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The Death of Jim Loney (Penguin Classics) | 
 enlarge | Author: James Welch
Creator: Jim Harrison
Publisher: Penguin Classics
Category: Book
List Price: $14.00
Buy New: $7.93
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New (35) Used (11) from $6.89
Rating:  6 reviews
Sales Rank: 253619
Media: Paperback
Pages: 176
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5.1 x 0.6
ISBN: 0143105183
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780143105183
ASIN: 0143105183
Publication Date: July 29, 2008
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Product Description
James Welch never shied away from depicting the lives of Native Americans damned by destiny and temperament to the margins of society. The Death of Jim Loney is no exception. Jim Loney is a mixed-blood, of white and Indian parentage. Estranged from both communities, he lives a solitary, brooding existence in a small Montana town. His nights are filled with disturbing dreams that haunt his waking hours. Rhea, his lover, cannot console him; Kate, his sister, cannot penetrate his world. In sparse, moving prose, Welch has crafted a riveting tale of disenfranchisement and selfdestruction.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 1 more reviews...
 Heart-achingly gorgeous September 21, 2005
Tracy Middlebrook (Seattle, WA USA)
4 out of 7 found this review helpful
This is such a heart-aching book. It's gorgeous and simple and so sad. I read it for a course at University and am so glad to have encountered this treasure. I've marked the hell out of its few pages. My professor highly encouraged us to write all over our books, as a way of CLAIMING the books and the reading process as MINE. (Something I've always been a fan of, anyways). Concise and so powerful. Each word is perfectly chosen. Everyone should read this novel.
personal Armageddon August 16, 2004
J Eric Miller
3 out of 7 found this review helpful
Nihilistic and lonely, Welch offers a vision of Manifest Destiny in reverse, and an exploration of, amongst other things, the Anglo desire to Cowboy and Indian, though in the context of that novel there is nothing romantic about these romanticized ideals; there is the wind and there are the ghosts and bottles line up in front of the middle and the final solution is personal Armageddon.
 pretty good book October 29, 2003
Alan Skogen (Ronan, MT USA)
3 out of 6 found this review helpful
The Death of Jim Loney is a story about Jim Loney, a poor drunk, half-breed, of white and Indian parentage, who is trying to find where his life went wrong. Was it his mother that left him and his sister when they were children, or their father who disowned them nine years later? Or is it the gradual decay of his reason to exist? Nobody can penetrate his world, not his girlfriend Rhea or his sister Kate. This story goes through his troubles and struggles everyday, fighting off thoughts of death and despair. I liked this book, although its not a book you want to read to feel good about yoursef, it will get you depressed!
Concise, well-written, and effective July 27, 2001
LaLoren
12 out of 15 found this review helpful
Reading this, I could not help making comparisons with the play, "Death of a Salesman." While James Welch may not appreciate his story of a half-breed American Indian being compared to a play about a very white, middle-class male, I found my reaction to both very similar. Despite the sense of doom, from the very beginning, I found myself foolishly hoping, as I did with Willy Loman, that Jim would latch on to one of the opportunities offered him, and change his fate. At the same time I knew that Jim, like Willy, was a finished product by the time I'd met him, and that simply changing locations (or jobs) would not make any real difference. Of course, Willy was more a product of his own choices, while Loney is more a product of other peoples'disregard. This is where the story of the white man and the Indian diverge.Welch is an excellant writer. This book is concise and neat. Very little is extraneous or superfluous to the story. There are a couple of small flaws, however. While he does an excellent job of portraying the feelings and emotions of Loney's sister, I thought he did not do as good a job with his white girl friend. To me she came off just a bit one-dimensional, but then, it is often difficult for a male writer to explain the female side of a relationship. I also thought he could have done away with some of the explanations at the end regarding Indian alienation from the white culture, and Officer Painter's sudden realization of Loney's "plan." Perhaps Welch didn't trust in his own abilities to bring this out within the story, but he had already done an admirable job, and it didn't require repetition. All in all, I would recommend this book very highly. You will probably end up, like I did, reading it in one night, and then wishing that you hadn't finished it so quickly, so that you would still have it to look forward to.
Simple, yet extraordinary May 17, 2000
6 out of 8 found this review helpful
Yt is a compeling novel with unique descrpytyons of a modern Native American who is caught between his past and present.Jim ,a half- breed with a blurry past, is struggling with self-identification.While trying to reinvent his lost identity, Jim is offered help from people who love him.However,neither social relations nor cheap wines help him get over his identity crisis.As he gets more involved with his subconcious thoughts and dreams, he starts to become a non-person in the small town of Montana.As he refuses to get help from people who try to bring order to his life, he realizes the liveliness of the land and as a result identifies with it for a regeneration of his soul. Even though,the plot is quite simple, the intriguing descriptions make the novel an extraordinary one.Inarguably,everyone can find certain points or characters to identify with himself.
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