Coyote Waits (Magill’s Survey of American Literature, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Tony Hillerman
- First Published: 1990
- Type of Work: Novel
- Genres: Long fiction, Mystery and detective literature
- Subjects: Culture, Mythology or myths, Tricksters, Murder or homicide, Police, Native Americans or American Indians, New Mexico, Southwest
- Locales: Arizona
Coyote Waits refers to the Navajo notion of the trickster, a mythic figure who is always ready to disrupt humankind's harmony by bringing chaos. Every culture has some concept of bad luck that strikes randomly. A Vietnamese relative of one of the murdered men in this novel refers to a saying among her people that “fate is as gentle with men as the mongoose is with mice.” Navajo officer Jim Chee responds with his culture's version: “Coyote is always out there waiting, and Coyote is always hungry.”
The comparison of similar concepts in different cultures, however...
[The entire page is 597 words long]
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