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Seldom Disappointed: A Memoir
In this affectionate and unvarnished recollection of his past, Tony Hillerman looks at seventy-six years spent getting from hard-times farm boy to bestselling author. Using the gifts of a talented novelist and reporter, Hillerman draws brilliant portrait not just of his life, but of the world around him.
368 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2001
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653 people want to read
About the author
Tony Hillerman
220 books1,848 followersTony Hillerman, who was born in Sacred Heart, Oklahoma, was a decorated combat veteran from World War II, serving as a mortarman in the 103rd Infantry Division and earning the Silver Star, the Bronze Star, and a Purple Heart. Later, he worked as a journalist from 1948 to 1962. Then he earned a Masters degree and taught journalism from 1966 to 1987 at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, where he resided with his wife until his death in 2008. Hillerman, a consistently bestselling author, was ranked as New Mexico's 25th wealthiest man in 1996. - Wikipedia
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 120 reviews
November 24, 2021
Incredible life
Tony Hillerman was a one-of-a-kind writer who knew more about Navajo culture and customs than most Navajos. His books made him a living legend long ago, but in his memoir, we learn he was a decorated war hero, an intrepid reporter, an academic, a devoted father and husband as well as a truly great American. One of the finest memoirs ever written.
Tony Hillerman was a one-of-a-kind writer who knew more about Navajo culture and customs than most Navajos. His books made him a living legend long ago, but in his memoir, we learn he was a decorated war hero, an intrepid reporter, an academic, a devoted father and husband as well as a truly great American. One of the finest memoirs ever written.
November 25, 2022
I enjoyed reading this memoir although I confess to not having read very many Tony Hillerman books. (A quick database check reveals I've read three Leaphorn & Chee novels, one nonfiction anthology, and one fiction anthology that he edited). It's a true memoir, meaning it's based on his complete life, up until the age of 75 when he wrote it. That means there is a lot of material that does not directly relate to his books or writing process. Lots on his WW2 experiences where he earned recognition as well as some nasty wounds in battle. There is also quite a bit from his post-war journalism career followed by his his time in academia.
I was born and raised in Albuquerque, NM and so I have many memories of Tony Hillerman's celebrity status for New Mexicans. While it's interesting to read of his life, I wish more of this memoir was devoted to his writing. He does make the point quite well, that all of his lifetime experiences did, in fact, feed his writing. Characters, even Joe Leaphorn, were based on people he'd encountered along the way. Probably more importantly were the plots and situations that his characters encounter which almost always grew from experiences in his own life. His insights on modern-day Indians (and yes, I deliberately use that term -- not "Native Americans" or "Indigenous Peoples" which many Indians consider derogatory) are especially interesting. Throughout the book, he is humble and isn't afraid to be self-deprecating. The book comes across as honest, even when he looks bad in hindsight from time to time.
It's always fun for me to read autobiographies by authors and this one is a good one.
I was born and raised in Albuquerque, NM and so I have many memories of Tony Hillerman's celebrity status for New Mexicans. While it's interesting to read of his life, I wish more of this memoir was devoted to his writing. He does make the point quite well, that all of his lifetime experiences did, in fact, feed his writing. Characters, even Joe Leaphorn, were based on people he'd encountered along the way. Probably more importantly were the plots and situations that his characters encounter which almost always grew from experiences in his own life. His insights on modern-day Indians (and yes, I deliberately use that term -- not "Native Americans" or "Indigenous Peoples" which many Indians consider derogatory) are especially interesting. Throughout the book, he is humble and isn't afraid to be self-deprecating. The book comes across as honest, even when he looks bad in hindsight from time to time.
It's always fun for me to read autobiographies by authors and this one is a good one.
July 19, 2015
Tony Hillerman’s Seldom Disappointed: A Memoir is both sorely disappointing, for how badly and boringly it is written, and how much of a sell-out shill Hillerman, despite still calling himself a “journalist.”
Please, let us be clear: I do not just mean “shill” as a put down. I am being exact in language here. Hillerman is a shill and he should feel deeply ashamed and ethically compromised for it.
Even if Hillerman weren’t a shill and a disgrace to the journalism profession, his memoir is still a terrible and boring read.
First, let’s deal with the reason Hillerman should be denounced by all journalists, for his duties as a shill.
Hillerman got tired of being a reporter (he claims to be a journalist but it does not appear he was a journalist for particularly long and I write appear because he is so terrible with actually putting dates in his memoir, making it near impossible to know when anything is happening or create timelines) and moved to the position of flak at University of New Mexico or, as its current professors call it. University of Nothing Much.
While there, his boss tells him that a local sheriff, who runs a jail, needs 11 new mattresses after a prisoner insurrection, and he wants to keep it on the down low. Hillerman gets him the mattresses and he’s off to the moral corruption Olympics and already ready to turn in his journalism credentials.
Let us be very clear: Hillerman participated in, facilitated and was part of a cover-up and likely furthering the abuse of prisoners by an elected official.
Don’t take my word for it. Here’s the Merriam-Webster definition: “a usually concerted effort to keep an illegal or unethical act or situation from being made public.”
Hillerman writes the Sandoval County sheriff had some prisoners who were “acting up.”
I guess when all of your freedoms have been taken away from you, you’re no longer entitled to civil rights. You’re just dirty scum, Hillerman thinks.
“He had no budget to replace them and he didn’t want to alert the press to this affair,” Hillerman wrote.
Too bad Hillerman wasn’t asked to break into a political rival’s psychiatrist’s office to steal documents. That kind of behavior is right up his alley.
This isn’t the only time Hillerman decides to take ethics, morality, and other people’s lives into his own hands.
