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A review by cdlindwall
The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven by Sherman Alexie
3.0
I wanted to like this more than I did. Maybe I set myself up with too high of expectations. If I'd just picked this up blindly off the library shelf, I likely would've been pleasantly surprised. But some friends whose reading tastes I respect were raving about this book, so I was hoping to be blown away.
This is a collection of short stories about life on the Spokane Indian Reservation in Washington state. It's one of Alexie's early works (I believe his 20s?), which blows me away. It's wonderfully lyrical, at moments touching, and tragic. Although in the prologue Alexie says that he resents having his work called magical realism, his storytelling certainly relies heavily on the surreal.
I find Sherman Alexie to be a beautiful person, and he has a gift for beautiful words. But for me, his writing reads like poetry and this collection felt disjointed and repetitive. I was craving a larger narrative. Were there themes? Yes. Huge, powerful, important themes about Native American identity and our dark genocidal history and community and addiction and love. But those themes might have been served better by a more cohesive stories and fewer poetic one-liners. Or at least I would've been more committed and interested as a reader.
The stories did begin to blur a bit, but there were a handful of five-star, wonderful stories that will stick with me. I want to give Alexie another shot, because his writing style is honestly beautiful and his story is important. Or I'll at least watch his Sundance film.
(P.S. -- I feel bad giving anyone criticism about something they wrote in their 20s that's actually pretty damn good and certainly way the hell better than most 20-something writers. I mean, shit. What am I doing in my free time?)
This is a collection of short stories about life on the Spokane Indian Reservation in Washington state. It's one of Alexie's early works (I believe his 20s?), which blows me away. It's wonderfully lyrical, at moments touching, and tragic. Although in the prologue Alexie says that he resents having his work called magical realism, his storytelling certainly relies heavily on the surreal.
I find Sherman Alexie to be a beautiful person, and he has a gift for beautiful words. But for me, his writing reads like poetry and this collection felt disjointed and repetitive. I was craving a larger narrative. Were there themes? Yes. Huge, powerful, important themes about Native American identity and our dark genocidal history and community and addiction and love. But those themes might have been served better by a more cohesive stories and fewer poetic one-liners. Or at least I would've been more committed and interested as a reader.
The stories did begin to blur a bit, but there were a handful of five-star, wonderful stories that will stick with me. I want to give Alexie another shot, because his writing style is honestly beautiful and his story is important. Or I'll at least watch his Sundance film.
(P.S. -- I feel bad giving anyone criticism about something they wrote in their 20s that's actually pretty damn good and certainly way the hell better than most 20-something writers. I mean, shit. What am I doing in my free time?)