“…those who bear secrets are often the last to know the secret’s true nature.”

Book Review:

Review by Kirstin Merrihew (JAN 28, 2010)

The Butterflies of Grand Canyon names many of the beautiful invertebrates: Rheingolds, cloudless sulfurs, painted ladies, pygmy blues, green darners, and queens. Near the great natural gash in the earth’s crust, some of the human collectors of these delicate creatures find themselves passing through stages of development similar to those of the specimens they’ve netted. For example, twenty-five-year-old Jane Merkle, who has come with her older husband, Morris, to visit his sister, Dotty, and her husband, Oliver Hedquist, is arguably pent up in a chrysalis but may be on the verge of emerging and flying.

Then there is Elzada Clover, a botanist whose penchant for studying the flora of the Grand Canyon floor is being overtaken this summer of 1951 by a need to solve a thirteen-year-old unsolved murder of a local; she feels as if, for all her professional accomplishments, she has never been able to fully develop her personal inclinations. In other words, she hasn’t made it to the final stage of butterfly transformation. And inasmuch as butterflies are considered legally blind because their resolution is a hundred times worse than humans’, this novel often refers to figurative human blindness — to each other, to nature, to love, to ourselves. Just another way that the “butterflies” in this book aren’t just of the insect Lepidoptera order.

In this small Arizona community where rangers and naturalists seemingly outnumber storekeepers and postal clerks, the sometimes awkward mysteries of the human heart surface in all sorts of ways. One of the most amusing takes place during Jane’s foray to buy groceries. She and young ranger (and inexperienced romancer) Euell Wigglesworth strike up a conversation about whether she ought to buy three or four inches of liverwurst sausage. They can’t help feeling the effects of natural attraction as they grope for what to say. While in town Jane also gives in to the temptation to open someone else’s mail, and then concocts an ingenious, though underhanded, way to save herself the embarrassment of having to confess. Overcome with curiosity about the assignation being arranged in the letter, she finagles a way she can eavesdrop on the rendezvous. These two examples suggest Jane is scruples-challenged, but don’t judge her too harshly. The plot moves forward quite regularly due to overheard conversations; Jane isn’t the only culprit. And the degree to which marriage can or should forestall other attachments is a significant theme of this book, involving many characters.

The author, Margaret Erhart “is a river and hiking guide in the Grand Canyon and southern Utah” according to biographical sketch provided in The Butterflies of Grand Canyon, and one feels confident of the natural backdrop to this story. However, the characters and their odd, usually restrained conversations don’t always seem as convincing as the scenery. Yet, their cautious repression and bumbling “blindness” as they go through the habits of their days and their personal dramas also hook the reader (at least this one). And slowly, as revelations surface and both the characters and the reader have to adjust to new realities, the truth that the same things must be learned afresh by each generation is conveyed with a gentle nudge of small town shrewdness. Again, it isn’t just butterflies that mature through stages. People tend to also, Erhart’s novel wryly counsels.

This is a tale of conceits, comical set-ups and antics, secrets, infidelities, loyalties, schemes, awakenings, worldly wisdom, and the natural march of desire. The Butterflies of Grand Canyon approaches these signposts of humanity and life somewhat obliquely as times, but charmingly and memorably nonetheless.

AMAZON READER RATING:	from 20 readers
PUBLISHER:	Plume; 1 edition (December 29, 2009)
REVIEWER:	Kirstin Merrihew
AMAZON PAGE:	The Butterflies of Grand Canyon
AUTHOR WEBSITE:	Margaret Erhart
EXTRAS:	Reading Guide and Excerpt
MORE ON MOSTLYFICTION:	Another novel set in the Grand Canyon: Girl with a Skirt of Stars by Jennifer Kitchell

Bibliography:

• Unusual Company (1987)
• Augusta Cotton (1992)
• Old Love (1996)
• Crossing Bully Creek (2005)
• The Butterflies of Grand Canyon (December 2009)

“Yes, there was a message written in this man’s death, and it included the hood of her Dodge. Something logical to the murderer. Something obviously about Ma’ii, the Coyote. …Maybe Trybek had the coyote parts that played into the murder. But she had the two coyotes that had been mutilated. The murderer had something symbolic to tell her.”

