She Gone Santa Fe edition by Maida Tilchen Literature Fiction eBooks
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Finalist for Historical Fiction 2014 New Mexico-Arizona Book Award
Finalist forGay/Lesbian GLBT 2014 New Mexico- Arizona Book Award
Finalist for Historical Fiction - 2014 Golden Crown Literary Society "Goldie" Award
In this historical novel set in the early 1920s, the dream of a young Brooklyn Jewish woman named Ree is to live with the Indians of the Southwest, far from the sweatshop where she works. To reach that goal, she studies anthropology at Columbia University, where the professor she idolizes, Ruth Benedict, is having an affair with her fellow student, Margaret Mead. When her professors think Ree is a loose cannon and won’t send her to the Southwest for her field work, she defiantly goes to New Mexico on her own. But before she reaches Navajoland, Ree works at a lesbian dude ranch that really existed; works for Boston heiress Mary Cabot Wheelwright to study Navajo culture from Hosteen Klah, a transgender medicine man; finds romance on a starlit mesa top with an elusive Navajo youth; travels in a sheepherder’s cozy wagon; and tries to find her place at a trading post in a remote Navajo community. She’s Gone Santa Fe tells a unique story based on real people and places of New Mexico, lesbian, and anthropology history.
She Gone Santa Fe edition by Maida Tilchen Literature Fiction eBooks
In her new book, Maida Tilchen once again brings the southwest United States to life through the eyes of strong women characters and the women they love and admire. As in her previous book, Land beyond Maps, Tilchen juxtaposes the main characters' struggle for freedom and self-expression with a similar struggle of the native people who seek to retain dignity and their way of life.Even though this is a work of fiction, it is well-researched and its events are respectfully extrapolated from actual historical figures and events. Many of these events were infuriating, in terms of the blatant sexism, racism, and homophobia, but the determination of the characters to live as they wished, in spite of obstacles, was inspiring. I greatly enjoyed reading this very interesting novel.
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She Gone Santa Fe edition by Maida Tilchen Literature Fiction eBooks Reviews
Wow, what a book.
I wasn’t sure that I would be interested, but I picked up the book and it engaged me immediately. The historical references, about anthropology at Columbia, and life in New York in the 1920’s, held my attention. Before I knew it, I had stayed up until 4 in the morning, reading half the way through.
The next day, something strange happened. The story takes a sort of mystical turn, and I began to read very, very slowly. I would only finish a few pages a day. I didn’t want the book to come to an end.
Maida is a friend. I see her about once a year at a social gathering, and we’ve had conversations on a very wide variety of subjects. Ask her a question, and you get an extremely articulate and detailed answer which explores the topic from multiple points of view. But once, she had trouble giving me an answer. At a public forum, I asked her what the role of history was in her writing, and why it was important to her. It’s the only time I remember when she was nearly at a loss for words. For Maida, history matters very much. Perhaps my question hit too close to home for her to frame it in a proper perspective.
Maida writes historical novels. What does that mean? She does extensive historical research, unearths all sorts of facts, and yet, she is writing fiction. If you are going to write history, why make stuff up? If you are going to write fiction, why do you need to do all of this history homework before you even get started?
One benefit of the history is that it supports very vivid characterizations. The many details, large and small, which have a basis in historical fact help even the fictional characters come to life.
In another sense, what Maida does is not fundamentally different from the work of non-fiction historians. Consider some biography which you have enjoyed. I’m thinking of David McCullough’s book on John Adams. He gathered up what must be, to a close approximation, everything that is known about Adams’ life. But in order to bring the book to life, to bring his subject back to life, he also had to write fiction. There are so many details of which there remains no literal record, but which must have been more or less the way that he describes, based upon everything else we know. The distance between Maida and McCullough is more of a difference in degree than in kind.
Samuel Johnson, in the Rambler, No. 60, wrote that “no species of writing seems more worthy of cultivation than biography…there has rarely passed a life of which a judicious and faithful narrative would not be useful.” We write, and read, biography, to understand ourselves. “We are all prompted by the same motives, all deceived by the same fallacies, all animated by hope, obstructed by danger, entangled by desire, and seduced by pleasure.”
This gets a little closer to the reasons why Maida writes history. For the important thing to understand is that the history hasn’t stopped. There is no place we can point to and say, “Everything before this was history.” It just keeps going, even now, and we are a part of it. So we must know the history, if we are to understand something about ourselves.
