Blasphemy: New and Selected Stories

The compilation of new and previously published short stories shows Sherman Alexie at his best: contemporary, traditional, and unique. Whether humorous or sorrowful, in the city or on the reservation, Alexie's narratives resonate with humanity, warmth and wit.

The stories are riveting, jaw dropping honesty from a point of view unlike any other.
I'd like to take all my history courses over again, complete with new found
accuracy without the white bias.

This is the second book I've read by Sherman Alexie, the first having be Reservation Blues, and it certainly does not disappoint. Alexis's stories are deeply personal, spiritual in a way only a Native American can be. I highly recommend it.

Like so many Native Americans, Alexie claims to respect his tribal traditions but doesn't manifest a good knowledge of what they are. Some of his stories are outstanding, others a bit weak. While his characters are typical of some Indian people, they don't represent all of them. Non-Indian readers are too inclined to want to generalize about Indian people.

Anyone familiar with Mr. Alexie's book, Absolutely True Diary of a Part - Time Indian, would probably think this book was written for the same young adult audience. Wrong! I am a teacher and thought I could use some of these stories in my classes, but the detailed sexual encounters were not what I was thinking I would get. While the stories are written well, the sexual content is way too much for me to use with my students. I should admit that I have only read the first few stories, as I lost interest since I would not be able to use them in school.

I am a huge fan of Sherman Alexie and was not disappointed by this collection. The one thing that I was bothered by was that I had read some of the stories, because he had put in some older stories. However, the stories are filled with Alexie's humor, serious issues addressed in his unique way, and powerful subjects. For fans of Alexie, I would recommend this collection of stories.

I have read another work by this author. There is a "dark" side to this piece. However, the plight of Native Americans is clearly portrayed. Do not expect light reading as in "Confessions of a Part Time Indian". Alexie is a voice for Native Americans but not strident like Russell Means.

I have been a Sherman Alexie fan ever since I read Reservation Blues. He is a unique voice in modern American literature, and one author I make it a point to follow. Alexie's ability to elicit tears while at the same time causing belly laughs is evident throughout this collection. Be warned however, those new to Alexie might find his style abrupt and sometimes vulgar; his stories are hard to fit into standard short story boilerplates. His more recent stories show how he has evolved and matured into a writer unafraid to venture into very personal territory.

His mastery of his craft is without dispute whether of not you find his voice to your liking. I might recommend his earlier short story collection "The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven" as place to start your appreciation of Alexie's work. His early novel, "Reservation Blues" is also fantastic.

Sherman Alexie has developed a style of writing in language that feels at first too simple to be good, too simple to keep up. He covers so much human ground and takes the reader down many side roads that lead to amazement.

but this book killed off one too many animals for me :( - horses, dogs, etc. it was very dark and violent imagery. I shut it after trying to read two of the short stories and couldn't bring myself to open it again.

This widely published author is limited to one style. I enjoy his social commentary, but you can get through most of his books in a few hours. Don't buy a published copy, get it on your tablet, they are worthless when you are done.

Many of the stories were repeats - always fun to re-visit. And many of the characters move from one story to another. So the stories were "comfortable" and the sense of place and time are always well visioned.

Many of the stories were repeats - always fun to re-visit. And many of the characters move from one story to another. So the stories were "comfortable" and the sense of place and time are always well visioned.

Funnny and sad. Hate to say that I liked it.
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If you like Sherman Alexie's stories, you'll like this. Be careful because you'll accidentally start reading some you've already read. I was disappointed that there didn't seem to be anything new or different in the stories.

This book is a series vignettes of varying length. Some are fairly long and tend to get boring pretty fast. Some of the shorter ones I had found more interesting. The book does describe many of the problems of the American Indians including drugs alcohol and criminal behavior.

Pretty gutsy: Putting your old work next to your recent work and letting the reader compare them so easily. For Sherman Alexie, it works just fine.

Many of the stories in this volume, as always with Alexie, are vignettes, bringing us to a place or time or person and just introducing us. Others are short stories of people with needs that are met or not, filled with successes, failures, and not so easily labeled endings. As always, Alexie mostly writes from the view of Spokane Indians and their interactions on the rez and off the rez, with fellow tribe members and members of other tribes (not always Indian).

Overall, I really enjoyed this book. I have read pretty much everything that Alexie has written, so it was reading about old friends and meeting new ones. In the stories, I hear Alexie's voice, telling of his experiences, of his friends' and family's experiences, and of the experiences of all of us.

I was introduced to Sherman Alexie's work in college with his excellent YA novel The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, and read his short-story "The Toughest Indian in the World" shortly after. What struck me immediately about his work was his frank, conversational writing style, his characters' humor in the face of tragedy and emptiness. Alexie doesn't try to paint pretty, poetic pictures- instead he shows the world as he sees it, all the ugliness and injustice of humanity, but also its compassion. These traits can be found in all of the stories collected in this volume.

Alexie gets people, and not just Indian people. Oh, he does a wonderful job of showing what it's like to be Indian, from the importance of tradition and storytelling to the confliction over assimilation. He doesn't shy away from writing about the really painful stuff, like the oppressive hopelessness many Indians experience. This is not tear-jerking sentimentality but a frank, realistic portrayal of what life is like. There's no preaching here. Though Alexie gives realistic portrayals of Indians, what really surprised me was his portrayal of White people. Forgive me if I'm focusing on the wrong thing, but, as a White person, I could really relate to these characters. When it comes to books about multi-cultural interaction, I'm used to seeing White characters being presented as oblivious to racial matters, sometimes well-intentioned but almost always needing to learn some kind of moral. These characters are not like that. These characters suffer from racial dissatisfaction and guilt, and feelings of racelessness and cultural void. They sometimes do racist things, but if you're paying attention, you'll gain an understanding of why they do these things. Sometimes they want to be heroes and save the Indians to assuage their own racial guilt. Sometimes they use Indians (and others) to try to bring cultural meaning into their own lives. And sometimes, the Indians in these stories do these things, too. Everyone's trying to overcome the problems and divisions caused by race, and just by being human. There aren't really good guys and bad guys here, just people struggling with the world they live in and their own identities.

I related to and cared about these characters. The stories were interesting because I really wanted to find out what happened to them (not to mention the strong plotting and engaging writing style). There was only one that started to drag a bit for me, quite impressive for a volume this size.

