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4.03 AVERAGE
4.03 AVERAGE
Really enjoyed this book. Wonderful language and storytelling - a nice mesh of darkness and humor about "Indian" life. I am not a huge Alexie fan but found this one compelling.
Not a book you can just read, you've got to really think on it.
2016: I remember really liking this the first time I read it, but now I don't know why. There are plenty of memorable characters and scenes and standout writing passages, but it just didn't resonate with me this time around.
June 8-15, 1999: A collection of intertwined short stories focusing on what is left of Native American tradition and what has replaced it. It is filled with both humorous and tragic commentaries on reservation life.
June 8-15, 1999: A collection of intertwined short stories focusing on what is left of Native American tradition and what has replaced it. It is filled with both humorous and tragic commentaries on reservation life.
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
reflective
sad
medium-paced
This is one of his earlier short story collections, and I think Sherman Alexie definitely got better at writing later on in his career. Several of the stories here left me skimming because I was confused, bored or both. Some ended too abruptly. In some, it felt like Alexie was going a bit too experimental on the structure and I got lost.
But most of the stories were so excellent. That's why short story collections are so hard to review, for me, because they can be pretty uneven or inconsistent like this one. The second half in the collection had much better stories than the first half. I like the stories that had Thomas Builds-the-Fire, especially the "Phoenix, Arizona" story. The first story ("Every Little Hurricane") was a great opening story, the one with that crazy-long title (the longest one) that mentions Jimi Hendrix at Woodstock was also good.
The standouts to me are "Imagining the Reservation," the "My favourite tumor" story, the titular story, and "Witnesses, Secret and Not".
I find Sherman Alexie a remarkable and special writer because of how he blends sharp humour with the realism of life as a Native American, on a reservation. His humour is so self-aware and not too serious to be a satire, such that I can actually enjoy thinking about the real political and cultural issues behind each story. Even if the characters don't seem to have hope, I want to hope for them. That's really rare and so skilfully done here.
But most of the stories were so excellent. That's why short story collections are so hard to review, for me, because they can be pretty uneven or inconsistent like this one. The second half in the collection had much better stories than the first half. I like the stories that had Thomas Builds-the-Fire, especially the "Phoenix, Arizona" story. The first story ("Every Little Hurricane") was a great opening story, the one with that crazy-long title (the longest one) that mentions Jimi Hendrix at Woodstock was also good.
The standouts to me are "Imagining the Reservation," the "My favourite tumor" story, the titular story, and "Witnesses, Secret and Not".
I find Sherman Alexie a remarkable and special writer because of how he blends sharp humour with the realism of life as a Native American, on a reservation. His humour is so self-aware and not too serious to be a satire, such that I can actually enjoy thinking about the real political and cultural issues behind each story. Even if the characters don't seem to have hope, I want to hope for them. That's really rare and so skilfully done here.
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
Read my 100 word review @ http://mytrampolinelife.blogspot.com/2010/07/100-word-review-lone-ranger-and-tonto.html
Will come back and review...already gave my copy away. I can see him inventing the characters in ABSOLUTELY TRUE DIARY...these stories are much deeper and more nuanced. Loved it