Log in to track your reading progress.
Overview
Sherman Alexie’s critically celebrated first collection, The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven established its author as one of America’s most important and provocative voices. Vividly weaving memory, fantasy, and stark reality to paint a portrait of life in and around the Spokane Indian reservation, this book introduces some of Alexie’s most beloved characters who inhabit his distinctive landscape. There is Thomas Builds-the-Fire, the storyteller who no one seems to listen to, and his compatriot—and sometimes not-so-great friend—Victor, the basketball hero who turned into a recovering alcoholic. Now with two new stories and an introduction from Alexie, these twenty-four interlinked tales are narrated by characters raised on humiliation and government-issue cheese, and yet filled with passion and affection, myth and charm. Against a backdrop of alcohol, car accidents, laughter, and basketball, Alexie depicts the distances between Indians and whites, reservation Indians and urban Indians, men and women, and most poetically, modern Indians and the traditions of the past.
Synopsis
In this poignant collection of short stories, Spokane/Coeur d'Alene Indian Sherman Alexie paints a picture of reservation life that is at once lyrical and darkly ironic. Alexie's characters live in an ethereal world where visions of tribal dances mix with government subsidies and graveyard shifts at the 7-11. Amidst poverty and police cars, the Indians of the Spokane reservation find relief in alcohol, laughter and stories of their shared heritage. With a spare yet powerful voice, Alexie reveals the tensions Indians face both on and off the reservation, as well the daily conflicts between the realities of their present and the traditions of the past.
World Literature Today - Alan R. Velie
{The author's} latest work, The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fist-fight in Heaven, somewhere between a novel and a collection of short stories, a la Louise Erdrich's {book} Love Medicine {BRD 1985}, establishes him not only as one of the best of the Indian writers but as one of the most promising of the new generation of American writers.
Editorials
New York Times Book Review
These spare, disturbing stories trace with stark, lyric power the experience of American Indians in the modern world.Chicago Tribune
Poetic [and] unremittingly honest...The Long Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven is for the American Indian what Richard Wright's Native Son was for the black American in 1940.Talk of the Town Washington
Stunning and compelling. Alexie is a visionary and by far the best writer I've seen published in recent years.Washington Times
A compelling and impressive collection.Bloomsbury Review
Alexie blends an almost despairing social realism with jolting flashes of visionary fantasy and a quirky sense of gallows humor.New York Times Book Review
These spare, disturbing stories trace with stark, lyric power the experience of American Indians in the modern world.New York Times Book Review
These spare, disturbing stories trace with stark, lyric power the experience of American Indians in the modern world.Reynolds Price
There is very little plot in any of {the stories}--plot in the sense of consecutive action with emotional outcome. Little human conflict is witnessed in present time; almost no attention is paid to whatever visible world surrounds the vocal line of narration. . . . The great surprise is that given such narrow bounds, Mr. Alexie's strength proves sufficient to compel clear attentionthrough sizable lengths of first-person voice. . . . Above all, he lures us with a live and unremitting lyric energy in the fast-moving, occasionally surreal and surprisingly comic language of his progress.— The New York Times Book Review
Alan R. Velie
{The author's} latest work, The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fist-fight in Heaven, somewhere between a novel and a collection of short stories, a la Louise Erdrich's {book} Love Medicine {BRD 1985}, establishes him not only as one of the best of the Indian writers but as one of the most promising of the new generation of American writers.— World Literature Today
Library Journal
This work chronicles modern life on the Spokane Indian Reservation. Victor, through whose eyes we view the community, is strongly aware of Native American traditions but wonders whether his ancestors view today's Indians--mired in alcohol, violence, and an almost palpable sense of despair--with sympathy or disgust. In spite of the bleakness of reservation life, the text brims with humor and passion as it juxtaposes ancient customs with such contemporary artifacts as electric guitars and diet Pepsi. The author of two previous poetry collections, Alexie writes with grit and lyricism that perfectly capture the absurdity of a proud, dignified people living in the squalor, struggling to survive in a society they disdain. Highly recommended for all fiction collections. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 5/15/93.-- Dan Bogey, Clearfield Cty. P.L. Federation, Curwensville, Pa.Kirkus Reviews
With wrenching pain and wry humor, the talented Alexie, a Spokane/Coeur d'Alene Indian-and previously a small-press author (The Business of Fancydancing, a collection of poetry and prose-not reviewed-etc.)-presents contemporary life on the Spokane Indian Reservation through 22 linked stories. Here, people treat each other (and life) with amused tolerance-although anger can easily erupt in this environment of endemic alcoholism and despair. The history of defeat is ever- present; every attempt to hold onto cultural tradition aches with poignancy: Thomas-Builds-the-Fire is the storyteller everyone mocks and no one listens to; Aunt Nezzy, who sews a traditional full- length beaded dress that turns out to be too heavy to wear, believes that the woman "who can carry the weight of this dress on her back...will save us all." Meanwhile, young men dream of escape-going to college, being a basketball star-but failure seems preordained. These tales, though sad and at times plain- spokenly didactic, are often lyrically beautiful and almost always very funny. Chapters focus on and are narrated by several different characters, but voices and perspectives often become somewhat indistinguishable-confusing until you stop worrying about who is speaking and choose to listen to the voice of the book itself and enter into its particular sensibility. Irony, grim humor, and forgiveness help characters transcend pain, anger and loss while the same qualities make it possible to read Alexie's fiction without succumbing to hopelessness. Forgiveness seems to be the last moral/ethical value left standing: the ability both to judge and to love gives the book itssearing yet affectionate honesty. (First printing of 25,000; First serial rights to Esquire and Story)Publisher's Weekly
