Gloryland, by Shelton Johnson

Normally one standard to which I hold a novel is the question, Does this book tell a story?  If there's not a narrative thread, I'm turned off.  I know, that exposes me as a literary simpleton, but, hey, that's me. In this case, I will make an exception.  In Gloryland, Shelton Johnson follows the life of Elijah, a young man from South Carolina, who sets off on his own to make his way in the world.  Crossing the country on foot, he ends up in Nebraska, where he's recruited to the Army.  (By the way, I learned something: according to Johnson, black soldiers were called "buffalo soldiers" because the Indians said their hair was like the hair between a buffalos horns.)  He gets to see the world, fighting in the Philippines, and ends up back in the Presidio, from where he is sent to patrol Yosemite National Park.

Gloryland is perhaps best viewed as a series of sequential short stories, rather than as a proper novel.  The stories Johnson tells are wonderful and beautifully written.  Elijah's early experiences of racism in the South paint an ugly picture of life in the South.  He tells of his father's risking his life to attempt to vote, of his witnessing a horrific lynching in the woods, and of his moment of rebellion when he took a stroll on the whites-only sidewalk in town.  He wrestles with the dilemma of his putting on the uniform of the U.S. army to fight other dark-skinned people in the Philippines and in the Indian wars.

As he comes to take pride in himself and his heritage, Elijah reminds himself and others that while he is black, he is not a "nigger" and that he has never known a nigger.  It's a good reminder to blacks who use that term self-referentially today of the demeaning use of the word.

The best passages are those in which Elijah discovers himself while exploring and discovering Yosemite.  Johnson, who is a veteran Park Ranger at Yosemite National Park, shows his passionate love for this park.  There is no question that when Elijah says the park is close to heaven, Johnson is expressing his true feelings.

Gloryland is so full of beautiful, poetic writing that demands to be read again, deeply personal glimpses into the soul of a young black man coming of age in the late 19th century, and awesome descriptions of one of America's most beautiful places, that I can forgive Johnson for not having a clear plot with a decisive conclusion.  This is a wonderful book.  I recommend it whole-heartedly!