Trickster in the Land of Dreams

Zeese Papanikolas forges seemingly disparate events and movements in western history including some of its strangest and most exotic strains into a coherent whole by examining them against the laughter and wisdom of Shoshonean trickster tales. Seen against these tales, the West becomes both a canvas for the projection of utopian dreams and the site of their shattered remains.

Papanikolas undertakes a dramatic retelling of Shoshoni creation stories and examines, along with other topics, the...