Known primarily as a poet, Alexie ( Old Shirts and New Skins ), a Spokane/Coeur d'Alene Indian, here offers 22 extremely fine short stories, all set on or around the Spokane reservation in Washington state. Characters flow from one tale to the next; many involve Victor, who grows from a small child watching relatives fight during a New Year's Eve party (``Every Little Hurricane'') to a dissolute man sitting on his broken-down porch with a friend, watching life pass him by (``The Only Traffic Signal on the Reservation Doesn't Flash Red Anymore''). The author depicts with fierce determination all the elements of modern Native American life, from basketball and alcoholism to powwows and the unexplained deaths of insignificant people. Humor and tragedy exist side by side, and stories often jump back and forth in time and space, recounting two narratives that ultimately prove to be skeins of the same tale. Alexie writes with simplicity and forthrightness, allowing the power in his stories to creep up slowly on the reader. He captures the reservation's strong sense of community and attitude of hope tinged with realism as its inhabitants determine to persevere despite the odds. In ``Imagining the Reservation'' (a title that evokes John Lennon's song ``Imagine'') he writes, ``Survival = Anger Imagination. Imagination is the only weapon on the reservation''--a weapon this author wields with potent authority. First serial to Esquire. (Sept.)Publishers Weekly -
Known primarily as a poet, Alexie ( Old Shirts and New Skins ), a Spokane/Coeur d'Alene Indian, here offers 22 extremely fine short stories, all set on or around the Spokane reservation in Washington state. Characters flow from one tale to the next; many involve Victor, who grows from a small child watching relatives fight during a New Year's Eve party (``Every Little Hurricane'') to a dissolute man sitting on his broken-down porch with a friend, watching life pass him by (``The Only Traffic Signal on the Reservation Doesn't Flash Red Anymore''). The author depicts with fierce determination all the elements of modern Native American life, from basketball and alcoholism to powwows and the unexplained deaths of insignificant people. Humor and tragedy exist side by side, and stories often jump back and forth in time and space, recounting two narratives that ultimately prove to be skeins of the same tale. Alexie writes with simplicity and forthrightness, allowing the power in his stories to creep up slowly on the reader. He captures the reservation's strong sense of community and attitude of hope tinged with realism as its inhabitants determine to persevere despite the odds. In ``Imagining the Reservation'' (a title that evokes John Lennon's song ``Imagine'') he writes, ``Survival = Anger Imagination. Imagination is the only weapon on the reservation''--a weapon this author wields with potent authority. First serial to Esquire. (Sept.)Library Journal
This work chronicles modern life on the Spokane Indian Reservation. Victor, through whose eyes we view the community, is strongly aware of Native American traditions but wonders whether his ancestors view today's Indians--mired in alcohol, violence, and an almost palpable sense of despair--with sympathy or disgust. In spite of the bleakness of reservation life, the text brims with humor and passion as it juxtaposes ancient customs with such contemporary artifacts as electric guitars and diet Pepsi. The author of two previous poetry collections, Alexie writes with grit and lyricism that perfectly capture the absurdity of a proud, dignified people living in the squalor, struggling to survive in a society they disdain. Highly recommended for all fiction collections. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 5/15/93.-- Dan Bogey, Clearfield Cty. P.L. Federation, Curwensville, Pa.Kirkus Reviews
With wrenching pain and wry humor, the talented Alexie, a Spokane/Coeur d'Alene Indian—and previously a small-press author (The Business of Fancydancing, a collection of poetry and prose—not reviewed—etc.)—presents contemporary life on the Spokane Indian Reservation through 22 linked stories. Here, people treat each other (and life) with amused tolerance—although anger can easily erupt in this environment of endemic alcoholism and despair. The history of defeat is ever- present; every attempt to hold onto cultural tradition aches with poignancy: Thomas-Builds-the-Fire is the storyteller everyone mocks and no one listens to; Aunt Nezzy, who sews a traditional full- length beaded dress that turns out to be too heavy to wear, believes that the woman "who can carry the weight of this dress on her back...will save us all." Meanwhile, young men dream of escape—going to college, being a basketball star—but failure seems preordained. These tales, though sad and at times plain- spokenly didactic, are often lyrically beautiful and almost always very funny. Chapters focus on and are narrated by several different characters, but voices and perspectives often become somewhat indistinguishable—confusing until you stop worrying about who is speaking and choose to listen to the voice of the book itself and enter into its particular sensibility. Irony, grim humor, and forgiveness help characters transcend pain, anger and loss while the same qualities make it possible to read Alexie's fiction without succumbing to hopelessness. Forgiveness seems to be the last moral/ethical value left standing: the ability both to judge and to love gives the book itssearing yet affectionate honesty. (First printing of 25,000; First serial rights to Esquire and Story)Book Details
Published
March 1, 2005
Publisher
Grove/Atlantic, Inc.
Pages
242
Format
Paperback
ISBN
9780802141675