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mscherer's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
lazygal's review against another edition
4.0
Difficult to read - harsh, bleak, unvarnished and yet funny.
lizjane's review against another edition
3.0
A bit sad, a bit funny and a little bit vision quest. Sort of a novel and sort of short stories. Like a literature casserole.
beatrice_k's review against another edition
5.0
"We have to believe in the power of imagination because it's all we have, and ours is stronger than theirs." This quote leads the introduction to the short story "Imagining the Reservation." This quote also exemplifies the spirit of Alexie's book.
The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fist Fight in Heaven is raw and dirty. It hitches you up and drags you through the grooves in the mud made by hundreds of years of injustices and attempts to move on. The stories don't ask you to feel sorry though, they just show you--no rose colored glasses or requests for sympathy. This is a part of the books sincere appeal.
The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fist Fight in Heaven is raw and dirty. It hitches you up and drags you through the grooves in the mud made by hundreds of years of injustices and attempts to move on. The stories don't ask you to feel sorry though, they just show you--no rose colored glasses or requests for sympathy. This is a part of the books sincere appeal.
jackwwang's review against another edition
4.0
A memoir freed from the constraints of tedious personal accuracy, but one that seems to ring true to the wider sweep of history. In the updated intro, Alexie claims that the big theme, the overarching idea, the epicenter of the book is the sons in the book who really love and hate their fathers. That might be part of it, but to me it was about coming of age on the reservation, and all the associated meandering dreamy ennui, the tragic historical backdrop, the malevolent racism of the surrounding world, the poverty of hope and mobility, and the elegant beauty and simplicity that on good days look like happiness.
History is a big part of Alexie's prosaic style. Maybe it's more accurate to describe the interspersed dream-sequence passages with Custer and Columbus as Homeric epic similes, whole stories to make allegorical sense, but Alexie's similes coincides with real history much more often than Homer.
Love is strongly recurrent too. There is the pure and good and hale and true love between native men and native women in the thinly veiled story of Alexie's parents (Jimi Hendrix), and the beautiful and poignant not-quite-a-love-story "the approximate size of my favorite tumor." But then, there is the more troubled, but just as deeply longing love of Indian men for white women. Junior longs for the strong and made-for-a-liberal-arts-education Casey in college, his romance with her makes him wonder if "white people were happier than Indians." Victor shacks up with his white girlfriend in Seattle who watches him break lamps when they fight, and parted ways with a "I love you... and don't ever come back." The word "white" appears 113 times in this book, and it seems every white woman mentioned is a beautiful one.
Alexie's stories are vivid, the details don't paint vivid pictures with adjectives and descriptors, but the characters action convey pound for pound deeply felt emotions. These are deeply personal stories, I supposed that's why they had to be covered with the veil of fiction.
History is a big part of Alexie's prosaic style. Maybe it's more accurate to describe the interspersed dream-sequence passages with Custer and Columbus as Homeric epic similes, whole stories to make allegorical sense, but Alexie's similes coincides with real history much more often than Homer.
Love is strongly recurrent too. There is the pure and good and hale and true love between native men and native women in the thinly veiled story of Alexie's parents (Jimi Hendrix), and the beautiful and poignant not-quite-a-love-story "the approximate size of my favorite tumor." But then, there is the more troubled, but just as deeply longing love of Indian men for white women. Junior longs for the strong and made-for-a-liberal-arts-education Casey in college, his romance with her makes him wonder if "white people were happier than Indians." Victor shacks up with his white girlfriend in Seattle who watches him break lamps when they fight, and parted ways with a "I love you... and don't ever come back." The word "white" appears 113 times in this book, and it seems every white woman mentioned is a beautiful one.
Alexie's stories are vivid, the details don't paint vivid pictures with adjectives and descriptors, but the characters action convey pound for pound deeply felt emotions. These are deeply personal stories, I supposed that's why they had to be covered with the veil of fiction.
ikuo1000's review against another edition
4.0
Another re-read. I first picked up this book a year or two after seeing Smoke Signals in college. The movie was also written by Sherman Alexie and based on this book.
