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4.03 AVERAGE
4.03 AVERAGE
Reading this book made the movie Smoke Signals even cooler, because now I have more backstory.
Alexie’s collection ranges from depression and alcoholism to humor and mundane everyday details in a way that balances the tone of his subject matter and makes the at times very challenging stories highly readable. The metaphors and poetic prose feel approachable, and his writing style he terms “reservation realism” in the introduction makes the collection read like a set of family stories, some exaggerated but all evocative and embellished with purpose. The characters pop up in multiple stories giving them sense of layered backstories and showing the influence characters have in each other’s lives. Particularly enjoyed:
“The Approximate Size of My Favorite Tumor”
“Crazy Horse Dreams”
“Distances”
“Imagining the Reservation”
“The Approximate Size of My Favorite Tumor”
“Crazy Horse Dreams”
“Distances”
“Imagining the Reservation”
wow. think i may have found another favorite author. these stories were outstanding.
Read (or revisited) accusations of sexual harassment and didn't feel right continuing to read the book
Though Alexie makes fun of the idea of the New York Times calling him "one of the major lyrics voices of our time", it couldn't be more true.
The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven is a collection of free verse poems and short stories centered on Native American life in the twentieth century. It's eye-opening, it's heartbreaking, it's occasionally hopeful, but it's mostly sad. This is one of those books you put down and for days after your thoughts are still in the style of Alexie's prose and you're looking an mundane scenes and imagining them as Alexie describes them.
This book had a profound effect on me, as Alexie's work always does. I will recommend this book to everyone I can and I can only hope the amazing title will draw some of them in.
Alexie has done so much to vocalize the struggles of modern-day Native Americans, to open the eyes of white people and lead the way for other native authors. I read this book, over twenty years old, and still see stories on the news of these same Native struggles Alexie discussed. Things haven't changed all too much, but the more Native Americans like Alexie there are telling these crucial stories, the more things will change.
The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven is a collection of free verse poems and short stories centered on Native American life in the twentieth century. It's eye-opening, it's heartbreaking, it's occasionally hopeful, but it's mostly sad. This is one of those books you put down and for days after your thoughts are still in the style of Alexie's prose and you're looking an mundane scenes and imagining them as Alexie describes them.
This book had a profound effect on me, as Alexie's work always does. I will recommend this book to everyone I can and I can only hope the amazing title will draw some of them in.
Alexie has done so much to vocalize the struggles of modern-day Native Americans, to open the eyes of white people and lead the way for other native authors. I read this book, over twenty years old, and still see stories on the news of these same Native struggles Alexie discussed. Things haven't changed all too much, but the more Native Americans like Alexie there are telling these crucial stories, the more things will change.
Some really great short stories. I wish a few of them had been condensed into slightly longer stories, since many felt repetitive... The collection definitely makes me want to read more long form fiction by Alexie. I especially liked how the same characters and names showed up in multiple stories, which made it feel like the Reservation had a tight knit but varied community that the reader could drop in on. The stories "The Approximate Size of my Favorite Tumor," "Indian Education," and "Distances" stood out as my favorites.
emotional
funny
reflective
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
This book is a collection of short stories that are about life on a Native American reservation in Washington. The stories are semi-autobiographical and many of the characters are featured in multiple stories. This wasn't a fun read, but life on reservations is not much fun. These stories did not have the humor of Diary of a Part Time Indian, which I gave 5 stars. However I thought that it was an important glimpse into the issues that Native Americans face in today's world. The characters in these stories face racism, alcoholism, and extreme poverty. Even the stories about characters that manage to leave the reservation for a while have the ghosts of the reservation with them. Overall, while it was not a fun read for me I think it is an important one for spreading awareness of Native American issues in the modern world.
A collection of short stories about living on a Spokane reservation. The mystical element weaves in and out of the stories, adding something new and different to the pages, hearkening (I imagine, as I am no expert) back to traditional Native American storytelling. This is a good collection, that plays off stereotypes but only to make people aware of what it was like to live on the reservation in the 70's and 80's.
A heartbreakingly funny collection of stories about reservation life, with elements of magical realism and tragedy strewn throughout.