IN SHORT: Sherman Alexie is an amazing author who writes frankly about the human condition. He doesn't make things seem brighter than they are or sentimentalize about tragedy. His characters are strong no matter their race; they have realistic motivations and behaviors. I loved them most when they used humor in the face of their pain. The stories here are interesting because you want to know what happens to them, plus the writing and the plotting are interesting and engaging. Sherman Alexie is a must-read author for those wanting to explore the human condition.

I have not read Sherman Alexie in many many years, and when I decided to pick up “Blasphemy”, I was not sure what to expect. This short story collection contains 31 stories, 16 of them never before published and 15 from previous works. I will say this about this collection, it is absorbing. I was never bored while reading it.
The text opens with a brilliant draw you in right away story called “Cry Cry Cry”, written in a staccato style that simply propels you through it. Mr. Alexie’s sardonic dry humor is fun and evident throughout the book, but especially so in the oddly touching story “War Dances”. The collection can also be unflinching in its starkness, the one page story “Idolatry” being a brutal example in this text.
There are also stories like “The Search Engine” and “What you Pawn I will Redeem” which are longer, intriguing well written stories that I enjoyed very much but that left me missing a little something when I finished them. However, I could not tell you what that “something” is.
“Blasphemy” also contains some misses, the story “Indian County” being a story whose point I could not begin to fathom.
As a rule, I generally don’t like short stories as a genre, but Sherman Alexie never disappoints. His wonderful gift for characterization can make the shortest piece feel a depth that many examples in this genre just do not achieve for me. Sherman Alexie is an important literary voice, and if you do not know him, or know and appreciate him, “Blasphemy” is the book to read.

I loved "Reservation Blues" and the short story "The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fist Fight in Heaven." And though the stories in this collection felt a little repetitious, with the same references to 7/11 and to the same tribal backgrounds of the narrators I'd gotten before, that changed as I kept reading. These are incredible stories. and I came to love the narrators, the conflicts they faced, and the nuances of their reactions. This is a top notch collection, a great introduction to one of this country's most important contemporary voices. The longest story, "The Search Engine," is almost a novella, but I didn't want it to end. The convincing search for identity and purpose, centered in the conflict between Corliss and Harlan Atwater, makes for the most compelling dialogues. Highly recommended. --Thomas Allbaugh, Author of "Apocalypse TV"

I had never heard of Sherman Alexie until a close friend was terminally ill and distributing her considerable library among her friends. She urged me to take several books by Alexie, which I did, but I hadn't read them when I saw that Blasphemy was being offered through Vine. I ordered it mainly in homage to her. After finishing it, I'm so impressed that I'm keen to read the others.

Blasphemy is a collection of Alexie's short stories, some of which were published in his earlier collection, The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven. Ranging in length from a couple of pages to novella size, they are accessible, powerful, often funny and always moving. Some will make you uncomfortable, some will delight, but all ring true, capturing slices of modern Indian life in the Pacific Northwest, where he lives. More than just the insights they provide into Native American culture and life on and off a reservation, they are about universal themes--love, family, belonging, alienation, poverty, humor, and much more. But Alexie doesn't hammer home the themes in hamfisted prose; he weaves them subtly throughout. It's the characters and the situations that will draw you in and keep you reading. Some of my favorites were "This Is What It Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona," "Salt," "Emigration" and "The Search Engine," but they were all good, and I literally couldn't put the book down. Alexie is a masterful writer, as gifted as one of my other favorites for short fiction, Ethan Canin, which is high praise indeed.

If you enjoy short stories and American writers, you won't go wrong with Blasphemy.

Five very enthusiastic stars.

This is mostly a book about American Indians, and as such it is insightful, lucid and above all humorous. Alexie writes of Indians and Whites both and makes his characters complex and vivid and all too human. Some of his characters are homeless, some are middle class, and a few are on their way up, like Corliss in "Search Engine," which was one of my favorite stories in the collection. It's about a young Indian woman who is in college and has a love for poetry and seeks out an American Indian poet from the 1970's whose work she has found in a library. The story is heartwarming and heartbreaking and sad and hopeful all at once, and as a writer myself I loved this story. I also liked "Cry, Cry, Cry," which really tugged my heartstrings. Watching Junior live his destroyed life was a horror story that finally ended in violence, but it ended clean. My favorite story in the collection was "Emigration," which was Sherman's flirt with a fantasy format. It is very brief, just a few pages, but was fun and made me hopeful that he would do a longer fantasy piece in the future. I even emailed him to suggest just that, in case he's sitting on the fence or has thought about it but hasn't had any encouragement to give it a try. I'd love to see him develop some longer fantasy stories based on American Indian mythology.

I really enjoyed the stories in this collection, fantasy and contemporary fiction both. I felt I was learning about the lives of modern Indians, and it's always a joy to learn new things. I wonder from time to time how modern Indians are doing and what they dream about and if their lives are as messed up as the lives of most white people I know. The answer seems to be that the Indians worry about jobs and family and tribal inheritance, and they piece together their identities from whatever materials they are given, like white people do. If Mr. Alexie is to be believed the lives of most Indians are rather unhappy and messed up, and their identity issues give them serious difficulty. I hope he's exaggerating for dramatic effect. Reading this collection has made me want to read more of his work, and I think I'll try "War Dances" next, for another dose of short stories. Mr. Alexie is a formidable writer of the short form with a lot to talk about, who says it very well. Many of the stories have an undercurrent of humor which is always welcome, and which uplifted the rather grim tone of many of the stories to something joyous. I enjoyed Sherman's Indians and his white people too, and I look forward to reading more of his work.

I love reading Sherman Alexie's work because I am a sucker for narratives that have a strong voice. And with the possible exception of Junot Diaz and Bonnie Jo Campbell, I can't think of anyone else in contemporary American fiction whose voice is stronger. So I loved reading this collection of short stories (ranging in shortness from two pages to near-novella). Alexie writes as drunken Indian, middle-class Indian, drug-addled Indian, female Indian, academic and basketball and child Indian, joyful and sad Indian. What all of his Indians have in common is the phrase some of his characters use to answer the phone: Someone calls and asks, "How you doing?" and the response is, "Still Indian." Some are haunted by their heredity, some are proud, some are burdened. But whatever they are, they are now and always will be still Indian. There will always be salmon ghosts in the background.

I think about three-fourths of these stories are excellent; the rest range from good to maybe-needs-a-bit-more-work. But the excellent ones are superb and offer such insight into the minds and hearts of these characters. Among my favorites are "War Dances," about a man whose father is dying while he may have a brain tumor; "This Is what it Means to Say Phoenix, Arixona," about a man who travels to Arizona to pick up the truck of his father, who has just died, and who is accompanied by an Indian named Thomas Builds-the-Fire, a storyteller no one wants to listen to; "What Ever Happened to Frank Snake Church," about a forest ranger whose life comes apart after his father dies (sensing a theme here?...); and "Scenes from a Life," about a white woman who is haunted by the child she had with a young Indian and gave up for adoption. I can hear all of these characters speaking when I read Alexie. And I love the surprise turns of phrase and wordplay that is a hallmark of Alexie's writing.

