From Publishers Weekly
Stone Columbus, the famous explorer's heir and namesake, is a Mississippi bingo tycoon and radio talk show host; he's part Mayan, as, he claims, was Christopher Columbus. In 1992 Stone and his listeners establish Point Assinika, a chunk of the Northwest, as a sovereign Native American nation. Their goal is to make available the Mayan "healing genes," isolated by scientists, to save the world. But tribal robots, a kidnapping and a federal disinformation campaign imperil the new nation, in whose harbor stands a copper statue, the Trickster of Liberty. Writing with manic inventiveness, Vizenor ( Griever ) casts the story of Columbus's invasion of the New World as a lyrical trickster tale, full of twists, shamans and subversive humor. Although Vizenor, a mixed-blood Chippewa, punctures the Eurocentric worldview, much of the humor is strained, as in his caricature of Christopher Columbus as a romantic with an enormous, clubbed, twisted penis. Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
"Columbus arises in tribal stories that heal with humor the world he wounded," Vizenor says in the epilog of his latest novel. Native American writers are making sure their voices are heard in the quincentenary examination of Columbus's voyage. Hot on the heels of Michael Doris and Louise Erdrich's The Crown of Columbus ( LJ 3/15/91) comes this totally different treatment of the same territory. "The Heirs of Columbus" presented in Vizenor's intriguing novel are described by their critics as a "ragtag group of rebellious, uneducated mixedbloods." The Heirs believe themselves to be the actual genetic heirs of * Christopher Columbus, whom they believe to be a crossblood himself, the result of Mayan exploration of Europe. As their part of the quincentenary celebrations, the Heirs create a sovereign tribal nation, honoring humor and common sense and dedicated to healing with genetic therapies. Vizenor tells the story with his unique blend of cuttingedge fiction and tribal myth, mixing the realistic and the fantastic. Recommended.- Debbie Tucker, Cincinnati Technological Coll.Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews
A comic mythology of Columbus that--though it sags in places with repetition and academic padding--offers enough tall-tale fun to make for inventive entertainment. According to this fractured history from Vizenor (Griever: An American Monkey King in China, 1987; the nonfiction Interior Landscapes, 1990), Christopher Columbus is actually descended from Mayans (``the first to imagine the universe and to write about the stories in their blood'') who sailed from the New to the Old World. An account of this alternative history merges with a present-day story about several Indians and mixed-bloods, notably Stone Columbus, a trickster healer. Born on the reservation, he made a fortune, more than a million a season, when he became captain of the Santa Maria Casino, a bingo barge in the boundary waters (between the US and Canada). Columbus's genetic heirs, including Stone, meet annually at the Mississippi River's headwaters to remember stories (``the best stories about their strain and estate'') and plan for a new tribal nation. Interweaving fact and fantasy, shamanistic visions and the ``hand talkers'' (who show their stories ``in the summer, in silence, and leave their handprints around the world''), Vizenor manages to narrate a species of mystery story, dealing with an international search for the remains of Columbus and an attempt to isolate ``the genetic code of tribal survivance and radiance.'' Don't ask. Though its energy occasionally flags or turns pedantic, the book is a hoot, as much a compendium of magical realism as a novel, and successful on its own terms: ``Stories have natural rights to be heard and liberated.'' Not as easy a read as the much-ballyhooed The Crown of Columbus, but more deeply satisfying. -- Copyright ©1991, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Book Description
A novel which turns cultural aggression on its head as the Native American heirs of Christopher Columbus, himself descended from early Mayan explorers, create a fantastic tribal nation.

From the Publisher
5 1/2 x 8 1/2 trim. LC 91-8242

About the Author
GERALD VIZENOR teaches Native American Literature at the University of California, Berkeley. He is the author of Hotline Healers: An Almost Browne Novel, Landfill Medition: Crossblood Stories, Dead Voices: Natural Agonies in the New World, Interior Landscapes, The Trickster of Liberty, and numerous other books. Shadow Distance: A Gerald Vizenor Reader (1994) offers an overview of his work. Griever: An American Money King in China, his second novel, won the Fiction Collective Prize and the Before Columbus Foundation's American Book Award.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

A novel which turns cultural aggression on its head as the Native American heirs of Christopher Columbus, himself descended from early Mayan explorers, create a fantastic tribal nation.

SYNOPSIS

A novel which turns cultural aggression on its head as the Native American heirs of Christopher Columbus, himself descended from early Mayan explorers, create a fantastic tribal nation.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

Stone Columbus, the famous explorer's heir and namesake, is a Mississippi bingo tycoon and radio talk show host; he's part Mayan, as, he claims, was Christopher Columbus. In 1992 Stone and his listeners establish Point Assinika, a chunk of the Northwest, as a sovereign Native American nation. Their goal is to make available the Mayan ``healing genes,'' isolated by scientists, to save the world. But tribal robots, a kidnapping and a federal disinformation campaign imperil the new nation, in whose harbor stands a copper statue, the Trickster of Liberty. Writing with manic inventiveness, Vizenor ( Griever ) casts the story of Columbus's invasion of the New World as a lyrical trickster tale, full of twists, shamans and subversive humor. Although Vizenor, a mixed-blood Chippewa, punctures the Eurocentric worldview, much of the humor is strained, as in his caricature of Christopher Columbus as a romantic with an enormous, clubbed, twisted penis. (Aug.)

A mythopoeic space-age chronicle . . . a modern Indian epilogue to the Columbus myth as incredible as any traditional stories. If you must read a book on Columbus . . . this is the one.

Library Journal