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A review by gorecki
War Dances by Sherman Alexie
3.0
Sherman Alexie’s War Dances is a book I was really looking forward to and really enjoyed reading. I loved it without being in awe with it, enjoyed it without making a song and dance about it. It’s a book you don’t really have much to say about once you finish reading it. Like having a coffee with a friend you see often – you talk about things in life: family problems due to alcohol, falling for someone you’ve met at an airport, politics and finding out your high-school friend is gay, some poetry, some questions, but these things are not life-changing, or eye-opening, or emotionally intense. They are just things that happen. Things you’d talk about and move on to another topic. As Alexie himself puts it in the opening poem:
“Why do poets think
they can change the world?”
Sherman Alexie writes with unparalleled honesty and fluency. He’s frank and open, does not aim to shock or surprise, to preach or teach. His writing is so believable because of the irony and sarcasm he uses. A character in any other book would faint or do something drastic when they learn they have a benign brain tumor. Sherman Alexie’s character would crack a joke about it. He’d be scared witless, that’s a fact, but he would still crack a joke. Another character would start feeling a deep understanding and sympathy for an old, demented lady who speaks incoherently. Alexie’s is making polite excuses while trying to get closer to the door and run for it. Wouldn’t most of us? Honestly? And this brings Alexie’s characters so much closer to being like a real and believable people.
I can’t really say more about this book. I would not go recommending it, but I will surely drink some more coffee with Sherman. You decide if that’s a good recommendation.
“Why do poets think
they can change the world?”
Sherman Alexie writes with unparalleled honesty and fluency. He’s frank and open, does not aim to shock or surprise, to preach or teach. His writing is so believable because of the irony and sarcasm he uses. A character in any other book would faint or do something drastic when they learn they have a benign brain tumor. Sherman Alexie’s character would crack a joke about it. He’d be scared witless, that’s a fact, but he would still crack a joke. Another character would start feeling a deep understanding and sympathy for an old, demented lady who speaks incoherently. Alexie’s is making polite excuses while trying to get closer to the door and run for it. Wouldn’t most of us? Honestly? And this brings Alexie’s characters so much closer to being like a real and believable people.
I can’t really say more about this book. I would not go recommending it, but I will surely drink some more coffee with Sherman. You decide if that’s a good recommendation.