I'd have given this collection 4 1/2 stars if I'd been able to. The criticism I have is in the arrangement of the stories. There are similar environments (the basketball court) and themes (see above) in Alexie's stories, and I think that having basketball stories back to back, for example, was not helpful to either story. But that's my only complaint. I'm grateful for the presence of Sherman Alexie in the world of literature.

I got to page 148 in the middle of a story and look ahead and find page 213. This is the first time this has happened to me and I cann't think of a worse thing to do to a reader than to have the ending of the story missing. This book is missing the end of one story and two complete stories. Is that any way to run a business?????

Sherman Alexie's BLASPHEMY is a collection of new and selected stories about the Native-American experience. You might have to persist at first, because his work is full of anger, pathos, black comedy and outrageous situations. It took me a while to get settled. It wasn't pleasant to read about a degenerate hitchhiker crawling in bed to fondle and spear the kindly guy that gave him a ride. Or to discover rampant meth usage is rotting teeth on the rez. Or to peek in on many savage wife beatings. I needed some sunshine. But, as I read on, I began to see the light and feel the passion of a young Indian writer who had much to say, knew how to say it, and who he wanted to say it to.

One of his stories, "The Search Engine," comes as close as I've ever seen to explaining the Indian search for authenticity and acceptance. The author posits that because the proud first inhabitants of this land have been reduced to feeling like nomads, a self-hating and self-doubting persona is now ingrained in them. Alexie writes that Indian tribes have been turned into nationalistic sects. He is attempting to illuminate that injustice.

His stories are gritty and profane, full of alcohol and depressed minds. I wanted to yell at his characters, urging them to suck it up and try to make something of themselves. But Alexie trudges right along, unapologetically portraying them as he sees them, as they struggle to find their place in both the white and the Indian world. I now realize how unwelcome they feel in either place. When they try to meld with the whites, the dark people of the reservation dismiss them as traitorous, too willing to toss aside strong tribal customs and family. The whites are uncomfortable with the Indian presence; demeaning them, stereotyping them, and adopting stand-offish postures when dealing with them.

Alexie admits he was a mouthy, opinionated and arrogant youngster on his reservation. He says nothing has changed over the years and his writing bears that out. But I get the impression that he is impatient with the contemporary Indian's demeanor. Some of his characters, although flawed and unruly, have been given dignity and a sense of purpose in their approach to life. His stories celebrate that strength and seem to urge more of it.

I have always been a little uncomfortable with my lack of knowledge about the Native Americans in our country. I recently moved to the Pacific Northwest and see a lot of Indians but still don't know much about them or their life. Sherman Alexie is a recognized observer and chronicler of this terrain and, as I read his book, I realize there is much to learn. Alexie will certainly be a wonderful instructor and I plan to pick his brain through his books.

Suppress your discomfort and open your senses to Alexie's portrayal of his world. This book, although I wouldn't call it enjoyable, is thought-provoking and a masterful exposé of the Native-American condition. It's an enlightening journey.

Schuyler T Wallace
Author of TIN LIZARD TALES

For fans of short fiction, this collection by Sherman Alexie is a good addition to the shelf. Most readers probably won't read it start-to-back like I did, and it's a good resource to draw from when you're in the mood for one of Alexie's bitter, but usually charming, accounts of hard living.

There are a lot of five-star stories, and a few three-stars. The big drawback of the collection is if it's your first Alexie book, you'd end up repeating some of the more well-known stories if you then bought more.

As for the writing, he gives you consistent characters facing demons outside and within. Nobody's a hero, or a villain - just people doing their best to grind out a dollar a dime. This is working-class fiction with honest stories that very, very rarely veer off into melodrama. If anything, the flaw is they often seem so true to life that it's depressing to imagine this is all there is.

I've never read any of Alexie's novel-length works, but I had read and enjoyed a few of these stories before. Strangely, short stories sometimes get a bad rap from the publishing industry, but I think it's the ideal way to read fiction; a reader can invest with these people over 25 pages, as opposed to 250 where a premise might get stale.

There's a tendency to look at this kind of near-biographical fiction (like Alexie, most of his characters are Native American) as channeling the real life of the author. Because of the consistency of his male characters, I think that's probably true to some extent - Alexie doesn't strike me as the type to suffer fools, and neither are the men in his stories, unless they're the fool being suffered.

I had never heard of Sherman Alexie until one week ago. He was a guest on the PBS show Bill Moyers Journal. He was plugging his book, the one being reviewed here, `Blasphemy'. On the show he offered his own Native-American perspective, calling Mount Rushmore "silly". In the book, (which is a collection of short stories), he has a lot more to say about living in the land conquered by Europeans.
The blues are all around us. If you scratch beneath the surface, (past the wall of Madison Avenue propaganda); you will find the victims. Americans hate losers. We like to blame them for all of our social ills. We like to make a point of rubbing education in the faces of the destitute, (while raising the tuition rates); as if everyone would be employed tomorrow if only they all had degrees.
At times I get very depressed about the disappearing middle class. I see a vanishing way of life. My Beaver Cleaver childhood, (more idealized than real), is gone with the G.I. Bill. Millions of Baby Boomers are being cast adrift; vanishing savings, non-existent employment, and social programs under attack.
Welcome to the rez. Don't expect much sympathy from ethnic groups that are down on the bottom waiting for us to join them. For years, (ever since the dawning of the civil rights movement), we have been warned about the cost of inequality. We did not heed the advice. Now we can all fight over the scraps.
Mr. Alexie has been there already, (at least intellectually). To quote Bill Clinton, he "feels the pain". His characters, (whether on the reservation or not), are swimming for their lives, (or away from them). They all seem to be in one state of delusion or another, (because, ultimately, that is how we all get on with it). But go on they do. American Indians have been slaughtered and marginalized. They have been forced off their land and cheated out of their country. They have been "Americanized" in mission schools and beaten in classrooms. They find themselves, more often than not, in possession of the worst land, (part of the treaty "deals"). They do have a choice; emigrate into European-American "society", or remain where they are. And that is the rub. The conflict of assimilation is what lies at the heart of this book. To be or not to be, that is the question. In view of what does not exist anymore, (in the way of opportunity); does it make any difference either way? Is it better to starve in the city or subsist in the country? But human nature will always be restless until desires are fulfilled. And for the young, an effort has to be made.

