eyes of a bear, beaver, squirrel, crow, flea, praying mantis, and, finally, a trickster. Sly and humorous, these stories poke fun at the ways of the ``wordies'' (white people) as interpreted by the various animal tricksters. Full of fantastic images presented in a lyrical writing style, Vizenor's work demands an acceptance of other realities while it challenges the New Age shamans.-- Lisa A. Mitten, Univ. of Pittsburgh Lib.

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