While working at the university, he hung up on bomb threats and reported them to no one. Because that’s a totally safe thing to do. He also made sure he had “deniability” because lying to the public is just the coolest thing ever.
But wait! There’s more! He also helped free a student suspected of killing another human being while in Ecuador so he and three other students could flee to the United States and avoid prosecution and keep it all out of the press.
He’s good at cover-ups.
He also looks down at genres that aren’t mainline fiction or mystery, because, you know, mystery isn’t a genre that’s totally looked down on, or anything.
Specifically, fantasy and romance? You might as well not be writing. Totally worthless.
Thanks for your elitism, Hillerman! Really makes me want to read more of your elitist stuff.
He later goes on to put down action thriller bestsellers. This man, he knows what is good and it’s only the genres he likes.
Moving on, he is just a boring and terrible writer. Everything is told, and frankly, he’s not that interesting. Maybe if you’re a super fan you’ll like his book. If not, don’t give this elitist (who doesn’t like elitists) any more money. He deserves not a cent, and in fact, deserves to be dressed down and never referred to as a journalist again.
Please, let us be clear: I do not just mean “shill” as a put down. I am being exact in language here. Hillerman is a shill and he should feel deeply ashamed and ethically compromised for it.
Even if Hillerman weren’t a shill and a disgrace to the journalism profession, his memoir is still a terrible and boring read.
First, let’s deal with the reason Hillerman should be denounced by all journalists, for his duties as a shill.
Hillerman got tired of being a reporter (he claims to be a journalist but it does not appear he was a journalist for particularly long and I write appear because he is so terrible with actually putting dates in his memoir, making it near impossible to know when anything is happening or create timelines) and moved to the position of flak at University of New Mexico or, as its current professors call it. University of Nothing Much.
While there, his boss tells him that a local sheriff, who runs a jail, needs 11 new mattresses after a prisoner insurrection, and he wants to keep it on the down low. Hillerman gets him the mattresses and he’s off to the moral corruption Olympics and already ready to turn in his journalism credentials.
Let us be very clear: Hillerman participated in, facilitated and was part of a cover-up and likely furthering the abuse of prisoners by an elected official.
Don’t take my word for it. Here’s the Merriam-Webster definition: “a usually concerted effort to keep an illegal or unethical act or situation from being made public.”
Hillerman writes the Sandoval County sheriff had some prisoners who were “acting up.”
I guess when all of your freedoms have been taken away from you, you’re no longer entitled to civil rights. You’re just dirty scum, Hillerman thinks.
“He had no budget to replace them and he didn’t want to alert the press to this affair,” Hillerman wrote.
Too bad Hillerman wasn’t asked to break into a political rival’s psychiatrist’s office to steal documents. That kind of behavior is right up his alley.
This isn’t the only time Hillerman decides to take ethics, morality, and other people’s lives into his own hands.
While working at the university, he hung up on bomb threats and reported them to no one. Because that’s a totally safe thing to do. He also made sure he had “deniability” because lying to the public is just the coolest thing ever.
But wait! There’s more! He also helped free a student suspected of killing another human being while in Ecuador so he and three other students could flee to the United States and avoid prosecution and keep it all out of the press.
He’s good at cover-ups.
He also looks down at genres that aren’t mainline fiction or mystery, because, you know, mystery isn’t a genre that’s totally looked down on, or anything.
Specifically, fantasy and romance? You might as well not be writing. Totally worthless.
Thanks for your elitism, Hillerman! Really makes me want to read more of your elitist stuff.
He later goes on to put down action thriller bestsellers. This man, he knows what is good and it’s only the genres he likes.
Moving on, he is just a boring and terrible writer. Everything is told, and frankly, he’s not that interesting. Maybe if you’re a super fan you’ll like his book. If not, don’t give this elitist (who doesn’t like elitists) any more money. He deserves not a cent, and in fact, deserves to be dressed down and never referred to as a journalist again.
May 7, 2016
I stumbled across the Leaphorn-Chee series as a 12-year-old kid and was hooked immediately. I had a serious case of culture envy in a way that I now suppose could very easily be characterized as condescending, if you're that person who likes making that point.
But I look at it like this: driving home years ago, I heard a pop song on the radio in my car. Already a confirmed music snob, even as a teenager, I changed the station. When I got home, my cousin was there visiting my parents with her 1-year-old daughter, who was a delight. She could hardly walk, so I was really taken when I saw her adorable little self hold onto the side of the fountain in my parents' yard and... dance. She was bobbing to music on the radio. It was such a sweet moment that I didn't realize, for some time, that she was dancing to the very song I'd turned up my nose to not 15 minutes earlier. I was humbled, and grateful to be humbled.
Tony Hillerman's work is that pop song for me. It clicked. I was not at all, in any way, a bookish child, but I read his books like crazy. I liked learning about the Navajo tribe because of his novels, and I'd never even heard of them before his novels. Sure the writing isn't high literature, and of course as a non-native, cultural bias is inherent in his presentation. I understand these things now. But I'll always be grateful for stumbling across that first paperback and, for reasons unknown to me then as now, actually starting to read it.
In other words: I recognize that this autobiography is not of a master of letters who will be remembered for all time (nor does it further illuminate an intricate and profound body of work), and that I have acute personal bias.
