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Rating: 
Summary: as good as its' review
Review: I read a review of this book some years ago when it first came out. It sounded like a fascinating story so I made a mental note to keep an eye out for it at the book stores. Time went on and I still hadn't come across it so I ordered it off Amazon.com. When I got the book I was a little aprehensive at first. The subtitle, "A True Story of Murder and Magic in Indian Country" made me wonder if I was going to get the facts or the myth. When I started reading the first few pages, I was worried that I was going to get a skewered perspective of the events. As it turned out, none of my concerns were realized and, instead, I got an excellent review of a sordid event in recent history. The main events of this story take place in the early 1970's. Three Native Americans were brutally murdered by three White teenagers in Farmington, NM. The author introduces us to the story through his own eyes as he discovers the tense aftermath of the murders and the reaction to the light sentencing that the youthful murderers received. Although just passing through Farmington, Rodney Barker finds himself suddenly involved in the turmoil. The events are etched in his mind and, when he dicovers more about it some years later, he decides to investigate the whole story. Mr. Barker does a very good job in telling the story and trying to do so from all available perspectives. He is sensitive to the Navajo's point of view and goes to great lengths to bring that perspective to the reader. Yet, despite his partisan introduction to the story, he seems to have done a pretty good job of getting the "Anglo" perspective as well. There are times when there doesn't seem to be a reasonable response to some of what has happened. Yet the author often brings us just such a response. He follows the lives of the perpetrators and we find ourselves actually starting to care about them in their later lives. He leaves not with answers but with an awareness instead. People not familiar with the tension of communities that border Native American reservations will find these events hard to believe. For that matter, so will those who do live in such communities. I read a Native American columnist once who said that the worst racism against Native Americans can be found in those communities that border reservations. Mr. Barker's book is an example of that statement at its' worst. Unfortuanately, while it makes us aware of this problem, it leaves an emptiness as we look for a solution to the problem. Why was it that the teenage activity of "rolling" intoxicated Indians in Farmington was allowed to happen? Was the author's explantion of the problem overstated or was the community's response to it understated? I live near an Indian reservation and I can attest to stereo-typing and tension between the races. However, it is nothing like the description of the situation in Farmington. Thus I am wondering about many things as a result of reading this book. The success of this book is that it has made me thing about things that need to be thought about.
Rating: 
Summary: the Broken Circle
Review: The book has been interesting since its inception.The author conjured it from a mass of interviews during a summer some years later. Granted, the book is haunting, tragic and disturbing. The text, failed to understand the horror and confusion of the Anglos. I am well aware of this. Ronny Haynie, 3601 Sunset Ave. 1974....Farmington, New Mexico
Rating: 
Summary: one of the best non-fiction books I have read
Review: Very well written, gripping, and entertaining despite the gravity of the subject matter. Well worth reading.
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