From the Glittering World: A Navajo Story (American Indian Literature & Critical Studies

by Irvin Morris

The Diné, or Navajo, creation story says there were four worlds before this, the Glittering World. For the present-day Diné this is a world of glittering technology and influences from outside the sacred land entrusted to them by the Holy People. From the Glittering World conveys in vivid language how a contemporary Diné writer experiences this world as a mingling of the profoundly traditional with the sometimes jarringly, sometimes alluringly new.



"Throughout the book, Morris’s command of a crisp unpretentious prose is most impressive…His style is so low-key that he hardly seems to be trying to be ’artistic,’ yet the cumulative effect of these pieces is quite powerful. For Morris’s beautiful descriptions of the remote Navajo reservation this book deserves to be on the shelf of anyone tracking the literature of the Southwest."-Western American Literature

"Beginning with the Navajo creation story and ending with the summation of everything in between, Morris shows an incredible agility in jumping from truth to myth, from now to then, and from what is to what might have been."-The Sunday Oklahoman

"In From the Glittering World, Irvin Morris has woven a wondrous and sometimes terrifying weave of stories centered in the Navajo experience. . . . Irvin Morris’ strong style, his vivid imagery, his deft handling of complex structures, and his deep knowledge of Navajo tradition combine to produce a work as powerful and enduring as Leslie Marmon Silko’s Storyteller and N. Scott Momaday’s The Names. With From the Glittering World, Irvin Morris has joined the ranks of great contemporary authors."-Telluride Times-Journal

Genres: Fiction

272 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1997

About the author

Irvin Morris is a Navajo Nation author. He has taught at Cornell University, the State University of New York, the University of Arizona, and Dine College.

Reviews

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

In Irvin Morris's collection of Navajo stories, he lays out the creation myths of the Diné people, explores the arrival of Europeans and their subsequent conquest, and moves into modern times, where much of the narrative is focused. Focus, however, is not the right word. The mix of mythology, fiction and "fictional memoir," make for uneven reading. In Leslie Marmon Silko's Storyteller, one of my favorite books, I found her mixing of genres and inclusion of photos fascinating. While From the Glittering World provides arresting insight into the mind of the modern Navajo, I wanted a clearer sense of the line between fact and fiction in Morris's story.

[Neal · Rating 5 out of 5]

From the Glittering World is a masterpiece of prose that I wouldn't want to attempt to define into any of the usual genres. It's a Navajo story, as the subtitle says, composed of many smaller stories that begin with creation and end sometime around now. The distinctions between history and now and fact and fiction are blurred in this book, as they are blurred in real life. History is ongoing. Every story of any kind tells us something about the world and about ourselves. Morris's stories are hopeful, crushing, subtle, beautiful, happy, critical, comedic. They're woven together to tell an Indigenous story of trauma and survival, of joy and sorrow, that I think anyone living in North America would do well to read.

[Matthew · Rating 4 out of 5]

I heard Mr. Morris speak at the University of Montana and had him autograph my copy of his book. He was a very humble and engaging man. It seemed like he had even surprised himself by writing this book. He writes his story and the story of the Navajo creation with such emotion yet with stripped-down prose, much like Hemmingway.