Even so, I think the book is meritorious. I cannot remember a story so rich with personal and professional successes told with such humility. Poor but grounded upbringing appreciated and made the most of? Check. Brave, dutiful service to a country he believed in? Check. Rising through a competitive field? Check. Providing for a large, seemingly happy and healthy family? Check. Apparently good husband and dad? Check. Trying writing on a whim and having that result in a successful novel? Check. Building a successful literary career? Check. Except to hear him tell it, resonant with humility, it's: I grew up poor, then I went to the army and, oh yeah, I got a bronze star. After that I tried journalism, and yeah eventually I became an editor. Along the way I had some kids, whom we raised as conscientious Catholics. At one point, I thought I'd try writing a book. It came out pretty well. I wrote some more after that. It's been great and I feel very fortunate.
That sort of writing rhythm could seem a little ho-hum, but it worked for me. I believe that's just how it came out, and that it remained on the page with such self-effacing honesty took guts. That courage, I'm sure, is something he also would've casually dismissed as a simple matter of course. But for an adult who is known to friends as someone who 'reads a lot,' it was a singular pleasure to learn that the man who wrote some of the first books that my younger self ever wanted to read was such an admirable human being.
But I look at it like this: driving home years ago, I heard a pop song on the radio in my car. Already a confirmed music snob, even as a teenager, I changed the station. When I got home, my cousin was there visiting my parents with her 1-year-old daughter, who was a delight. She could hardly walk, so I was really taken when I saw her adorable little self hold onto the side of the fountain in my parents' yard and... dance. She was bobbing to music on the radio. It was such a sweet moment that I didn't realize, for some time, that she was dancing to the very song I'd turned up my nose to not 15 minutes earlier. I was humbled, and grateful to be humbled.
Tony Hillerman's work is that pop song for me. It clicked. I was not at all, in any way, a bookish child, but I read his books like crazy. I liked learning about the Navajo tribe because of his novels, and I'd never even heard of them before his novels. Sure the writing isn't high literature, and of course as a non-native, cultural bias is inherent in his presentation. I understand these things now. But I'll always be grateful for stumbling across that first paperback and, for reasons unknown to me then as now, actually starting to read it.
In other words: I recognize that this autobiography is not of a master of letters who will be remembered for all time (nor does it further illuminate an intricate and profound body of work), and that I have acute personal bias.
Even so, I think the book is meritorious. I cannot remember a story so rich with personal and professional successes told with such humility. Poor but grounded upbringing appreciated and made the most of? Check. Brave, dutiful service to a country he believed in? Check. Rising through a competitive field? Check. Providing for a large, seemingly happy and healthy family? Check. Apparently good husband and dad? Check. Trying writing on a whim and having that result in a successful novel? Check. Building a successful literary career? Check. Except to hear him tell it, resonant with humility, it's: I grew up poor, then I went to the army and, oh yeah, I got a bronze star. After that I tried journalism, and yeah eventually I became an editor. Along the way I had some kids, whom we raised as conscientious Catholics. At one point, I thought I'd try writing a book. It came out pretty well. I wrote some more after that. It's been great and I feel very fortunate.
That sort of writing rhythm could seem a little ho-hum, but it worked for me. I believe that's just how it came out, and that it remained on the page with such self-effacing honesty took guts. That courage, I'm sure, is something he also would've casually dismissed as a simple matter of course. But for an adult who is known to friends as someone who 'reads a lot,' it was a singular pleasure to learn that the man who wrote some of the first books that my younger self ever wanted to read was such an admirable human being.
August 29, 2012
I feel like I'm telling goodbye to a long and loyal friend. Tony Hillerman is my hero, and I've almost read all of his books. I learned so much about his personal life that I didn't know. He served in the Army, was injured quite severely, had to have a multitude of treatments and surgeries, and a long healing period. He learned how to write, he could run a farm, went to school to journalism school, worked for newspapers all over the place, and finally ended up in New Mexico. He married what sounded like a delightful lady, and they had one child and adopted five. His story about his kids would make every kid proud. I really like how his writing developed. From newspapers, to stories, to various things he tried and put in his file, and the things that slowly got published. He became an amazing mystery writer, and a few years ago, he was diagnosed with prostrate cancer. With treatments he was given several more years to live and write. We have a library branch here in Albuquerque called the Tony Hillerman Branch Library. I love going to that one. He is very nice and has "Plenty" of his books for us fans to read.
In 1990, I had the opportunity of listening to him at a speaking engagement. He reminds me so much of his character Joe Leaphorn that I asked him if he put himself in his books. He kind of dodged me, so I don't know for sure if he did or not. This book is narrated by Hillerman himself, so it is especially enjoyable to hear him with his own emphasis tell his own stories. One thing I really appreciated was his love for his own family growing up, his love of his mother and brother that was very strong. He died about 5 or so years ago. Don't know exactly, but I've lost what I feel is a dear and wonderful friend. He's the real deal, one I so appreciate. Hope you enjoy it as much as I have.
In 1990, I had the opportunity of listening to him at a speaking engagement. He reminds me so much of his character Joe Leaphorn that I asked him if he put himself in his books. He kind of dodged me, so I don't know for sure if he did or not. This book is narrated by Hillerman himself, so it is especially enjoyable to hear him with his own emphasis tell his own stories. One thing I really appreciated was his love for his own family growing up, his love of his mother and brother that was very strong. He died about 5 or so years ago. Don't know exactly, but I've lost what I feel is a dear and wonderful friend. He's the real deal, one I so appreciate. Hope you enjoy it as much as I have.
November 17, 2008
Biography is not generally one of my favorite genres, and autobiography even less so. But, wishing to mark Tony Hillerman's passing, and having heard good things about his autobiography, I decided to give Seldom Disappointed a try, and I was seldom disappointed in it.
Hillerman begins with his childhood in rural, Depression-era Oklahoma. His love for his parents and siblings was well-deserved and reciprocated, and he tells many amusing boyhood tales. Hardships, including his father's death, are met and overcome as a family, strengthened by faith.
