Bone and Juice

Adrian C. Louis is the author of "Fire Water World", winner of the 1989 Poetry Center Award from San Francisco State University. He is also the recipient of a Pushcart Prize.

A collection of poems confronting loneliness and cultural alienation. Adrian C. Louis's largely autobiographical verse is characterized by a bluntness born of self-irony and self-criticism. He composes elegies for his mentally disabled wife and describes scenes from a town near where he lived.Adrian C. Louis's largely autobiographical verse is characterized by a bluntness born of self-irony and self-criticism. He attacks his subjects with an emotional engagement that is both tender and honest. Within the context of fallen ideals and lost spirituality among Native Americans, he composes elegies for his mentally disabled wife and describes scenes from ""Cowturdville,"" his name for the town near a reservation where he lived. Mesmerizing the reader with the rhythm of his lively lines, Louis demonstrates a stylistic strength that is both accessible and demanding. His candid portrayals of Native American life and his social and moral critique of American consumerism and conformity are darkly hilarious odes to the cultural boundaries between Americans and Native Americans.