I'm not even white, and I feel a bit of white man's guilt at the plight of Native Americans. All too often, in history and the media, they are vilified, romanticized, or victimized. The Native Americans were the first people to have been given the short end of the stick by America, and unfortunately, on the whole, generally speaking, they have yet to rise up, yet to overcome their circumstances. (There is no Native American equivalent of Barack Obama or Sonia Sotomayor.) Here, Sherman Alexie gives voice to a people who have so much to tell.
Alexie's writing is sometimes poetic, sometimes fantastical. It's hard to know where the heartbreaking reality ends, and where the fanciful storytelling begins. I have to admit, I didn't always "get" what he was trying to say. Alexie is matter-of-fact while still finding humor in the oddest places. The stories are characterized by nostalgia and an even greater sense of loss: loss of tradition, loss of respect, loss of opportunity. Nevertheless, resilience and pride in the ways of the old tradition leave one with the hope that there's still a fighting chance.
I'm not even white, and I feel a bit of white man's guilt at the plight of Native Americans. All too often, in history and the media, they are vilified, romanticized, or victimized. The Native Americans were the first people to have been given the short end of the stick by America, and unfortunately, on the whole, generally speaking, they have yet to rise up, yet to overcome their circumstances. (There is no Native American equivalent of Barack Obama or Sonia Sotomayor.) Here, Sherman Alexie gives voice to a people who have so much to tell.
Alexie's writing is sometimes poetic, sometimes fantastical. It's hard to know where the heartbreaking reality ends, and where the fanciful storytelling begins. I have to admit, I didn't always "get" what he was trying to say. Alexie is matter-of-fact while still finding humor in the oddest places. The stories are characterized by nostalgia and an even greater sense of loss: loss of tradition, loss of respect, loss of opportunity. Nevertheless, resilience and pride in the ways of the old tradition leave one with the hope that there's still a fighting chance.
lizziematata's review against another edition
3.0
I absolutely love the movie Smoke Signals so I wanted to read this to really get the feel the movie was trying to go for and I believe now that the movie really captured the tone of the stories and even Alexie's writing style. Alexie has a way of combing traditionalism and reservation life with modernity and the outside world that makes his stories both unique and humorous. There were some stories that had me truly laughing out loud (The Approximate Size of My Favorite Tumor was my favorite and the funniest). The focus on making light of heavy real-world topics is almost a specialization of Alexies, but a lot of the time each story was still mostly sad. I don't believe Alexie promotes a stereotype of the drinking Indian, it's like he said, those are the Indians he knows, but it is difficult to get through each story that focuses some way or another on alcoholism-even in the stories about the Native Americans that don't drink. Ultimately, while one has to be in the mood for heavy topics and sad undertones, this is a great book of short stories that really brings light to Native American culture and reservation life which I hope will make some people realize that there are differences between all cultures, but none so much to produce xenophobia.
thevicarslice's review against another edition
5.0
Why I hadn't read Sherman Alexie before now is a mystery to me. However, in my defense, I probably wouldn't have been as impacted by the beauty of his writing in my less mature and reflective days. It's a first step, a huge first step, towards an understanding I've not known before.
sblake33's review against another edition
4.0
As with any short story collection, I enjoyed some stories more than others, but with this one I generally enjoyed them all. Alexie's writing in this book was beautiful, one story even brought me to tears. The characters were vibrant, layered & real. Though there were so flaws, all the stories were fragmented, disjointed, and random. But I enjoyed the fact that in a way they were all connected, I enjoyed see characters In different stages of their life and how they've changed or stayed the same. Some stories focused on characters family and showed how they were the same.
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Anyhoo, I recommend this collection to everybody, one of the best books I've been forced to read for school.
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Anyhoo, I recommend this collection to everybody, one of the best books I've been forced to read for school.
lira_the_recluse's review against another edition
5.0
Great collection of pseudo fictional short stories. They illuminated parts of Indian life I had no idea about. Often heavy, but still can find humor in the dark. I would recommend it to anyone trying to expand their authors