I had not known of Hillerman's war service until I read his obituary, which mentioned that he had been awarded a Silver Star. He tells the story of being an infantryman in Europe during the difficult fighting of 1944 and 1945 with the modesty we have come to expect from the "Greatest Generation." He also continues, as he does throughout the book, to point out instances of good fortune and how events that seemed bad at the time led to life-changing experiences.
The post-war years found Hillerman finishing college, meeting and marrying his wife Marie, beginning a career in journalism, and forming, with Marie, a family of one biological child and five adopted ones; then moving into academia and finally writing his first novel, The Blessing Way. Throughout, Hillerman comes across as a person I would have been glad to know, and have been privileged, along with many others, to know through his work. I would recommend reading his novels first, but if you've read all of them and would like just a bit more Hillerman, read this book.
Hillerman begins with his childhood in rural, Depression-era Oklahoma. His love for his parents and siblings was well-deserved and reciprocated, and he tells many amusing boyhood tales. Hardships, including his father's death, are met and overcome as a family, strengthened by faith.
I had not known of Hillerman's war service until I read his obituary, which mentioned that he had been awarded a Silver Star. He tells the story of being an infantryman in Europe during the difficult fighting of 1944 and 1945 with the modesty we have come to expect from the "Greatest Generation." He also continues, as he does throughout the book, to point out instances of good fortune and how events that seemed bad at the time led to life-changing experiences.
The post-war years found Hillerman finishing college, meeting and marrying his wife Marie, beginning a career in journalism, and forming, with Marie, a family of one biological child and five adopted ones; then moving into academia and finally writing his first novel, The Blessing Way. Throughout, Hillerman comes across as a person I would have been glad to know, and have been privileged, along with many others, to know through his work. I would recommend reading his novels first, but if you've read all of them and would like just a bit more Hillerman, read this book.
August 13, 2013
This autobiography was different than I expected;because Hillerman is best known for his Navajo mysteries, I thought much more of the book would be about his experiences there. But, he doesn't get around to describing those until the last 80 pages of his 330 page memoir. (Including 10 pages of plot descriptions of his books.) I especially enjoyed learning how the plots of his books came about, how he found his locations and developed his characters.
More than 1/3 of the book is about Hillerman's experiences in World War II, and after reading it, I can see why. It not only had a profound impact on his life, but his actions were part of pivotal campaigns in the Rhine River area that finally defeated the Germans. His descriptions, although written in a clinical, non-emotional way, leave no doubt about the horrors he witnessed as a common soldier on the front lines.
His careers as a newspaper reporter, editor and college professor were also entertaining, written in his deadpan, sardonic style.
While he is self-deprecating and modest, it is clear that he did an excellent job in all his roles. Most of all, he comes across as a genuine "good guy." Someone you would be glad to have in your family, or better yet, as a friend.
More than 1/3 of the book is about Hillerman's experiences in World War II, and after reading it, I can see why. It not only had a profound impact on his life, but his actions were part of pivotal campaigns in the Rhine River area that finally defeated the Germans. His descriptions, although written in a clinical, non-emotional way, leave no doubt about the horrors he witnessed as a common soldier on the front lines.
His careers as a newspaper reporter, editor and college professor were also entertaining, written in his deadpan, sardonic style.
While he is self-deprecating and modest, it is clear that he did an excellent job in all his roles. Most of all, he comes across as a genuine "good guy." Someone you would be glad to have in your family, or better yet, as a friend.
January 24, 2018
I was hesitant to read this book since I love Tony Hillerman's Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee novels so much. I've found that sometimes it is better not to know too much about the author and to just enjoy the writing! This wasn't the case for me with Seldom Disappointed. The first two thirds of the book deal with the author's childhood, WWII service, and marriage to his wife Marie. The last one third of the book was more interesting to me as Hillerman describes his tenure in academia as a professor at University of New Mexico (some HILARIOUS stories there for those who are familiar with academia from the faculty side of things) and then moves on to talk about writing his various novels. An overall joy to read for fans of Hillerman who will miss him now that he is gone.
May 14, 2013
Somewhat disappointing. The consensus was that a very nice guy wrote a flat, boring book. Part of that flatness might have been intentional. Hillerman was very much a man of his generation and didn't discuss his emotions, so we got no inkling of what he was feeling, say, when his beloved older brother died suddenly. He did write, vividly, about WWII however, but his life after the war all seemed to run together, as if he was writing only out of a sense of duty. Saving, of course, when he talked about his wife.
February 16, 2008
I've very much enjoyed Hillerman's fiction, which is why I read this book. A lot of it really drags on endlessly. The parts about his stint in WWII are pretty interesting, and I admire him and his wife for adopting all those children.
The first part of the book about his young years is interesting, just because it's so different from modern times. All in all, though, this book is just so-so.
The first part of the book about his young years is interesting, just because it's so different from modern times. All in all, though, this book is just so-so.
December 10, 2018
The most interesting bits of book are how he got into being a journalist, his decision to adopt, a story about the time that his son and friend got separated from him during a fishing trip, and finally the mystery series he's most known for.
http://www.pussreboots.com/blog/2018/...
http://www.pussreboots.com/blog/2018/...
October 21, 2021
This was an enjoyable and very (mostly) readable book. I particularly enjoyed the parts during the war and also how he developed his ideas for his novels.
I had no idea that he had been awarded the Silver Star - the Army's third-highest award for valor. And his injuries were not insignificant. I always wondered what he did before he became a successful writer.
