Men on the Moon

Collected Short Stories

Simon J. Ortiz

• Publisher: University of Arizona Press
• Year: 2022
• Print ISBN: 9780816519309, 9780816519293
• eBook ISBN: 9780816550760
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Literature General
• Index: Literature

When Faustin, the old Acoma, is given his first television set, he considers it a technical wonder, a box full of mystery. What he sees on its screen that first day, however, is even more startling than the television itself: men have landed on the moon. Can this be real? For Simon Ortiz, Faustin's reaction proves that tales of ordinary occurrences can truly touch the heart. "For me," he observes, "there's never been a conscious moment without story."

Best known for his poetry, Ortiz also has authored 26 short stories that have won the hearts of readers through the years. Men on the Moon brings these stories together—stories filled with memorable characters, written with love by a keen observer and interpreter of his people's community and culture. True to Native American tradition, these tales possess the immediacy—and intimacy—of stories conveyed orally. They are drawn from Ortiz's Acoma Pueblo experience but focus on situations common to Native people, whether living on the land or in cities, and on the issues that affect their lives. We meet Jimmo, a young boy learning that his father is being hunted for murder, and Kaiser, the draft refuser who always wears the suit he was given when he left prison. We also meet some curious Anglos: radicals supporting Indian causes, scholars studying Indian ways, and San Francisco hippies who want to become Indians too.

Whether telling of migrants working potato fields in Idaho and pining for their Arizona home or of a father teaching his son to fly a kite, Ortiz takes readers to the heart of storytelling. Men on the Moon shows that stories told by a poet especially resound with beauty and depth.

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Preface
• Men on the Moon
• Home Country
• Howbah Indians
• Kaiser and the War
• The Way You See Horses
• Feathers
• More than Anything Else in the World
• Something’s Going On
• The Killing of a State Cop
• Where O Where
• Loose
• The Panther Waits
• The End of Old Horse
• To Change Life in a Good Way
• The San Francisco Indians
• You Were Real, the White Radical Said to Me
• What Indians Do
• Anything
• A Story of Rios and Juan Jesus
• Feeling Old
• 3 Women
• Distance
• Woman Singing
• Crossing
• Hiding, West of Here
• Pennstuwehniyaahtse: Quuti’s Story
• About the Author