The bulky collection of Sherman Alexie short fiction includes sixteen previously published stories, including "This Is What It Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona" and "The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven," the title story of his first (1993) collection of stories (IMO a great title and a pretty great story), and "The Toughest Indian in the World," one of the two stories that in decades of reading the New Yorker knocked me out when I read it in the 21 June 1999 issue, and that became the title story of another collection (published in 2000).

The 31 stories in Blasphemy range in length from a two-page squib (Breakfast) to a 58-page novella (The Search Engine). Neither of those, nor the other novella, the 53-page "Whatever Happened to Frank Snake Church" are among my favorites. I don't expect to like every story in any collection, but, in addition to The Toughest Indian in the World," I think there are some other great stories collected in Blasphemy:
Because My Father Always Said He Was the Only Indian Who Saw Jimi Hendrix Play "The Star-Spangled Banner" at Woodstock
Indian Country
Indian Education
Salt
Scars
This Is What It Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona
War Dances,
and some that have some great stuff but fall just a bit short of greatness
Assimilation
Breaking and Entering
Cry Cry Cry
The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven
Midnight Basketball
Night People
Scenes from a Life
The Search Engine
What You Pawn I Will Redeem

There are stories about adolescents and stories about adults in the stories that most move me (and in those that least move me; there are no stories I dislike in this collection. And there is humor, ranging from whimsical to biterly mordant in most all Alexie stories. There are many self-deprecatory narrators and/or protagonists, not all of them male. Some of the stories have punch lines (effective punch lines).

There are stories set on the Spokane reservation, stories set in Seattle, and stories set elsewhere that are on my list of great ones. Though Native American narrators/protagonists are numerous, there are some stories told from female points of view, too.

It is difficult to generalize about 31 stories differing radically in length and differing widely in point of view. IMHO there are enough great and near-great ones to make the collection worthwhile, even for those (like me) who already have a shelf of Alexie books.

Reading Sherman Alexie's stories has long been on my bucket list, so I was quite happy for the chance to order a copy of his latest book to read and review. And I was not disappointed. This substantial tome contains some classic stories as well as new ones to provide many happy hours reading and re-reading. The stories vary widely in length---some are only a page and a half long, a couple are over 100 pages--but all are captivating and surprising. Nearly all of the stories are written in first person, and sound like authentic experiences, no matter how bizarre they might be. From reading about Alexie online, I know that a few are autobiographical (such as "Indian Education"), yet even the few that he wrote from a female perspective sound convincingly personal and real. Even though his stories all (as far as I can tell) involve Indians (he never uses the the term "Native American") who live in Washington state, such as Spokane and Lummi tribes; and I am white woman who has never even set foot in Washington state, I still found the stories personally affecting. There are themes of longing, belonging, alienation, family, death, among others. Many of the stories are poetic in language and metaphor, some even enigmatic. For instance, the one called "Salt", I still don't completely understand. Some are to be felt rather than comprehended literally. So far my favorite is the one about donkey basketball, though it is fraught with tragedy. This is a book for a mature audience that doesn't mind a little blasphemy. There is sex, disease, poverty, alcoholism, violence, swearing, and death. Yet Alexie pulls it off with such ironic lightness and humor that it is enjoyable to read.

Some ideas to experience Alexie's work online: watch his readings and comedy presentations on youtube, read some of his wonderful poetry at poetryfoundation dot org, watch the film "Smoke Signals"--which is based on one of his short stories--on netflicks. I found them all very interesting and they make you think and feel. I hope you enjoy these, and I definitely recommend this new book by Sherman Alexie.

I Love This Book!

Sherman Alexie's 2012 book, "Blasphemy, New and Selected Stories" is a powerhouse, filled with stories of everyday life as seen through the lens of an American Indian and Everyman. Alexie introduces us to a world in which, "I smell the old on me. And it reeks, son, it reeks of stupid and desperate hope." It is a book in which traditional culture vies to stay alive and even flourish in a world that increasingly devalues such thought. He writes, " Whatever happened to the tribal ties, the sense of community? The only real thing he shared with everybody was a bottle and a broken dream."

Alexie writes of love, " When one person starts to look at another like a criminal, then love is over. It's logical."

He writes of women, "Mothers are almost always better men than men are."
He writes of desperation, "Desperate men are fragile and dangerous at all times and places."
He writes of the differences between the races, " Whites and Indians laughed at most of the same jokes, but they laughed for different reasons."

Each of the short stories offers us something different, yet build on each other. I approached each new chapter eagerly and was never disappointed. This may have been more of a challenge than I realized, because Alexie tells us ", ...Indians have to work hard to keep secrets from hungry while folk."

I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys good literature, can see the world from the corner of their eye and want more. This is not a book of defeat, but of pride, strength, depreciation and dark humour.

Therefore, I give it a five rating.

Josephine Nachison, spouse

Ugh! The torture, exquisite though it may be, is none the less so tragic and sad. I confess I knew what I was in for since years ago I had the great pleasure of reading another torturous read - his The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian. And yes, here is Sherman again describing with great blunt beauty the misery of being human in one of the most human situations. I remember - I think it was Adorno - saying that the reason the Jews were the chosen people of God was because they both suffered and enjoyed life far more than other people. They were chosen because of the great extent of experience - no people experienced life as fully. Sherman knows differently. Adorno did not have a chance to know this. But we do. And it is thanks to Sherman and his willingness to Blaspheme and share this with us. He is braver than the young women in Tunis the other day that bared their breasts to the mob to protest the imprisonment of one of their friends for baring her breasts in her Facebook pictures. Well, maybe not. But he bares his soul to us. And the soul of some of the people he knows and clearly loves.

Embarrassingly, I had never heard of Sherman Alexie which is unfortunate for at least two reasons: One because he is from the NW of the USA where I lived for many years and two because he is a very good short story writer and I very much enjoy that genre of writing. Fortunately, I saw that his latest collection made it to the NY Times Notable Books of 2012 list so I picked it up and ended up enjoying it a great deal. The entire series really which is made up of some new and earlier works (by the way this is a very common theme this year with the short story genre--see Steve Stein for one) is centered on Native Americans from the Northwest. He grew up on a "res" himself as a Spokane Indian and his stories explore many of the topics that seem to be common at least when reading about this native population: alcoholism, hard working individuals, violence, and the deep connection between individuals. Sherman Alexie is clearly also a former basketball player or a huge fan as many of his stories revolve around the sport. I enjoyed this series a great deal and highly recommend picking it up.