I was particularly happy to find out that his "break-out novel" was the first one I read and enjoyed it so much that I went back read all of his others IN ORDER! And he explained why he added Chee as an additional main character, and then put them both in the same story after having alternating them before (interesting and funny).
I am going to read the first one his duaghter, Ann, wrote and has continued the series.
I had no idea that he had been awarded the Silver Star - the Army's third-highest award for valor. And his injuries were not insignificant. I always wondered what he did before he became a successful writer.
I was particularly happy to find out that his "break-out novel" was the first one I read and enjoyed it so much that I went back read all of his others IN ORDER! And he explained why he added Chee as an additional main character, and then put them both in the same story after having alternating them before (interesting and funny).
I am going to read the first one his duaghter, Ann, wrote and has continued the series.
July 12, 2021
What I really wanted to know was how a white guy from Oklahoma becomes the most prolific writer of Navajo centered fiction in the US. That's not really answered in this book. Hillerman went to school with Potawatomie kids in Oklahoma, and started out his writing career in Santa Fe, but didn't move to Albuquerque until he was in his 40s. Most of the book is about his military experience and then there's a good chunk about his newspaper career until he becomes a novelist near the end. It's not a bad read, but glosses over any research he did, experiences he had on the reservation or people who helped him along the way.
July 6, 2024
Seldom Disappointed: A Memoir lacks coherence. It jumps around too much. He starts telling us something and the next paragraph is going in a totally different direction. I wasn't disappointed. I was frustrated.
September 13, 2021
I FIRST GOT INTRODUCED TO TONY HILLERMAN'S BOOKS AND SINCE THEN READING THROUGH HIS LIST. IVE READ A LOT. I READ THIS BECAUSE I REALLY ENJOYED HIS WRITING. WITH HIS MEMOIR I GOT TO KNOW ABOUT HIM. HE REALLY LIVED AN INTERESTING LIFE. HE TRIED EVERY JOB TO EVENTUALLY BECOME A WRITER. I DIDNT KNOW THAT HE WAS IN WORLD WAR 2 AND ALL HE WENT THROUGH. HIS FAMILY PART OF THE BOOK WAS GREAT.
March 29, 2023
Excellent
This autobiography is an excellent insite to the authors background and how his life experience formed the plots to his books. Lots of highlights for me in this one.
This autobiography is an excellent insite to the authors background and how his life experience formed the plots to his books. Lots of highlights for me in this one.
July 30, 2020
I didn't have time to finish reading this book club choice. What I read I liked. I like his style of writing - strange because I'm not fond of his books.
March 25, 2012
MPHA Book Club March 2012
341 Pages
For Hillerman fans, this is important to read this book. Here are some of the passages that I especially liked:
Page 10
We children spent those years of the Great American Depression/Great Oklahoma Dust Bowl living miles below the current poverty level but happily protected by love and the invincible ignorance of the young. Life in Sacred Heart then (and now, for that matter) was not complicated by any possibility of getting rich.
Page 55
Our commandant, for example, was old (at least forty), he was a West Pointer, and he was only a captain and should have advanced at least to colonel. What terrible deed had he done? It couldn’t be mere stupidity. Citizens drafted out of the real world knew stupidity was no impediment for advancement for West Point grads.
Page 145
I always wondered who invented the absurd lie that proclaimed there were “no atheists in foxholes.” Where else could atheism better thrive than in the killing fields where homicide was honored?
Page 249
That experience may have improved my journalism teaching. Having written many a caption under photos of embarrassed politicians trying to explain things, I now learned how it felt to be the face staring sheepishly into the camera about those captions. It teaches compassion.
Page 252
He helped me understand the Dineh values, which make having more than you need a sure symptom of evil which make beauty in sky or landscape valuable enough to stop the car and watch the cloud shadows move across the valley, which make adding our prayers to an aunt’s curing ceremonial far more important than keeping your job.
Page 257
fiction can sometimes tell the truth better than facts.
Page 262
Before I could conclude that a professor’s life tended to be boring, the late sixties were upon us and students were showing up full of fire, demanding to be taught something relevant, protesting war, the establishment parking tickets, poorly prepared lectures, prejudices against pot smoking, unisex rest rooms, police brutality, and so forth.
Odd as this may sound, it was a wonderful time to be teaching. Students were interested, grade mania and resulting grade inflation had barely emerged, the curse of political correctness has not yet paralyzed deans and department chairmen and corrupted the faculty. Teaching a roomful of bright young folks who yearned to learn and were willing to argue forced you to defend your position. Sometimes you couldn’t. You were learning as much as they were, and it was fun.
Page 323
The Great Taos Bank Robbery (1973). Most of the essays in this book were written to meet requirement for a master’s degree in English. As required, they displayed whatever command I had of dealing with a variety of subjects -- ranging from the zaniness of Taos, to the nature of an ultramilitant Chicano leader, to the detective work done to locate the source of bubonic plague.
341 Pages
For Hillerman fans, this is important to read this book. Here are some of the passages that I especially liked:
Page 10
We children spent those years of the Great American Depression/Great Oklahoma Dust Bowl living miles below the current poverty level but happily protected by love and the invincible ignorance of the young. Life in Sacred Heart then (and now, for that matter) was not complicated by any possibility of getting rich.
Page 55
Our commandant, for example, was old (at least forty), he was a West Pointer, and he was only a captain and should have advanced at least to colonel. What terrible deed had he done? It couldn’t be mere stupidity. Citizens drafted out of the real world knew stupidity was no impediment for advancement for West Point grads.
Page 145
I always wondered who invented the absurd lie that proclaimed there were “no atheists in foxholes.” Where else could atheism better thrive than in the killing fields where homicide was honored?
