DEADLY INDIAN SUMMER
A Contemporary Novel
“John Hartman, pediatrician at the Indian Medical Center in Gallup, New Mexico, is called to see a feverish young Navajo carried in by an Ivy League type who turns out to be the secretary of state. Tests show the young man has the plague, and antibiotic treatment is started. But his grandmother storms in and removes him to Native American medicine men—the arm trembler and the singer. The plague spreads, but social worker Tom Whitman, fluent in Navajo language and culture, helps Hartman and the singer reach an effective partnership. Meanwhile, three Gallup civic leaders threaten Hartman and the Navajos, but they are frustrated. During volunteer medical work in Africa, Asia and South America, Schonberg learned to understand and respect a culture not his own, and that respect is a major distinction of this excellent novel that also portrays the New Mexico landscape and relations between Navajos and Anglos beautifully. If Schonberg hasn’t started his next book, he should get cracking.”
—William Beatty, Booklist
“The Navajo boy is critically ill when he is brought to the Indian hospital in Gallup, New Mexico. He harbors a deadly disease that is stalking the reservation and it soon spreads from Navajoland to the highest reaches of power in Washington, DC. Modern medicine alone can’t control this strange epidemic and John Hartman, a young physician in the Indian Health Service, must overcome the resistance of his colleagues when he turns to the ancient wisdom of the Navajo medicine men. At the same time, he must overcome his tragic past. “Deadly Indian Summe”r is a deftly written novel by a consummately gifted storyteller.”
—Reviewer’s Bookwatch
“It is rare to find an author who is also a physician and an actor…what a combination of both sides of the brain! And Schonberg is not your run-of-the-mill doctor either. As a volunteer physician, he has traveled to Third World countries and out-of-the-way spots to help the poor. He thus has a decidedly different viewpoint of medicine than corporate doctors.
“Set in Gallup, New Mexico his fictional account begins with the Secretary of State finding a sick Navajo Indian boy, who he takes in to the Indian hospital on the reservation. Unknowingly, he sets off a chain reaction, as the boy has pneumonic plague, a very infectious form of plague that infects the lungs and kills within a few days unless treated with Streptomycin. John Hartman, also an Ivy Leaguer from Yale, has more in common than just schooling with the Secretary of State. Both have suffered the tragic deaths of partners and children, and both are trying to forget by immersing themselves in their professions. They come face-to-face as a result of the sick boy, and each recognizes the pain of the other: ‘”No, I guess you could say I’m both divorced and a widower.” And then, just as Sam Spencer had opened up to him, John found himself telling Sam about Janet and Valentina and Gabriella. It was the first time he had talked to anyone about them since the evening of the killings, when he had talked to Detective Keats. He blinked away the tears that threatened to come. “So, it looks like you and I have the unfortunate distinction of having known tragedy in our lives.”’
“Schonberg writes on many levels. First, there is the story of the plague itself, and how the powers that be in Gallup try to use the incident to enrich themselves and once again exploit the Indians. It is a story of how two men have lost their loves and how they regain peace and love. It is a story about the Navajo themselves; how their own form of medicine is spiritual and powerful, especially when combined with White man’s medicine. And of how when the Navajo could build a bridge with good White men, how almost anything is possible.
“Schonberg has written quite a perceptive novel. His medical slant is, of course, more comprehensive than most books, as is his understanding of people without money and influence. We are once again reminded of how capitalism at its worst, with its accompanying greed, starts wars and causes destruction in its wake. “Deadly Indian Summer” is a page turner galore!”
—Shelley Glodowski, The Midwest Book Review
“John Hartman has fled a failed marriage and a tragic love affair in San Diego, and is doing penance as an Indian Health Service physician in Gallup when an outbreak of pneumonic plague threatens residents of the Navajo Reservation. The doctor must tread carefully, using his knowledge of medicine, but respecting the healing tradition of the Navajo people as he goes about the tense business of tracing and treating the disease. Not everyone survives the epidemic, but in the end there is regeneration of life and health for Hartman, as well as for his star patient, a Navajo boy in whom the disease was first diagnosed. Schonberg’s plot seems a bit contrived in spots, but he has produced a highly readable novel of medical suspense in Navajo country.
—Book Talk, New Mexico Book League
“Deadly Indian Summer is a medical thriller and story of love, the first novel of physician and author Leonard A. Schonberg. It has a plot and story line that will hold your attention through the last page and leave you wanting to know more about the real life fictional characters whose experiences you have just shared.
“The novel is set in the southwest near and on the heavily populated Navajo Indian Reservation located at the intersecting corners of New Mexico, Arizona and Utah. It centers around John Hartman, a young doctor from San Diego, who is trying to leave a tragedy with its painful memories behind and start a new life.
“Hartman accepts a position with the Indian Health Service where he will work in the pediatrics ward of the Indian Hospital in Gallup, New Mexico. While driving there, he has a chance encounter with a critically ill Navajo boy who he takes to the hospital for treatment. The boy is diagnosed with a deadly plague that threatens the hospital, the reservation and, by a quirk of fate, the people surrounding the president of the United States.
“Restoring health and order to the hospital and reservation tests Hartman’s skill in dealing with cultural differences, and challenges the forces brought to bear by money and political power. He must deal with his colleagues’ resistance when he tries the ancient wisdom of the Navajo medicine men. In turn, the Navajo, with generations of faith in the ancient healing powers of their medicine men and healing rituals, must choose between their traditional ways and the white doctor’s hospital and pills.
“Along with Hartman, the reader learns about the close family and tribal circles of the Navajo. The author writes with insight and respect for the “Hand Trembler” and “Singer.” He details a Navajo “See” with its chanted healing prayers and purification rites. Joseph William, the little Navajo boy, sits near his Hogan in the blistering hot sun, on the parched ground with its patches of ocotille and cactus, watching his grandmother’s sheep. Through his experiences Schonberg gives a picture of the land and life on the mesa of the Navajo reservation.
“Schonberg is a medical doctor who retired from his practice in Connecticut in 1995 and came to Montana to write. “Deadly Indian Summer” is his first published novel. He has completed a second and is working on a third.
“’I have been an avid reader since I was a child,’ said Schonberg. ‘I started writing as a teenager although not seriously.’ He said he has always been interested in American Indian culture and got the idea for his novel after visiting the Indian hospital in Gallup, but didn’t have time to finish writing it until he retired. ‘The issue of the spread of disease with our rapid transportation is not far fetched. The most exotic disease can crop up in the most unexpected place,’ he said.
“Schonberg was born in New York City. Although a retired physician, his medical career continues to take him all over the world. Among other places, he has worked as a volunteer physician in South America, Asia and Africa. A recent assignment was in the Marshall Islands where he did follow-up exams for patients exposed to H-bomb testing.”
—Lois Lonnquist, Helena Independent Record