What, indeed, can be considered blasphemous? Gay sex is for some. The inhumane treatment of the African slaves, or the conquered "Indians" (Alexie's preferred term) for others. Jokes about God, god, or gods? It's all about your point of reference and maybe your sense of humor. Alexie explores all aspects of life, from his perspective as a member of the Indian minority in the US. He claims not to write from a universal perspective (which he feels usually means for the white majority), but I have to respectfully disagree. It's my conviction that if an author plumbs the depths of his own life experience with some kind of integrity, intelligence, self-awareness and allegiance to his own authentic voice, it will be universal. These stories -- some new and some previously published -- are all well-polished facets of Alexie's vision, skillfully wrought and crafted. They are deceptively simple: easy to read but offering profound insights, and -- as fiction really should be -- ultimately enjoyable. They are a gift from a beautiful mind and spirit. I received a dented, uncorrected paperback proof to review from the store vine, but I assume that a lovely hardback copy will make the collection even more satisfying.

This collection of short stories contains both old and new works. I enjoyed reading again the familiar stories and his new ones. The writing is sharp, but infused with humor. Alexie's humor, though, usually carries a sting to it--at least for me. Many times my chuckles are interrupted by a singular thought--"wait a minute"--as the words reveal another layer, initially masked by the humor. This other layer frequently gives me something to think about. There's a fact, an observation, *something* that requires further, serious thought. Alexie makes me *think* about the serious issues that dominate our society in ways other writers fail to do.

The stories deal with relationships--husband & wife, father & sons, basketball players, friends, and self and seems to center around a core thought--how can we identify ourselves in relation to others if we can't don't know who we are?

The only issue I really had was with the shortest of the stories--they seemed to be over before they really got started.

This is a book that will have a permanent place on my bookshelf and I'm already looking forward to the next book.

'Blasphemy' is, as the title indicates, a collection of new and classic Sherman Alexie short stories, 30 in total. And it's great. Alexie is the preeminent chronicler of the Native American Indian experience in America, and his stories are sad, poignant, funny, clever and incredibly well written. For a casual fan of Alexie like myself this is a gift, 30 short stories from a master of the form. If you like Sherman Alexie this is a no-brainer. It is a big book, almost 500 pages, so it might be more than some readers need. Personally I loved all of the stories. Only caveat from other reviewers, there is some apparently some overlap with previous Alexie collections, so if you are a hardcore fan you might want to make sure you don't have what you need before picking this up. But for me, no complaints, and I'm thrilled to add a fantastic Sherman Alexie collection to my shelf!

Sherman Alexie writes about life from a Native American perspective. But he can not be pigeon-holed in some "ethnic" box. This collection of short stories--like most of his fiction--reflects on growing up, poverty (material and spiritual), coming of age, search of spiritual meaning in life, struggles with addiction, and many other universal human conditions that cross racial and ethnic borders.

And he writes WELL. A wonderful mixture of humor, pathos, love, hate, disappointment, and every emotion in between. Virtually all of these stories are set in or around the reservations and diaspora of the Native American Northwestern United States. The characters reflect their clear Native American culture in a way few other authors have attempted, and none has succeeded as well.

Each story could stand alone. Taken together, they form a coherent narrative, and are highly readable. If you don't know Alexie's work, this is a fine place to start. If you already know his work, then this should volume should definitely be added to your collection.

Thirty-one new and selected short stories that are not new by one of my favorite writers.

Do I hear B.D. Wong when I reread "Breaking and Entering" because he read the story on "Selected Shorts?" Yes. And I hear Keir Dullea's voice as I reread "What You Pawn, I Will Redeem," from the same radio show.

Some I know-- or think I know-- I've read before like "The Toughest Indian in the World," "The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven," "This Is What It Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona," "War Dances." I don't believe I've read "The Search Engine" before. It's about Corliss who is the first Spokane Indian she has ever heard of studying poetry at Washington State, when she finds a chapbook of poetry in the stacks there written in 1972 by a Spokane Indian she's never heard of. "What Ever Happened to Frank Snake Church" is about a middle aged Indian who makes/ gives himself a second chance at college, college basketball and life. These short stories are all gems. I'm very glad that I have Sherman Alexie's books and characters in my life.

Sherman Alexie is a genius. It's as simple as that.

I love Vine for many reasons, one of which is I can enjoy a wide selection of a myriad of products, including books. When I learned that a new Sherman Alexie book was coming out, I literally jumped at the chance to order this book. This book is a collection of short stories about Native Americans from a Native American perspective.

The stories are primarily set in the Pacific Northwest, Washington State in particular. Alexie's development of characters; story lines and interactions is nothing short of brilliant. Sherman Alexie is like a literary ventriloquist - he can throw his "voice" around in different characters and create a whole new sound and persepctive.

I love this book and feel the collection of stories is a literary smorgasbord to be savored time and again. These stories are timeless; they are the voices of all people. As a bonus, some of the titles are really funny, such as "What it Really Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona."

I haven't read an entire book of short stores in quite a while, but I'm very pleased that I read this one. It is excellent. Sherman Alexie manages to make many different kinds of voices come alive - urban, rural; male,female; fairly young and fairly old. Their commonality is that the are all Native American (Indian), most often from the Spokane tribe of eastern Washington.

My favorite stories in the book were "War Dances," "Protest," and "Indian Education" although several others would rank closely behind these in my estimation. Something that comes through in all of the stories is humor amidst the pathos. No matter how tough the situation is, the characters (and Alexie) find something to laugh about. It is truly and admirable trait.

I would recommend this book not only to readers who have enjoyed Sherman Alexie's other works, but to anyone with a taste for good writing and/or an interest in modern Indian culture.

Here are 31 short stories ranging from very short (2 or 3 pages) to long and detailed (over 50 pages). Several of them have been previously published. Some of the stories have complex plots; others are vignettes of a single event in someone's life--brief and crystal clear. Wry, dark humor pulls in the reader, sometimes making you laugh and cry at the same time.

The different narrators say things like "I know enough to cover my heart in any crowd of white people" and "Indians have to work hard to keep secrets from hungry white people." At the same time, the stories feel honest, as if the characters really are sharing their secrets. It's a contradiction, but a compelling one. A masterful collection.