Page 249
That experience may have improved my journalism teaching. Having written many a caption under photos of embarrassed politicians trying to explain things, I now learned how it felt to be the face staring sheepishly into the camera about those captions. It teaches compassion.
Page 252
He helped me understand the Dineh values, which make having more than you need a sure symptom of evil which make beauty in sky or landscape valuable enough to stop the car and watch the cloud shadows move across the valley, which make adding our prayers to an aunt’s curing ceremonial far more important than keeping your job.
Page 257
fiction can sometimes tell the truth better than facts.
Page 262
Before I could conclude that a professor’s life tended to be boring, the late sixties were upon us and students were showing up full of fire, demanding to be taught something relevant, protesting war, the establishment parking tickets, poorly prepared lectures, prejudices against pot smoking, unisex rest rooms, police brutality, and so forth.
Odd as this may sound, it was a wonderful time to be teaching. Students were interested, grade mania and resulting grade inflation had barely emerged, the curse of political correctness has not yet paralyzed deans and department chairmen and corrupted the faculty. Teaching a roomful of bright young folks who yearned to learn and were willing to argue forced you to defend your position. Sometimes you couldn’t. You were learning as much as they were, and it was fun.
Page 323
The Great Taos Bank Robbery (1973). Most of the essays in this book were written to meet requirement for a master’s degree in English. As required, they displayed whatever command I had of dealing with a variety of subjects -- ranging from the zaniness of Taos, to the nature of an ultramilitant Chicano leader, to the detective work done to locate the source of bubonic plague.
October 26, 2013
Tony Hillerman is one of my all time favorite authors, and still, several years after his death, I miss having new books about the Navajo policeman, Joe Leaphorn, to get lost in. I had assumed Mr. Hillerman was a native of New Mexico, with his love of the southwest landscape that comes through so strongly in all his books. So I learned a lot of new things about this author, listening to this book narrated in his own voice. Beginning with his childhood in Oklahoma, and growing up during the depression, the author covers most of his first 76 years of life. He was a wounded veteran of WWII, a journalist, a professor, and an author. And most of all, he appears to have been a devoted husband and father, illustrated by the tenderness with which he describes his wife and each of their children. Mr. Hillerman and his wife had six children, five of them adopted. They were also foster parents. In one segment of the book, he retells the remarks he made while still a journalist, at a conference in New Mexico. This was in 1951, and he spoke to a large group about his amazement that the state budget included so many dollars to be spent on so many frivolous things, while the state's own child welfare workers faced constant budget cuts and shortfall, and were desperate to find foster parents. These comments endeared this man to me even more!
I was very glad to recently see that one of the Hillerman's daughters is going to continue the Joe Leaphorn/Jim Chee series; I am anxious to see what she does with her Dad's characters and stories.
I was very glad to recently see that one of the Hillerman's daughters is going to continue the Joe Leaphorn/Jim Chee series; I am anxious to see what she does with her Dad's characters and stories.
September 30, 2023
"Blessed are those who expect little”
"For they are seldom disappointed"
I started with the recorded book 11 CD set and listened to the book read by Tony Hillerman. Then I bought his book (ISBN 0-06-050586-9) for the pictures of family and friends, and to look at the spelling.
There are many five-star books out there. However, this book excels beyond the five stars. Being the memoir of Tony Hillerman, this is several books in one as he remembers his several lives from impoverished childhood through the military, through college student, through the reporter, and now a writer.
This memoir gives us many insights as to what Tony draws on for material in his books. And any child can relate to many aspects of his childhood. His war experiences would rival "All Quiet on the Western Front" and reflects the experiences of the most recent wars. I am now reading some of the source materials that he read for the background of his novels.
. "Seldom Disappointed" actually enhances the enjoyment of reading Tony Hillerman novels.
"For they are seldom disappointed"
I started with the recorded book 11 CD set and listened to the book read by Tony Hillerman. Then I bought his book (ISBN 0-06-050586-9) for the pictures of family and friends, and to look at the spelling.
There are many five-star books out there. However, this book excels beyond the five stars. Being the memoir of Tony Hillerman, this is several books in one as he remembers his several lives from impoverished childhood through the military, through college student, through the reporter, and now a writer.
This memoir gives us many insights as to what Tony draws on for material in his books. And any child can relate to many aspects of his childhood. His war experiences would rival "All Quiet on the Western Front" and reflects the experiences of the most recent wars. I am now reading some of the source materials that he read for the background of his novels.
. "Seldom Disappointed" actually enhances the enjoyment of reading Tony Hillerman novels.
October 22, 2013
Long, long ago, I spent a western summer reading nothing but Tony Hillerman mysteries. I'm looking forward to his memoir.
Sweet. A view of life in another time. I think it might not have been edited. But it's clear Hillerman had a great attitude and enjoyed his life. I think I would have enjoyed the audiobook, now that I know he read it himself.
I'm giving it two more days. If I can't finish it by then . . . There are just tooooooo many WW2 stories that essentially say 'We were young, we had no idea what we were doing, our commanders were confused, etc.' That might be charming if he was my Grandpa and we were eating cake and having a glass of tea together while he rambled on. I may have to skip enormous sections, which is against my personal reading credo. But I want to get to the parts where he lives out west and writes the good Jim Chee mysteries.
Sweet. A view of life in another time. I think it might not have been edited. But it's clear Hillerman had a great attitude and enjoyed his life. I think I would have enjoyed the audiobook, now that I know he read it himself.
I'm giving it two more days. If I can't finish it by then . . . There are just tooooooo many WW2 stories that essentially say 'We were young, we had no idea what we were doing, our commanders were confused, etc.' That might be charming if he was my Grandpa and we were eating cake and having a glass of tea together while he rambled on. I may have to skip enormous sections, which is against my personal reading credo. But I want to get to the parts where he lives out west and writes the good Jim Chee mysteries.
