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Synopsis
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"Lost in Las Vegas"
by Monty Joynes
In the second novel in the
Booker Series, published in 1998, the character lost in Las
Vegas is a remarkable young Pueblo man, a spiritual prodigy
and National Champion Fancy Dancer, who has been corrupted
by the glamour of show business. His tribal elders call upon
their spiritual brother, an Anglo man who was the principal
character in NAKED INTO THE NIGHT, to go to Las Vegas in an
attempt to restore the young potential leader to his tribe.
The mission seems impossible given the mistrust Indians hold
for Anglo do-gooders and wannabes. Anglo must face the
animosity of Dancer and the proprietary interests of the two
Folies Bergiere showgirls who manipulate him. In the
process, both Indian and Anglo must sort out their
destinies, which requires that they risk life itself in the
Valley of Fire.
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Booker, as Anglo, lives on
a Pueblo Indian reservation as a chosen son and the close
friend of Joseph, the tribal holy man. The traditional
elders need to pass the spiritual mantle of their small
tribe to the next generation, but their choice and
ceremonial dancing prodigy, Ramon Ortiz (named White Wing),
has won the world championship as a Fancy Dancer at the
Foxwoods powwow and has been seduced by money and fame to
pervert the Pueblo spirituality of his dance on the Las
Vegas showroom stage.
In a sacred kachinas ceremony, Anglo is chosen to go to Las
Vegas in an attempt to restore the prodigal son. As Winn
Conover in a previous life, Anglo (Booker) had been a junket
player at the strip casinos. Although White Wing is
obligated by tribal courtesy to share his apartment with
Anglo, he has no intention of paying attention to him. White
Wing has already been treated to a makeover by Tropicana
showgirls Debbie and Sue, who have recruited him for their
after-show escort scam. White Wing abuses alcohol, gambles
heavily, and counts coup on rich white women who lust for
the body of the dancing wonder.
Anglo soon comes to odds with White Wing, and the showgirls
attempt to drive the troublesome meddler out of Vegas. Anglo
as Booker suffers for his initial failures in a long night
of lamentations at Red Rock Canyon. Employing a more
intuitive tact, Anglo is able to explain the purpose of his
mission to Las Vegas to the showgirls. The women do not
agree to help him, but he is no longer ostracized from their
company. Anglo slowly shares Pueblo culture with the women
as he and White Wing sing Pueblo songs, and White Wing
dances ceremony on an after-show late night picnic to Red
Rock Canyon.
With the high anxiety neutralized, Anglo asks White Wing to
assist him in a vision quest, a life and death ordeal to
achieve spiritual clarity. As they prepare for the five-day
experience, Sue and Debbie assist with transportation and
promise to be stand-by rescuers. The site for the vision
quest is Valley of Fire State Park, a place of sacred rites
for centuries before Park Rangers sabotaged Indian
gatherings. Anglo and White Wing must sneak into the park to
select and prepare the vision quest site.
The exciting climax of the vision quest ordeal involves the
danger of death from naked exposure to the desert wilderness
for both men. Sue and Debbie fear the worst. The destinies
of Booker and White Wing merge in the crucible of the Valley
of Fire.
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"Lost in Las Vegas" Reviews
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 “LOST
IN LAS VEGAS continues the story of NAKED INTO
THE NIGHT. After a profound, likely authentic,
visionary kiva ritual, the Anglo’s adopted
Pueblo tribe elders select him to rescue a young
Indian man who is a prodigy of traditional
dancing, and a potential successor to
leadership, from the lifestyle of a performer in
a Las Vegas resort hotel. The contrast, between
the consciousness that the Pueblo traditions
propagate and the brilliant distractions of
Vegas life, could hardly be more dramatic. It
makes for high drama, genuine spiritual struggle
with illusion of various kinds, and excellent
reading.”
The Independent Press Book
Review
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“White
Wing, the extraordinary dancer whose body is a
vessel for all that is sacred to his struggling
Pueblo tribe, spurns Native prophecy, turns his
back on his spiritual destiny, and disappears
into the City of Neon Light. Anglo, the adopted
white brother of the tribe, is sent by the
Elders to bring him back. The book is the story
of that attempt, a sequel to Joynes’s NAKED INTO
THE NIGHT, itself the tale of a man lost and
found. Joynes’s knowledge of Native ways, down
to the very nuances of ritual and communication,
is remarkably displayed throughout, unveiling a
world seldom seen or experienced in such
detail.”
NAPRA
REVIEW |
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“A
key to the book’s success is in its ability to
get across a strong sense of place. The
characters mingle and make their choices in the
wide spiritual frontier that stretches between
the sacred space within a Pueblo kiva and the
stages of Las Vegas casinos. Joynes seems
familiar with both environments. The device of
portraying two characters meeting on a bridge
between two realities is inspired and effective
and could have been disastrous if used by a less
skillful writer. Joynes never allows his
characters to become melodramatic stereotypes.
The character of “Anglo” may be a little too
good to be true, expressing the wishful thinking
of an author with an outsider’s affinity to
native culture, but the author seems to make a
sincere attempt to respect and portray the
essence of that culture.
In the end I
feel that LOST IN LAS VEGAS is a laudable
accomplishment by an author with the facility to
play convincing characters against an authentic
sense of place and to come up with an original
and inspiring story. The strengths of the book
are ultimately those of any good book: It is
well written.”
AHP Perspective
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“Joynes
has a remarkable grasp of Indian history and
current life. Few have the insights into Indian
affairs that he possesses. I am amazed how
accurately he presents modern Indians in their
typical settings.”
Ted
Zuern, S.J., Bureau of Catholic Indian Missions |
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“Great
find! This is the second book in Monty Joynes's
series about Anglo (aka Booker Washington), a
white man who has meandered his way into the
spiritual center of a contracting Pueblo Indian
community.
I discovered
LOST IN LAS VEGAS after stumbling across the
initial work, NAKED INTO THE NIGHT, in my local
college library. I was quite impressed, all the
more so because I discovered half way through
reading it that the author lived in my
relatively obscure mountain town! I found him
in the phone directory, gave him a call, and
after a half-hour conversation, immediately went
out and bought the other two books. I was not
disappointed!
LOST IN LAS
VEGAS takes Anglo, who has by now earned a place
of controversial respect among elders of his
adopted Pueblo tribe, on the onerous task of
retrieving a lost young Indian leader who is
squandering his special dancing talents in the
irreverent casinos of Nevada's gambling capitol.
With characteristic sangfroid and guileless
generosity, Anglo eventually wins the trust of
the cynical dancer and even the high-class
prostitutes who control him. Anglo assists
Dancer on an extraordinary vision quest in the
desert outside Las Vegas, which realigns the
young man with his Native roots. While the
outcome is predictable, the journey is uplifting
and often spellbinding. This is my favorite of
the three works published so far.
All the
books in Monty Joynes' series belong in the
category of what might be called spiritual or
allegorical fiction. Although the stories are
obviously imaginary, they evoke perennial truths
and awaken an intuitive sense of the sublime. I
am really surprised these works have not
received greater popular acclaim. Perhaps
they'll be the sleepers of the year.”
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