Dance Hall of the Dead (Magill’s Survey of American Literature, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Tony Hillerman
- First Published: 1973
- Type of Work: Novel
- Genres: Long fiction, Mystery and detective literature
- Subjects: Culture, Mythology or myths, Murder or homicide, Police, Native Americans or American Indians, New Mexico, Southwest, Archaeology or archaeologists
- Locales: Arizona
Dance Hall of the Dead is the second novel to feature the Navajo lieutenant Joe Leaphorn. The novel, which deals with a Navajo boy impossibly trying to become a Zuni, highlights the vast differences between Native American cultures. The title is an example of this: For the Zuni, the dead may dance with their ancestors, while for the Navajo, death is so malignant a force that the living must be cleansed from its touch.
The novel opens with a Zuni boy, Ernesto Cata, re-creating himself as the little Fire God, resting after exercising to prepare for participating in the...
[The entire page is 643 words long]
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