Maida’s style is plain spoken, somewhat rough hewn, in the manner of an old New England farmhouse. She does not write to be elegant or invent some precious trope. She wants you to know what happened.
Maida says that she writes to preserve and dramatize lesbian history. I’m not lesbian, not female, not gay, but I am human, or at least I hope so. At various times, I’ve been awkward and rejected and uncertain about myself, in the manner of Rhee, the central character. Maida explains, in an author’s note, that Rhee is based upon a real person, Henrietta Schmerler, but because so little is known of the facts of Henrietta’s life, Maida has changed her name, thereby gaining the poetic license to change and invent elements of her history.
Perhaps I find Rhee’s life to be so compelling, not despite, but because of our differences. I was amused to see Henrietta receive a comment on her anthropology paper advising her to cite the linguistic theories of Edward Sapir. It called to mind some remarks of his student, Benjamin Lee Whorf, in an essay written in memory of Sapir, on the problems of studying an exotic language “We tend to think in our own language in order to examine the exotic language… the problem, though difficult, is feasible…we are at long last pushed willy-nilly out of our ruts. Then we find that an exotic language is a mirror held up to our own.” Whorf was writing of Hopi and Navajo, cultures which live in the very setting of Maida’s book.
I approached the end of the book with great reluctance. I feared that Maida had written herself into a corner. The general shape of the plot, constrained by its historical references, is visible from a great distance. I feared an anticlimax, but the end is brilliant, the best passage in the novel.
Sometimes, to find the truth, it is necessary to look beyond the bare facts of history. As Johnson said, “more knowledge may be gained of a man’s real character by a short conversation with one of his servants than from a formal and studied narrative, begun with his pedigree, and ended with his funeral.” Well done.
Maida Tilchen's historical novel, "She's Gone Santa Fe," imagines what it would have been like for a young, white, Jewish, budding lesbian to have fled the dreary world of 1920s New York sweatshops for anthropology school at Columbia University with the likes of Margaret Mead, and then to flee that equally oppressive environment to try living among the Navajos in the Southwest.
Tilchen has taken the few facts that were known about a historical figure and created a fascinating tale. Her main character, Ree, arrives in New Mexico without knowing how she'll be able to integrate herself into the Navajo community. She manages to get a job at a lesbian dude ranch in New Mexico and goes on to work for a rich woman who dabbles in anthropology. She feels like a fish out of water wherever she goes. All Ree can think about is how desperate she is to find a home among the Navajo, but when she actually arrives at that community, she doesn't fit in there, either.
Ree is so naive and deluded that I kept wanting to scream, "Wake up and smell the coffee!", but I did admire her determination to achieve her dream. Ree is far more sympathetic than the rapacious anthropologists, who are trying to steal the Indians’ culture, as well as their artifacts. As Ree wakens to her lesbian feelings, I kept rooting for her to find the love and acceptance she desperately craved, but sadly, she never succeeds.
If you're looking for a lighthearted lesbian romance, go elsewhere; if you've ever wondered what your life might have been like if you'd been born 100 years ago, you'll really enjoy this book.
If in fact based on a real life ranch, it certainly made an interesting read.
The descriptions, characters & plot in She's gone Santa Fe are well written, exciting & show a young person striving for success. The story makes me want to go there & see New Mexico today. Highly recommended.
CBT
I loved everything about this book..I love books that have historical references, great storyline and believable characters. If I hadn't already this book would have made me want to "Go Santa Fe"..Maida has a way of making you feel the emotions of her characters. She has such a talent for descriptive writing I felt that I was part of the story!!
In her new book, Maida Tilchen once again brings the southwest United States to life through the eyes of strong women characters and the women they love and admire. As in her previous book, Land beyond Maps, Tilchen juxtaposes the main characters' struggle for freedom and self-expression with a similar struggle of the native people who seek to retain dignity and their way of life.
Even though this is a work of fiction, it is well-researched and its events are respectfully extrapolated from actual historical figures and events. Many of these events were infuriating, in terms of the blatant sexism, racism, and homophobia, but the determination of the characters to live as they wished, in spite of obstacles, was inspiring. I greatly enjoyed reading this very interesting novel.
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