THE LIGHTNING WITHIN: An Anthology of Contemporary...

THE LIGHTNING WITHIN: An Anthology of Contemporary American Indian Fiction edited by Alan R. Velie (University of Nebraska Press: $9.95; 161 pp.). The short stories and excerpts from novels in this anthology provide an introduction to a talented but often neglected group of writers that includes N. Scott Momaday, James Welch and Louise Erdrich. Their prose blends the Amerindian tradition of storytelling with the conventions of modern English fiction. Many of the authors also write poetry, and their work reflects the subtle shadings and evocation imagery of their verses. In Momaday’s “Tomasah’s Story,” the narrator describes the elders he once knew as “men of immense character, full of wisdom and disdain. They dealt in a kind of infallible quiet and gave but one face away; it was enough.”