KILL HOLE: A Novel

New York, NY, U.S.A.: Grove/Atlantic, Inc., 1992. First Edition, First Printing 1st Printing. Hardcover. As New/As New. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. Sitko Ghost Horse escapes from the dying city into the desert, where he encounters the dreamworld of a tribe that seems to be from another time and place. He is initiated into a ritual that requires him to verify his identity. He finds he cannot do so. Shifting between two levels of awareness, between a surreal prisoner state within the tribe and his quotidian urban existence, Sitko relives his past--a violent childhood, separation from his parents, and adoption into a white family; his controversial success as a painter and divided role in often conflicting communities; and his relationship with a novelist, the son of a German mother and a black GI. KILL HOLE is a deeply imagined work that takes as its landscape that flashpoint where barriers are crossed and cultures interact. It follows one man's spiritual quest for wholeness and fulfillment in a world where the spectre of death is a perpetual pressure among the living. Written in darkly radiant, singing prose of unsual purity and rich in both modern literary allusion and Native American folklore, it has the resonance of myth, the power of legend, and the magic of incantation. Mint, unread copy, in fine, mylar-protected dust jacket. L36