Description
Book SynopsisThis collection of opinion editorials and recent essays solidifies Midge''s standing as one of the most versatile talents in Native and American writing today.—Samantha Majhor, American Indian Culture and Research Journal
Bury My Heart at Chuck E. Cheese’s is a powerful and compelling collection of Tiffany Midge’s musings on life, politics, and identity as a Native woman in America. Artfully blending sly humor, social commentary, and meditations on love and loss, Midge weaves short, standalone musings into a memoir that stares down colonialism while chastising hipsters for abusing pumpkin spice. She explains why she doesn’t like pussy hats, mercilessly dismantles pretendians, and confesses her own struggles with white-bread privilege.
Midge ponders Standing Rock, feminism, and a tweeting president, all while exploring her own complex identity and the loss of her mother. Employing humor as an act of resistance, these slic
Trade Review
“This uproarious, truth-telling collection of satirical essays skewer[s] everything from white feminism to ‘Pretendians’ to pumpkin spice. Midge, a member of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, muses bitingly on life as a Native woman in America, staring colonialism and racism in the face wherever she finds them, from offensive Halloween costumes to exploitative language. This collection’s deliciously sharp edges draw laughter and blood alike.”—Adrienne Westenfeld, Esquire
“Midge is a hilarious satirical essayist and nonfiction writer, and her work brings all the laughs. But they are ‘thinky’ laughs, because the humor doubles back on itself and makes you see so much about modern Native American life in a new way.”—David Treuer, Los Angeles Times
“Midge is a wry, astute charmer with an eye for detail and an ear for the scruffy rhythms of American lingo.”—Sarah Vowell, author of Lafayette in the Somewhat United States
"[A] cornucopia of literary brilliance. The Standing Rock Sioux writer’s wickedly funny autobiography offers laugh-out-loud passages alongside compassionate profiles, bitter sarcasm, and heartbreaking chronicles. Each of the memoirs are short yet potent, compelling the reader to continue while paradoxically causing one to pause to reflect on Midge’s astute observations. Every entry is so well-crafted that the only disappointment you’ll find is when you realize you’ve read them all. Then again, this is a book that demands to be reread."—Ryan Winn, Tribal College Journal of American Indian Higher Education
"If you're wondering why the presence of Andrew Jackson's portrait in the Oval Office is offensive, this is your book."—Kirkus
"Bury My Heart at Chuck E. Cheese’s is timely reading for the fall season, with Midge suggesting "Politically Correct Alternatives to Culturally Insensitive Halloween Costumes," and proclaiming "Hey America, I’m Taking Back Thanksgiving." Treat yourself to a fast-moving correction of any vestiges you may have of the stoic, unsmiling Native stereotype and enjoy at least a Tweet or a one-liner from Tiffany Midge. You’re sure to learn something as you laugh."—Jan Hardy, Back in the Stacks
"This collection of opinion editorials and recent essays solidifies Midge's standing as one of the most versatile talents in Native and American writing today."—Samantha Majhor, American Indian Culture and Research Journal
"[Midge's] no-b.s., take-no-prisoners approach is likely to resound with twenty-something readers, but the older crowd ought to give Midge a look, too."—Joan Curbow, Booklist
"Abundant with brilliant satire."—Shelf Awareness
“Tiffany Midge is the kind of funny that can make the same joke funny over and over again. Which means, of course, that she is wicked smart, and sly, and that she has her hand on the pulse of the culture in a Roxane Gay-ish way, only funnier, and that she has our number, your number, and my number too, all of our numbers. Which means she is our teacher, if we let her be.”—Pam Houston, author of Deep Creek: Finding Hope in the High Country
