The Death of Bernadette Lefthand

The Death of Bernadette Lefthand by Ronald B. Querry is another recent re-read. This one I originally read while a graduate student at UCLA. Bernadette was an Apache married to a Navajo and the book opens with her sister being called to claim her body.

The story then is about the brief life and subsequent death of Bernadette. It's told from a number of points of view: the sister, her white friend who is bored out of her gourd since the move to New Mexico, and ultimately Bernadette herself.

It's a dark, angry tale filled with unhappy and impoverished characters who have no means of escape or betterment. For those are trying to make the best of things, there's the pow-wow. For those who don't or can't or feel trapped, there's alcohol.

A disturbing tale of two sisters and the circumstances that lead up to the death of the older, much-loved sister. Bernadette and her younger sister live for pow-wows. Her sister becomes involved with Anderson Geroge, a man who turns into something monstrous. Whether because of his alcoholism or another man practicing Navajo witchcraft on the couple, an ill wind blows against them and Bernadette ends up murdered. The town and her younger sister must come to terms with the death of a beloved member of the community.

Writing about the Southwest Indian Americans, the book is written with depth and power. Tony Hillerman heralded Querry's book as "the best novel of its type since Silko's Ceremony. It's a beautiful, moving book."

The voice of the narrator was too ingenuous (Gracie is 16) and it is easy to tell this is not the natural voice of the author--nor would it be natural for any person. She describes everything, including things that would be so ordinary they would be an accepted background by the character (e.g. "she opened the torn screen door"--if Querry wants to impress us with the poverty, he should use descriptive statements not narrated by the characters). Similarly, too often this narrative strays into explanations of Indian culture, powwows or rodeos.
The sections about Rounder and Starr Stubbs are irrelevant to the tale, and don't even add to our understanding of events, except for brief sections where Starr describes some interaction between show more Bernadette and her husband, or lets us see how placid and good Bernadette was.
This is not "a riveting tale of...the dark magic of the twisted soul", as the cover promo avers, but a flat recitation, step by step, of a woman's murder by a mentally sick acquaintance. show less