I have long been a fan of Sherman Alexie and consider The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven one of the great modern works of literature (also love Ten Little Indians). There are very few modern writers who are as original and well, groundbreaking, as Sherman Alexie. I used to consider Cormac McCarthy one of those but once he became "Oprahfied," I stopped caring about him or his work. Sad considering I did part of my Creative Writing Master's Thesis on McCarthy. Looking back, I regret not doing that portion of my thesis on Alexie.

In any case, Blasphemy is a combination of some old stories (even some from The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven, my personal favorite) and a series of new stories - around 30ish in total. Some of the stories remain true to Alexie's Native American agenda (for lack of a better word) but he seems to step outside of that arena addressing bigger issues - of assimilation into the land of the conquerors (as if you have a choice). But some of the subject matter in this book hints at the rest of us too. It brings the uncomfortable and sometimes funny realization that we are somehow all marginalized because of the crappy way we run our conquered world. He's correct when you consider bigger implications of living in the land of the free and equal - a land that is increasingly dividing itself into classes, specifically the haves and have nots with very few levels in between. There is little opportunity for anyone in the current economic environment and even less so for the Native American who is always conflicted by the options available: assimilate or stay conquered. Either way, you're conquered, right?

Which brings me to a philosophical question. Who is Sherman Alexie, really? He's a very successful American writer who speaks for the Native American population with humor, poignancy, sadness, and extreme frankness. But where is he on the assimilation scale or better yet, how does he view himself on that scale? It's a mystery. But I wonder how he views his success considering the theme of his work.

Alexie's storytelling skills are top of the line. His mastery of language, the clarity in the way he presents ideas and his ability to work in multiple forms (have you ever seen the movie Smoke Signals?) with the same emotional bang is almost unbelievable. But it is so.

If you've never read any of Alexie's work, by all means choose this one for a literary Alexie history/timeline. And rent (or even better, buy) Smoke Signals. You won't regret it.

A really good collection of stories, some old, some new. Alexie has a great gift for giving you an insight into a culture that you might not ever be a part of. Some of the horrors and joys (sometimes simultaneous) of being a Native American in the middle of a dangerous 21st century society that doesn't want anything do do with it... I think this is great reading for those of us who have no meaningful contact with that world.

the book seems huge, but it's a collection of stories, so it's pretty easy to navigate, to read out of order, or to just sit down and read from cover to cover like a novel.

This writer is so great I am at a loss to find words to praise him. He will take you to places you never knew existed - wonderfully strange places for the modern white man to peek into; heck, Indians are like this now? What did you expect? Soon, if you have a touch of empathy in your soul, you are there and you are the protagonist and the story is about YOU or your family... Alexie is a genius of the short story and I scream out to you, READ HIM!! The experience will open up your mind and you will feel the winds and the spirits of peoples you never knew...

This is my third book by Alexie. I was first introduced to his work by the short story made into a movie, smoke signals. Although I was familiar with the plight of Native Americans and fascinated with the story I did not completely get the joy pain heartache and heartbreak of the people. I get it now. Alexie's books go beyond history lessons even as fictions . You would have to be deaf dumb and blind to not feel the joy humor egregious pain of centuries of discrimination Native Americans have endured. I get so angry I just cry then the irony of some of the stories are so funny I laugh so hard again I cry.

In addition to Alexie's greatest hits, this volume includes new stories worth your attention. It's a great edition for your collection but a little hefty to be carrying around to read on the sly, which is what you'll want to do with it. If you've read Alexie, you already know he is brutally honest yet unsentimentally heartfelt. Reading Alexie can be a little like peeling a hangnail--there is a certain satisfaction in reading his stories, but they sting and leave a wound. The reader is left raw while the character moves on (barefoot, drunk, high, or in some other mystic state of being).

The stories here are whimsical, deep, funny, tragic, and overall quite short. These are typical characteristics of Sherman Alexie's writing. This collection seems like it was written with different levels of effort and mind sets, some stories seeming more experimental pieces than completed works. My favorite collection of Alexie's stories is still Ten Little Indians. That one has a smaller collection of the most poetic and funny of his writings. But Blasphemy will intrigue you too. I recommend it.

"A master of the short story"...absotively. This polyptych of Sherman Alexie's short fiction is amazingly enjoyable and enlightening. Each entry, whether it's a two page scene or a one hundred page novella, is about being an indigenous person and about being human. Every line is beautifully written and serves the story.

I don't mean to give such a short review, but if you are a fan of good writing - get this collection. Whether you are already familiar with Alexie or not, you'll be glad you did.

I enjoyed this collection quite a bit. Alexie's prose is highly readable and engaging. He also has an ability to bring humor into even the most dramatic stories.

While the stories are often about Native Americans, they aren't attempts to portray the "Native American experience." They are stories first and foremost. They offer many conflicting thoughts about what it is to be Native American, and leave the reader with an appreciation for the complexity of the question.

One blurb on the back cover describes the stories as "sardonic but sentimental." The sentimentality is the only aspect of these stories that I didn't care for. But I still enjoyed them very much. They were funny, moving, and highly readable.

"Blasphemy" by Sherman Alexie is a collection of short stories, about half of which are newly published. The old stories are from a number of his previous books such as " The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven". I must admit that I am a fan of Sherman Alexie and have read most of what he has written. His stories are funny, provocative, and very original. He is a great story teller with the wit of Mark Twain and has the odd character types like the Minnesota writer Louise Erdrich. I had fun reading many of the stories for the second time and found even more to enjoy. Some of the new stories move away from his more typical Native American subject matter and move into more general subjects. Overall if you have never read Alexie you are in for a treat. I highly recommend "Blasphemy"

I read Sherman Alexie's "The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven" a few years ago (along with his middle grade book, "The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian") and I remember liking it at the time. But it must not have been terribly memorable because I was over halfway through the story "This is What it Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona" before I realized I had already read it, and I never did recognize the title story of that book, even though I know I read it back then.

Sherman Alexie writes with wit (often of the gallows humor type) and poignancy of being an Indian in twentieth and twenty-first century America. Most of his stories are told in the first person, which leads one to wonder just how autobiographical they are. Most are also set in and around Washington State, especially on or near the Spokane Indian Reservation.

Virtually nothing is off-limits to Alexie; there are no sacred cows (he's the wrong kind of Indian for that). He writs of sex, including gay sex, death, illness, alcoholism, domestic violence, homelessness and pathos of all kinds, as well as pretty much every stereotype of Indians there is. He writes with an "I can't believe you said that" sort of irreverence that only an Indian writer could get away with and which in the end holds a great deal of reverence for Indian life, as well as life in general.