Book Review:

Review by Katherine Petersen (NOV 25, 2009)

On her way to work, Lilli Chischilly finds two dead coyotes on the hood of her truck. She knows it’s a message but hasn’t figured out who, what or why. Lilli buried the coyotes, but that’s just the first piece of a mystery that grows in size and complexity every time she turns around. A murdered Navajo man found in the Badlands with coyote reproductive parts shoved down his throat; a series of photographs of a girl taken by her friend from long ago, Jerome Bah; political favors wanted from the presidential front runner; and another man who wants to kill the candidate to revenge a family wrong from the past. Somehow they all connect.

Lilli grew up on the Navajo reservation, attended college and law school among the whites and has come back to put her legal skills to work for the reservation’s Historic Preservation Department. She has a strategic position that straddles both worlds and makes her crucial to the plans of people who might not have her best interests at heart. Jerome, the boy who was forever at her side as a boy, has returned from L.A. to the reservation after losing a wife and child, hoping to begin their relationship again. A photographer who speaks in pictures, Jerome has a message to convey to her through a series he took of a girl. And he wants a response. Then Lilli’s boss assigns her to take a water-rafting trip down the Colorado River with Mr. Lee, the front runner in the presidential race. Billed as time to spend with his family and learn about the Navajo people, Lilli knows he wants something from her as the Navajo’s representative, but she doesn’t know what.

Jennifer Kitchell delivers a beautifully written, lyrical and deftly plotted mystery in Girl with Skirt of Stars. Her intimate knowledge of the Navajo make it easy for her to bring this world of “walking in beauty” to life for her readers. It also gives her intimate knowledge and ability to fully develop Lilli’s character as one who understands two cultures: how they mix and how they collide. Navajos emphasize balance: good and evil, light and dark, right and wrong. Lilli also must confront a difference between white and Navajo justice, and for Navajos, sometimes two wrongs might make a right.

Kitchell combines political agendas, revenge, mysticism and murder to create a story that twists and turns, giving the reader small glimpses as the pages turn. Kitchell has a natural talent for storytelling, so doesn’t need to rely on action scenes to propel her plot. Instead, she spends time interweaving action with in-depth character development, illustrations of Navajo custom and belief with flowing prose and descriptive scenes where you can almost feel the canyon walls at the narrowest point of the Colorado River and distinguish different bird calls and blossom colors. She also possesses a deep understanding of human nature–at its best and at its worst—showing us individuals who will do anything to right a long-ago wrong or to win her approval and one man who ignores advice in his attempts to help her. Lilli struggles to understand the people and mystery around her, piecing together motives and information she gleans along the way in her attempt to determine the truth and keep her people safe. Kitchell intertwines Navajo lore, rituals and customs into the story in a way that adds credibility and knowledge without taking away from the plot. I recommend this book to all mystery fans but especially those who enjoy Native American mysteries. Girl with Skirt of Stars has a more literary feel than the mysteries of Tony Hillerman and Aimee and David Thurlo, but I think fans of these authors will find Kitchell’s novel as rich and enjoyable as I did.

AMAZON READER RATING:	from 10 readers
PUBLISHER:	Pronghorn Press; first limited edition, edition (August 1, 2009)
REVIEWER:	Katherine Petersen
AMAZON PAGE:	Girl with Skirt of Stars
AUTHOR WEBSITE:	Jennifer Kitchell
EXTRAS:	Reading Guide and Excerpt
MORE ON MOSTLYFICTION:	Navajo Mysteries: Skeleton Man by Tony Hillerman Death Walker by Aimee & David Thurlo ———— More fiction about Mountain Meadows Massacre: Redeye: A Western by Clyde Edgerton ———— More Native American fiction: The Red Convertible by Louise Erdrich and her previous novels The Grass Dancer by Susan Power ———— Nonfiction: Selling Your Father’s Bones by Brian Schofield

Bibliography:

• Girl with Skirt of Stars (August 2009)