The Fast Red Road: A Plainsong
Encyclopedia
The Fast Red Road: A Plainsong serves as Stephen Graham Jones
's debut novel
written in 2000. He only started writing the book after being introduced to a Houghton-Mifflin editor (Janet Silver) at a party, and, for some reason, began telling a complicated lie about a book he had written. So, he went home that night and started it.
It was originally titled Golius: A Failed Sestina (or something similar) and used as Stephen's dissertation while attending Florida State University. After using a friend of his in New York to pose as a literary agent, Jones approached one of his professors whom had offered to get it published to do so.
Accompanied by car thief Charlie Ward, he evades the cops in a top-down drag race, tearing through barriers “Dukestyle.” The land they travel seems bent with fever—post-apocalyptic —as though the end has arrived and no one noticed. Its occupants hawk bodies and pastel bomb shelters, wandering a bleak hallucination of strip-joints, strip-malls, and all you can eat beef fed beef stalls. They speak a lingo of disposable nicknames, truncated punch lines—slang with an expiration date. Pidgin strays through bar and junkyards, rodeos and carnivals, encountering the remnants of the Goliard tribe. There’s the mysterious Mexican Paiute, Uncle Birdfinger, checkout-girl Stiya 6—the reincarnation of Pidgin’s mother—and media-queen Psychic Sally, who predicts the group’s demise. Each plays a part in the search that will eventually place Pidgin in a position to rewrite history.
Charlie Ward :
Uncle Birdfinger :
Stiya 6 :
Psychic Sally aka Big Springs Sally:
Patience Patience:
Bonita Bonito:
Cline:
Silky Bird:
"Killer" Tom Black:
Atticus Wean:
Weanie The Horse:
Litmus Jones:
Marina Trigo:
Independent Publishers Award for Multicultural Fiction:
Stephen Graham Jones
Stephen Graham Jones is a Blackfeet Native American author of experimental fiction, horror fiction, crime fiction, and science fiction. He shares a fan base with fellow authors Will Christopher Baer and Craig Clevenger known as . November 16, 2010 Stephen will have a collection of short stories...
's debut novel
Debut novel
A debut novel is the first novel an author publishes. Debut novels are the author's first opportunity to make an impact on the publishing industry, and thus the success or failure of a debut novel can affect the ability of the author to publish in the future...
written in 2000. He only started writing the book after being introduced to a Houghton-Mifflin editor (Janet Silver) at a party, and, for some reason, began telling a complicated lie about a book he had written. So, he went home that night and started it.
It was originally titled Golius: A Failed Sestina (or something similar) and used as Stephen's dissertation while attending Florida State University. After using a friend of his in New York to pose as a literary agent, Jones approached one of his professors whom had offered to get it published to do so.
Plot summary
The Fast Red Road—A Plainsong is a gleeful, two-fisted plundering of the myth and pop- culture surrounding the American Indian. It is a novel fueled on pot fumes and blues, a surreal pseudo-Western, in which imitation is the sincerest form of subversion. Indians, cowboys, and outlaws are as changeable as their outfits; horses are traded for Trans-Ams, and men are as likely to strike poses from Gunsmoke as they are from Custer’s last stand. Pidgin, the half-blood protagonist, inhabits a world of illusion—of aliens, ghosts, telekinesis, and water-pistol violence, where TV and porn offer redemption, and the Indian always gets it in the end. His attempts to reconcile the death of his father with five hundred years of colonial myth-making lead him to criss-cross a wasted New Mexico, returning compulsively to his hometown of Clovis, the site of his father’s burial.Accompanied by car thief Charlie Ward, he evades the cops in a top-down drag race, tearing through barriers “Dukestyle.” The land they travel seems bent with fever—post-apocalyptic —as though the end has arrived and no one noticed. Its occupants hawk bodies and pastel bomb shelters, wandering a bleak hallucination of strip-joints, strip-malls, and all you can eat beef fed beef stalls. They speak a lingo of disposable nicknames, truncated punch lines—slang with an expiration date. Pidgin strays through bar and junkyards, rodeos and carnivals, encountering the remnants of the Goliard tribe. There’s the mysterious Mexican Paiute, Uncle Birdfinger, checkout-girl Stiya 6—the reincarnation of Pidgin’s mother—and media-queen Psychic Sally, who predicts the group’s demise. Each plays a part in the search that will eventually place Pidgin in a position to rewrite history.
Characters in The Fast Red Road: A Plainsong
Pidgin :Charlie Ward :
Uncle Birdfinger :
Stiya 6 :
Psychic Sally aka Big Springs Sally:
Patience Patience:
Bonita Bonito:
Cline:
Silky Bird:
"Killer" Tom Black:
Atticus Wean:
Weanie The Horse:
Litmus Jones:
Marina Trigo:
Awards and nominations
The novel won the following awards:Independent Publishers Award for Multicultural Fiction:
Reviews
Cannibalizing Culture - Patrick Schabe - Popmatters.comSee also
- All The Beautiful SinnersAll The Beautiful Sinners-Plot:Deputy Sheriff Jim Doe plunges into a renegade manhunt after the town’s sheriff is gunned down. But unbeknownst to him, the suspect—an American Indian—holds chilling connections to the disappearance of Doe’s sister years before. And the closer Doe gets to the fugitive’s trail, the more he...
(2003) - The Bird is Gone: A ManifestoThe Bird is Gone: A ManifestoThe Bird is Gone: A Manifesto is a murder mystery novel by Stephen Graham Jones. It was published in 2005 by Fiction Collective 2. The Bird is Gone: A Manifest is Jones' third novel.-Characters in The Bird Is Gone: A Manifesto:LP Deal:Naitche:...
(2003) - Bleed Into MeBleed Into MeBleed Into Me is a novel by Stephen Graham Jones and is part of Native Storiers: A series of American Narratives.-Awards:The novel won the following awards:* Texas Institute of Letters Jesse Jones Award: For Fiction...
(2005) - Demon TheoryDemon TheoryDemon Theory is a novel written by Native American author Stephen Graham Jones. The novel, which is written like a screenplay, was published in 2006 to stellar reviews.-Plot summary:...
(2006) - The Long Trial of Nolan DugattiThe Long Trial of Nolan DugattiThe Long Trial of Nolan Dugatti is a novel written by Native American author Stephen Graham Jones. The novel will be published in 2008.-See also:*The Fast Red Road: A Plainsong *All The Beautiful Sinners...
(2008) - LedfeatherLedfeatherLedfeather is a novel written by Native American author Stephen Graham Jones. The novel will be published in 2008 by FC2 .-See also:*The Fast Red Road: A Plainsong *All The Beautiful Sinners...
(2008)