September 15, 2009
Hillerman, the author of the wonderful Navajo police mysteries, talks easily about his life beginning in rural Oklahoma, through WWII Europe and on to writing about the Southwest. My version is extraordinarily better as Hillerman himself narrates the audio book.
The book is wonderful on all counts - it gives a clear view of life on the lower Plains in the Dustbowl years, the hardships and the delights. His view of the U.S Army 'Intelligence' during WWII is not flattering and the book is loaded w/ examples.
Then he explains how he learned to write, a fascinating chapter in anyones life.
This is a wholy satisfying book. Highly recommend!
The book is wonderful on all counts - it gives a clear view of life on the lower Plains in the Dustbowl years, the hardships and the delights. His view of the U.S Army 'Intelligence' during WWII is not flattering and the book is loaded w/ examples.
Then he explains how he learned to write, a fascinating chapter in anyones life.
This is a wholy satisfying book. Highly recommend!
March 12, 2010
I got about 2/3 the way through and I got tired of Hillerman's political rambling.
I should have quit earlier, when bogged down in his foggy remembrances of being an Army infantryman in WWII. Hillerman is vague with details and assumes you know all the relevant acronyms and locations. This problem is constant in this memoir. It'd be something if he was telling his grandkids this story, but for the general public, I find it annoying.
I've never read his novels, and now I won't, if he writes them the way he wrote his memoir.
This book was recommended to me by my writing teacher. I've read better, and Hillerman doesn't give any advice worth remembering.
I should have quit earlier, when bogged down in his foggy remembrances of being an Army infantryman in WWII. Hillerman is vague with details and assumes you know all the relevant acronyms and locations. This problem is constant in this memoir. It'd be something if he was telling his grandkids this story, but for the general public, I find it annoying.
I've never read his novels, and now I won't, if he writes them the way he wrote his memoir.
This book was recommended to me by my writing teacher. I've read better, and Hillerman doesn't give any advice worth remembering.
December 18, 2014
weak book, occasionally interesting, sometimes boring. the first part up thru wwii is better than the rest, which is somewhat compressed. one feels that the author got bored with writing this book halfway thru. better editing was needed to catch inconsistencies, repetitions, some grammar mistakes, and disjointedness. I dislike when an author says "I'm reminded of an interesting happening, but I'm not going to tell it to you until later", and then one is not sure if "later" has ever come. hillerman' s navajo mysteries are much better!
August 16, 2017
Having enjoyed Hillerman's books for years I was eager to "meet' the author. Felt like that happened in reading the book. It had everything... writing advice, interesting life, new insights (to me) on the years I was growing up. Not disappointed!
December 19, 2018
Hillerman writing about Hillerman is about as good as it gets. You get the events that formed the man who became the writer, and as a bonus, the stories behind the books. All fans of Mr Hillerman will enjoy this work.
June 10, 2009
well, I was disappointed. How could someone write such engaging mysteries and tell the story of his own life so boringly?
March 29, 2014
Not to say he had a boring life or anything, and it was kind of interesting to see where he got his writing motivation, but meh.
December 1, 2023
"When Tony Hillerman looks back at seventy-six years spent getting from hard-times farm boy to bestselling author, he sees lots of evidence that Providence was poking him along. For example, when
an absentminded Army clerk left him off the hospital ship taking the wounded home from France, the mishap put him on a collision course with a curing ceremony held for two Navajo Marines, thereby providing the grist for a writing career that now sees his books published in sixteen languages around the world and often on bestseller lists. Or, for example, when his agent told him his first novel was so bad that it would hurt both their reputations, he nonetheless sent it to an editor, and that editor happened to like the Navajo stuff.
"In this wry and whimsical memoir, Hillerman offers frequent backward glances as where he found ideas for plots of his books and the characters that inhabit them. He takes us with him to death row, where he interviews a man about to die in the gas chamber and details how this murderer became Colton Wolf in one of his novels. He relates how flushing a solitary heron from a sandbar caused him to convert Joe Leaphorn from husband to widower, and how his self-confessed bias against the social elite solved the key plot problem in A Thief of Time.
"No child abuse stories here: The worst Hillerman can recall is being sent off to first grade (in a boarding school for Indian girls) clad in cute blue coveralls instead of the manly overalls his farm-boy peers all wore. Instead we get a good-natured trip through hard times in college; an infantry career in which he "rose twice to Private First Class" and also won a Silver Star, Bronze Star, and Purple Heart, and, afterward, work as a truck driver, chain dragger, journalist, professor, and "doer of undignified deeds" for two university presidents. All this is colored by a love affair (now in its fifty-fourth year) with Marie, which involved raising six children, most of them adopted. Using the gifts of a talented novelist and reporter, seventy-six-year-old Tony Hillerman draws a brilliant portrait not just of his life, but of the world around him."~~front & back flaps
Let me say at the outset that I adore Tony Hillerman's books. I read A Thief of Time, which was set in Navajo country and featured an anthropologist, and folks robbing artifacts. I was hooked! I've read every one of his books, and am now working my way through his daughter Anne's books, which continue the series.
I had to good fortune to see him in person at the Southwest Museum while I was a grad student at UCLA. The format started out by the audience asking questions; tony didn't do well with that format, he was almost tongue tied. Then the moderator gave him his head and he holed the audience spellbound in his hands for the next hour & a half. A master story teller indeed.
