Another re-read. I picked up this book a year or two after seeing Smoke Signals in college. The movie was also written by Sherman Alexie and based on this book. I'm not even white, and I feel a bit of white man's guilt at the plight of Native Americans. All too often, in history and the media, they are vilified, romanticized, or victimized. The Native Americans were the first people to have been given the short end of the stick by America, and unfortunately, on the whole, generally speaking, they have yet to rise up, yet to overcome their circumstances. (There is no Native American equivalent of Barack Obama or Sonia Sotomayor.) Here, Sherman Alexie gives voice to a people who have so much to tell.
Alexie's writing is sometimes poetic, sometimes fantastical. It's hard to know where the heartbreaking reality ends, and where the fanciful storytelling begins. I have to admit, I didn't always "get" what he was trying to say. Alexie is matter-of-fact while still finding humor in the oddest places. The stories are characterized by nostalgia and an even greater sense of loss: loss of tradition, loss of respect, loss of opportunity. Nevertheless, resilience and pride in the ways of the old tradition leave one with the hope that there's still a fighting chance.
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