The stories run the gamut and it is hard to make generalizations about the book as a whole. The story "Breakfast" is barely a full page and is a rather bizarre vignette about a man whose father falls out of the egg he cracks for his breakfast omelet. "Whatever Happened to frank Snake Church", on the other hand, is a rambling, 52 page exploration of parental love and honor and its role in one man's lifelong relationship with basketball. It also contains one of the best lines in the book: ""For the rest of your academic life, she [Frank's mother] told him on his first day of kindergarten, "whenever any teacher tells you that Columbus discovered America, I want you to run up to him or her, jump on his or her back, and scream, `I discovered you!'"" I just might have to tell that to my own kids.

Alexie's characters are almost universally extremely self-aware. They recognize the mixture of love and hate, pity and respect, anger and despair they're feeling and how those feelings lead to their behavior, which such behavior often makes no apparent rational sense, unless understood from the perspective of indigenous people who have spent 500 years living as conquered people in their own lands. The stories deal with education and assimilation (or lack thereof) and the psychological and sociological toll taken on even the most seemingly successful (by modern American standards) Indians. Joking and laughter, as one of the few sane and healthy reactions to such pain, become woven into the very identity of Alexie's characters. Hence, many of Alexie's stories are a raw mix of the absurd and the searing, as in "Basic Training", a story of donkey basketball and a son's betrayal of his father, or "What You Pawn I Will Redeem", about a homeless man's quest to recover his grandmother's stolen powwow regalia from a pawn shop dealer.

The stories are basically easy reading - I finished over half of the book in one morning while on jury duty. But I recommend slowing down a bit and savoring and pondering each story for a while before proceeding on to the next. Otherwise the stories tend to blend together and the meaning of each gets lost. Alexie is a deft story teller, but he's also rather subtle, hiding a lot of significance in humor and absurd events.

I can't say that I loved the book, but I did enjoy it. Given my previous experience with Sherman Alexie, I wonder how long these stories will stick with me and if I'll remember them again a couple years from now. Nonetheless, I recommend the book, if for nothing else than for the perspective it offers and some good wry chuckles along the way.

Blasphemy: New and Selected Stories by Sherman Alexie (2012)

I've read several of Alexie's earlier story collections as well as his novels Flight, Reservation Blues and The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. Alexie is an incredibly talented writer shining a light onto a part of America's culture that is very rarely seen in modern literature.

That said, his work is never easy to take filled with wasted potential, sadness and a pervasive sense of everything that an entire culture has lost thanks to Western expansion and modernization. It is a bleak, cold world. It is bleaker and colder if you are an Indian in an Alexie story.

While Alexie provides some moments of whimsy and wonder, his stories are generally heavy. Clocking in at 480 pages Blasphemy is even heavier than earlier collection or novels. It is also not at all indicative of The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian so if you're expecting that kind of story here just walk away now.

The collection is comprised of new and older stories so it's a nice introduction to Alexie except that most of my favorite stories ("Somebody Kept Saying Powwow", "Distances", "Saint Junior", "A Good Story") are not found in this collection though other familiar ones including "The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven" and "The Toughest Indian in the World" do appear.

My favorite of Alexie's collections is either The Business of Fancydancing or The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven. They were shorter, more balanced collections that tempered the inherent sadness of many stories with lighter stories of hope and sometimes even redemption. Even the characters who didn't get that happy ending had a certain dignity--something the felt lacking to me in this collection.

I admit to having a big reader/writer crush on Alexie. Talk about a multitalented man ! He's one of those rare writers who can write excellent short stories, poetry, and a wonderful screenplay ("Smoke Signals" - see it!) , plus he is a terrific reader and performer. I have never seen him "live" but would love to. (I doubt whether he gets to Maine, where I live, very often.) I teach his short stories in my college classes. I await each new book with great anticipation. There is no one like him with his particular blend of heart and humor. I highly recommend everything he's ever written.

Sherman Alexie is one of my favorite writers, but in perusing the stories in this book, I realized I had read them before. The book needs a warning label: "contains republished material." And no, I don't mean in fine print. Moreover, WHO writes the jacket notes? Comparisons to Philip Roth, Richard Wright, and Langston Hughes? Please! No similarity in voices, and the problem with exaggerations like these is that ultimately they trash all the writers who are falsely compared. It smacks of formulaic (bad formulaic) writing. "Let me see, for oppresssion, pick one of......[insert name of famous oppressed writer here]. Fie on false comparators and writers of dust jacket lies!

That said, the stories do bear the imprint of Alexie's potent laugh/cry style. Particularly when it comes to sportsmanship and politics. The writing also carries wonderful images, of spirits arising to join the constellations of the heavens. Nice.

I'm not typically a fan of short story collections, but I make an exception for Sherman Alexie because he's so amazing. Whether or not Native American issues are meaningful to you, these stories are poignant and real and touching. I've put off finishing this book for more than a month because I didn't want it to end! Not all of the stories are about Native Americans (although he's really in his element there). And even the ones that feature Native American characters are more about the human condition than anything else. Overall this is an amazing book that I highly, highly recommend.

A collection of some of Alexie's best stories and some new ones. I have always felt a kinship with his outsider point-of-view. His stories, as his narrators witness, sometimes helplessly, the messes they and others make of their lives, are stirring and sometimes bleak, but always worthwhile. The people in his stories kill, dance, pick up hitchhikers, go to prison, get their feet cut off, doubt healing songs, sing healing songs, get MRIs, miss their fathers, get angry at their lesbian daughters, play basketball well or badly, sleep with other Indians for reasons of their own, and scheme to get their grandmother's regalia back from the pawn shop. Everything is in this excellent collection.

The cover for Sherman Alexie's new collection is well-chosen: an image of an Indian* man with eyes closed and mouth open, experiencing something that might be laughter, might be pain, might even be metaphysical awe. There's a lot of pain in Alexie's fiction, a lot of laughter about and counterbalancing that pain, and a fair amount of awe... which is then mocked with more laughter that nonetheless leaves the awe intact. Some might imagine that cynicism and sentimentality don't mix, but these stories prove otherwise, demonstrate that the cynic can in fact be, underneath his irony, a powerfully sentimental person. It is this balance of dark, sometimes cruel humor and stark insight into human yearning, the avoidance of romantic nonsense on the one extreme and nihilistic nonsense on the other, that makes Alexie an extraordinary writer. BLASPHEMY, mixing new stories with reprints from Alexie's first four collections, is a stunning testament to his skill.

[*I write "Indian" and not "Native American" here and throughout because that is Alexie's usage.]