The memoir was highly entertaining (however, I skipped the chapters about his service during the war. I can't bear to read about men being killed in war.) A highly entertaining life, and what astonished me the most? He and his wife adopted 5 children and raised them all to be well rounded adults. I can't imagine!
I thoroughly enjoyed the book, and can recommend it without reservation.
an absentminded Army clerk left him off the hospital ship taking the wounded home from France, the mishap put him on a collision course with a curing ceremony held for two Navajo Marines, thereby providing the grist for a writing career that now sees his books published in sixteen languages around the world and often on bestseller lists. Or, for example, when his agent told him his first novel was so bad that it would hurt both their reputations, he nonetheless sent it to an editor, and that editor happened to like the Navajo stuff.
"In this wry and whimsical memoir, Hillerman offers frequent backward glances as where he found ideas for plots of his books and the characters that inhabit them. He takes us with him to death row, where he interviews a man about to die in the gas chamber and details how this murderer became Colton Wolf in one of his novels. He relates how flushing a solitary heron from a sandbar caused him to convert Joe Leaphorn from husband to widower, and how his self-confessed bias against the social elite solved the key plot problem in A Thief of Time.
"No child abuse stories here: The worst Hillerman can recall is being sent off to first grade (in a boarding school for Indian girls) clad in cute blue coveralls instead of the manly overalls his farm-boy peers all wore. Instead we get a good-natured trip through hard times in college; an infantry career in which he "rose twice to Private First Class" and also won a Silver Star, Bronze Star, and Purple Heart, and, afterward, work as a truck driver, chain dragger, journalist, professor, and "doer of undignified deeds" for two university presidents. All this is colored by a love affair (now in its fifty-fourth year) with Marie, which involved raising six children, most of them adopted. Using the gifts of a talented novelist and reporter, seventy-six-year-old Tony Hillerman draws a brilliant portrait not just of his life, but of the world around him."~~front & back flaps
Let me say at the outset that I adore Tony Hillerman's books. I read A Thief of Time, which was set in Navajo country and featured an anthropologist, and folks robbing artifacts. I was hooked! I've read every one of his books, and am now working my way through his daughter Anne's books, which continue the series.
I had to good fortune to see him in person at the Southwest Museum while I was a grad student at UCLA. The format started out by the audience asking questions; tony didn't do well with that format, he was almost tongue tied. Then the moderator gave him his head and he holed the audience spellbound in his hands for the next hour & a half. A master story teller indeed.
The memoir was highly entertaining (however, I skipped the chapters about his service during the war. I can't bear to read about men being killed in war.) A highly entertaining life, and what astonished me the most? He and his wife adopted 5 children and raised them all to be well rounded adults. I can't imagine!
I thoroughly enjoyed the book, and can recommend it without reservation.
June 27, 2025
I love Tony Hillerman's Navajo police procedurals. A few years ago, I got to travel through Navajo country (Dinetah), which was amazing because for fans of Hillerman it's like getting to visit Middle Earth. At the Navajo Cultural Center gift shop, they displayed many of Hillerman's books, and this memoir. I picked it up, but it took me several years to get around to reading it.
Once I did, it went fast because this is a page-turner. Hillerman's writing is understated and vivid (he started his writing career as a journalist).
It turns out that Hillerman is closer to the age of my grandparents. He grew up in the Dust Bowl during the Depression, fought in the Battle of the Bulge. Quite a lot of the book is devoted to his memories of France during WWII. He was then injured (legs, and eyes), spent some time in the hospital, and was sent home with crutches and an eye patch. He discovered that "Military Intelligence is usually neither." He doesn't dwell on it, but he had PTSD before that was a word. Nightmares, unable to keep his breakfast down. He recounts, in the 50s, seeing a grisly car accident that made the police officer on the scene vomit, but Hillerman stood there unaffected.
Hillerman and his wife also adopted a number of children, and raised a big, happy family.
All of this is related with almost no self-pity, and it's often very funny.
This book contained less about the Navajo than I expected. I guess Hillerman has poured his learning about them into his novels rather than into his memoir. But by the time the book reached his later years, when the Navajo became a big theme, I was not disappointed about this because the book itself had already been such an entertaining ride.
There is an appendix which lists a number of Hillerman's books and sketches out the process that led to each one. They presented different kinds of problems that will be reassuringly familiar to other authors.
All in all, Tony Hillerman is a total mensch, a good egg, and it's been an honor to get to know him.
Once I did, it went fast because this is a page-turner. Hillerman's writing is understated and vivid (he started his writing career as a journalist).
It turns out that Hillerman is closer to the age of my grandparents. He grew up in the Dust Bowl during the Depression, fought in the Battle of the Bulge. Quite a lot of the book is devoted to his memories of France during WWII. He was then injured (legs, and eyes), spent some time in the hospital, and was sent home with crutches and an eye patch. He discovered that "Military Intelligence is usually neither." He doesn't dwell on it, but he had PTSD before that was a word. Nightmares, unable to keep his breakfast down. He recounts, in the 50s, seeing a grisly car accident that made the police officer on the scene vomit, but Hillerman stood there unaffected.
Hillerman and his wife also adopted a number of children, and raised a big, happy family.
All of this is related with almost no self-pity, and it's often very funny.
This book contained less about the Navajo than I expected. I guess Hillerman has poured his learning about them into his novels rather than into his memoir. But by the time the book reached his later years, when the Navajo became a big theme, I was not disappointed about this because the book itself had already been such an entertaining ride.
There is an appendix which lists a number of Hillerman's books and sketches out the process that led to each one. They presented different kinds of problems that will be reassuringly familiar to other authors.
All in all, Tony Hillerman is a total mensch, a good egg, and it's been an honor to get to know him.
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