TY - BOOK ID - 19332787 TI - The arc and the sediment PY - 2007 SN - 0874216540 9786613267382 0874216559 1283267381 9780874216554 9780874216547 PB - Logan, Utah Utah State University Press DB - UniCat KW - Women alcoholics KW - Navajo Indians KW - Deserts KW - Voyages and travels KW - Separated people KW - Interracial marriage KW - Women authors KW - Journeys KW - Travel books KW - Travels KW - Trips KW - Geography KW - Adventure and adventurers KW - Travel KW - Travelers UR - https://www.unicat.be/uniCat?func=search&query=sysid:19332787 AB - Gretta Bitsilly, gin-steeped mother of two and self-proclaimed expert at standing outside the margins of ethnicity and peering in, has been all but eclipsed by the world that eludes her--as a wife, a writer, a skeptic in "the other land of Zion," Utah. Gretta has set off to Fort Defiance, Arizona, where she hopes to convince her Navajo husband, who has escaped not from his family but from alcoholism, to come home.Over a sputtering two-steps-forward, one-step-back desert journey, Gretta is diverted by chance, seizures, an inconstant memory, and the disjointed character of her irresolute quest.She is fueled by a volatile mix of rage and curiosity and is rendered careless by ambivalence toward her marriage--she knows a welcome mat will not be waiting for her, "that white girl" who can't seem to get anything right. On route Gretta finds herself lost in the landscape, in strange company, or in her own convolution of language and inner space. With a dictionary and a laptop she attempts to write herself into a better existence--a hopeful existence--and to connect points of intellectual, physical, even spiritual reference.This tale, though dark and difficult, is infused with tart, twisted humor. Confused, disheveled, self-deprecating, and self-destructive, Gretta is also sharp and funny. Here, first-time novelist Christine Allen-Yazzie breaks apart her own narrative arc but with gritty reality seals it near-shut again, if in rearrangement, drawing us into Gretta's wrestling match with herself, her husband, her addiction, and the road. ER -