It is, however, a testament that may exist for thoroughly mundane reasons. Although there are more new stories than old ones (sixteen vs. fifteen; the store's product description and the cover copy of the preview version have the count slightly wrong), the new stories are short, ranging from two to fifteen pages each and adding up to about 110 pages total, something less than a quarter of the volume. A cynic might wonder if the "new and selected" approach wasn't simply a way to generate enough material for a full-length collection. The arrangement of the stories is also peculiar. Collections like this usually put the old stories first, in chronological order and separated into groups based on the earlier volumes in which they appeared, and then place the new stories at the end. Here, though, they are mixed, old following new following old in no obvious order. Whether this was an effort to disguise the brevity of the new material or an aesthetic decision by Alexie, the effect is not unpleasing; there's a decent balance of shorter and longer work, and points of similarity between the stories highlight possible autobiographical elements of Alexie's fiction without diminishing their variety. For those who want to know whether a given story is new or old, though, I offer an annotated list of contents. The abbreviations following titles of old stories indicate which earlier collection they're from. LR is 1994's THE LONE RANGER AND TONTO FISTFIGHT IN HEAVEN (there are five of its twenty-three stories); TI is 2000's THE TOUGHEST INDIAN IN THE WORLD (three of its nine stories); TL is 2003's TEN LITTLE INDIANS (four of its nine stories); and WD is 2009's WAR DANCES (three of its eleven stories):

1 "Cry Cry Cry" NEW
2 "Green World" NEW
3 "Scars" NEW
4 "The Toughest Indian in the World" (TI)
5 "War Dances" (WD)
6 "This is What It Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona" (LR)
7 "Midnight Basketball" NEW
8 "Idolatry" NEW
9 "Protest" NEW
10 "What Ever Happened to Frank Snake Church?" (TL)
11 "The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven" (LR)
12 "The Approximate Size of My Favorite Tumor" (LR)
13 "Indian Country" (TI)
14 "Because My Father Always Said..." (LR)
15 "Scenes from a Life" NEW
16 "Breakfast" NEW
17 "Night People" NEW
18 "Breaking and Entering" (WD)
19 "Do You Know Where I Am?" (TL)
20 "Indian Education" (LR)
21 "Gentrification" NEW
22 "Fame" NEW
23 "Faith" NEW
24 "Salt" (WD)
25 "Assimilation" (TI)
26 "Old Growth" NEW
27 "Emigration" NEW
28 "The Search Engine" (TL)
29 "The Vow" NEW
30 "Basic Training" NEW
31 "What You Pawn I Will Redeem" (TL)

But enough bibliographical data; on to the stories themselves. It's not much of a surprise that the new material here is largely short. Alexie's language has always been lean and direct. The first and best of the new stories, "Cry Cry Cry," is a masterpiece of emotionally intense minimalism. The paragraphs are brief and blunt, and so is the voice of the narrator as he describes his relationship with his cousin Junior, flatly acknowledging Junior's flaws and his crimes and ruthlessly mocking his pretensions, yet never ignoring the suffering and desperation that contributed to but can't justify his behavior. In just fifteen pages, the story invokes topics that will resonate throughout the collection: Indian authenticity, Indian hypocrisy, white racism, addiction, the typically tedious and occasionally brutal life of the reservation. Eventually the narrator is drawn into a sequence of events so terrible and tragic that the story's final image, which might otherwise have seemed maudlin, becomes haunting.

Some of the other new material is less successful. Pieces like "Idolatry," "The Vow," and "Breakfast" are so slender it might have been better to withhold them and build the relevant images and moments into more substantial stories. But they work as quick, delicate contrasts to the older, longer pieces here, including triumphs like "Whatever Happened to Frank Snake Church?", in which the title character responds to his father's death by trying to turn himself into the world's best forty-year-old basketball player, or "The Search Engine," in which an Indian college student works to reconcile her Indian identity with her desire to be an intellectual and an artist by seeking out the author of an obscure collection of Indian poetry. The former story does what most fiction about grief fails to do-- make the process interesting-- by exploring the humor of its unconventional grief method without losing sight of the emotional crisis that drives it. The latter succeeds not only by its ironic reflection on what, if anything, it means to be Indian, but by the strength of the character portrait of its heroine, a quirky, determined, enormously kind young woman who is both like and unlike Alexie's typical protagonist.

Alexie has remarked that he is uncomfortable with describing fiction as "universal," because what is typically meant is "white people get it," and because it is "often a way to negate the particularity of a project." He has a point. These stories are frequently about experiences, concerns, desires that white people, black people, other non-Indians will not have, and to argue that they are "like" more common phenomena is to diminish them. Great fiction details specific responses to specific events and succeeds insofar as they are believable for the characters for whom they're written. But, as Alexie acknowledges in the interview from which I'm quoting, there are such things as universal themes, and in addressing them great fiction will create moments in which individual readers feel a sympathy, a sense of recognition, an awareness that something is simply and purely true. The moments in question will be different for every reader, but a truly exceptional piece of writing will speak to many of them. This hefty collection is rich in such stories and such moments.

...Wow, things having gotten a bit sweeping and romantic here. Let's do what Alexie might, and puncture the moment with humor. Here, in closing, is a paragraph from "Whatever Happened to Frank Snake Church?" that is both hilarious and not a joke at all:

~"For the rest of your academic life," [his mother had] told him on his first day of kindergarten, "whenever any teacher tells you that Columbus discovered America, I want you to run up to him or her, jump on his or her back, and scream 'I discovered you!'"~

That, like all Alexie's work, brings new meaning to the phrase "painfully funny."

Married, produced quarter degree children, and divorced a half degree Lummi Indian.
The tales ring true to what I have seen and heard.
Sad and hopeful. Mystical and traditional. Humor and sly.
Understood the draw of the res and challenges to assimilate.
Chemical dependancy and psychotic visions.
Salmon and water.
I'm white.

Married, produced quarter degree children, and divorced a half degree Lummi Indian.
The tales ring true to what I have seen and heard.
Sad and hopeful. Mystical and traditional. Humor and sly.
Understood the draw of the res and challenges to assimilate.
Chemical dependancy and psychotic visions.
Salmon and water.
I'm white.

Although the writing is admirable, if you read his stories closely, it becomes clear that Sherman Alexie is a racist. He tries to disguise this with black humor and generally succeeds at fooling his readers. As was apparent at a recent appearance in NYC, Alexie genuinely harbors strong animosity toward white men. He is, to be frank, a fraud. It has taken me a long time to come to this conclusion and it makes me sad. However, it's time readers acknowledge Alexie as the racist he is.