“Bury My Heart at Chuck E. Cheese’s drives a spear into the stereotype of Native American stoicism. It is perhaps the funniest nonfiction collection I have ever read. But it is much more than funny: it is moving, honest, and painful as well, and looks at the absurdities of modern America. Midge’s collection is so good it could raise Iron Eyes Cody from the grave and make him laugh till he cries.”—David Treuer, author of The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee
Table of Contents
Foreword by Geary Hobson
Part I: My Origin Story Is a Cross between “Call Me Ishmael,” a Few Too Many Whiskey Sours Packed in an Old Thermos at the Drive-In Double Feature, and That Little Voice That Says, “You Got This”
Bury My Heart at Chuck E. Cheese’s
Headlines
Part II: Instead of a “Raised by Wolves” T-Shirt, Mine Says “Raised by Functioning Alcoholics with Intimacy Phobias & Low Self-Esteem”
The Jimmy Report
My Name Is Moonbeam McSwine
The Siam Sequences
Part III: Micro (Aggression) Memoirs
First World (Story) Problems: Brown Girl Multiple Choice Edition
Tweets as Assigned Texts for Native American Studies Course
Ghoul, Interrupted
Part IV: Garsh Durn It! You Say Patriarchy, I Say Patri-Malarkey, Dollars to Donuts Cuckoo Banana Pants, You Gals & Your Lady Power This ’n’ That
An Open Letter to White Women Concerning The Handmaid’s Tale and America’s Historical Amnesia
Fertility Rites
Wonder Woman Hits Theaters, Smashes Patriarchy
Jame Gumb, Hero and Pioneer of the Fat-Positivity Movement
Post-Election Message to the 53 Percent
Committee of Barnyard Swine to Determine Fate for Women’s Health
Champion Our Native Sisters! (but Only Selectively and under Certain Conditions)
An Open Letter to White Girls Regarding Pumpkin Spice and Cultural Appropriation
Part V: Me, Cutting in Front of All the People in All of the Lines Forever: “It’s Okay, I Literally Was Here First” #DecolonizedAF
Thousands of Jingle Dress Dancers Magically Appear at Standing Rock Protector Site
Satire Article Goes Viral on Day of 2016 Presidential Election Results
Attack of the Fifty-Foot (Lakota) Woman
Minnesota Art Gallery to Demolish “Indian Uprisings” Exhibit after Caucasian Community Protest
Why I Don’t Like “Pussy” Hats
Li-Li-Li-Li-Land, Standing Rock the Musical!
Part VI: Merciless Indian Savages? Try Merciless Indian Fabulous!
Redeeming the English Language (Acquisition) Series
Fifty Shades of Buckskin
Conversations with My Lakota Mom
Feast Smudge Snag
Eight Types of Native Moms
Part VII: “Shill the Pretendian, Unfav the Genuine” Is the 2018 Remix of “Kill the Indian, Save the Man”
Red like Me: I Knew Rachel Dolezal Back When She Was Indigenous
A List of Alternative Identities to Try for Fun and Profit
I Have White Bread Privilege
Things Pseudo-Native Authors Have Claimed to Be but Actually Are Not
You Might Be a Pretendian
Part VIII: I Watched Woman Walks Ahead and Frankly Was Offended by the Cookie-Cutter, Stereotypical Portrayal of the Menacing White Soldier
Reel Indians Don’t Eat Quiche: The Fight for Authentic Roles in Hollywood
Are You There, Christmas? It’s Me, Carol!
Post-Election U.S. Open in Racist Tirades Competition
West Wing World
Part IX: The Native Americans Used EVERY Part of the Sacred Turkey
Hey America, I’m Taking Back Thanksgiving
Clown Costumes Banned, Racist Native American Halloween Costumes Still Okay
Thanksgiving Shopping at Costco: I Just Can’t Even
Politically Correct Alternatives to Culturally Insensitive Halloween Costumes
Part X: BREAKING NEWS—Your Neighbor Who Said, “Whoa, Dude, This Whole Trump Thing’s, Like, So Fricken Surreal,” Might Actually Be on to Something
Step Right Up, Folks
Trump Pardons Zombie Apocalypse
There’s Something about Andrew Jackson
Trump Administration to Repeal Bison as First National Mammal
President Trump Scheduled for Whirlwind Tour to Desecrate World’s Treasures
Part XI: The Trump Administration’s Pop-Up, Coloring, Scratch ’n’ Sniff, Edible, and Radioactive Activity Book
You’ve Got Mail!
Executive Order Requiring All Americans Take Up Cigarettes by End of 2017
The Wild West (Wing) and Wild Bill Hiccup
Give a Chump a Chance
Ars Poetica by Donald J. Trump
Acknowledgments
