Book Review (or rave, really): Sherman Alexie's "Ten Little Indians"
Sherman Alexie is an amazing writer. Read his books. I just finished my first of his, Ten Little Indians, a collections of short stories, and it was probably my most enjoyable read since East of Eden.
Alexie’s prose is eerily simple. His language is direct and careful without being conspicuous, and it’s completely 
without glamor. Alexie lets the stories speak for themselves — and speak they do.
A brilliant aspiring Native American politician sees his career ruined after a racist remark on a basketball court. A young writer journeys to meet the only published poet of her tribe, but finds he’s not what she expected. A couple’s perfect love is split in two by an easy lie, and worked back together over a messy lifetime. A nobody’s grief over his parent’s death finds its life (and death) on the basketball court.
At times, reading these stories I really did laugh out loud. In others, I feared to turn the page on account of sadness.
Perhaps my favorite, “Do You Know Where I Am?” would work as a story to begin pre-marital counseling. It’s a tough tale, a graphic tale in some places –Alexie is clearly not writing for prim and proper Presbyterians– but, in twenty pages, it gets at the challenges and joys, harsh realities and bubbling emotions of a lasting relationship in remarkable ways. Its a story about trust, love, sex, brutality, forgiveness, families, and identity all at the same time. Every couple should read it and discuss it before getting married.
Clearly, I love this guy. Anyone else read him much? If not, order a copy of Ten Little Indians immediately, and I’ll post on more when I read it.
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Sherman Alexie is one of my favorite authors on the planet. Not only does he write amazing prose, but he’s an incredible poet and public speaker. If you haven’t read his first novel “Reservation Blues” I recommend that you drop whatever you are doing and run to the nearest book store and purchase yourself a copy right now. It’s one of the most amazing books I have ever read. If you dig his short stories you will adore his novels.
“Reservation Blues” is now on the list. Many thanks for the suggestion–I’d drive to the bookstore right now, but they’re closed at the moment
Can’t wait!
His young adult novel “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian” is fantastic as well. Alexie is brilliant at describing the tension between two worlds (reservation and white) and how in living between them the main character belongs nowhere. Liminality, perhaps?:)
I first discovered Alexie when I read “What You Pawn I Will Redeem,” in The New Yorker. I still love that story. I love seeing the main character dancing away from the pawn shop with his grandmother’s pow wow dress. His novel, Indian Killer, was strange and distancing for me. It would be interesting to hear what others thought of it.
Mary, “What You Pawn I Will Redeem” is in this collection. It’s one that will certainly stick with me. I love how Alexie’s stories live in the Native American culture, but speak so well beyond it.
YA novel on the list as well