Ken saw this book at the library and checked it out for me. It's the first book of Sherman Alexie's that I've read that does not focus entirely on Native American Indians. His other books that I've read tell fanciful tales of colorful characters who are young and unique and conflicted in some way about their American Indian-ness. This book's collection of short stories, however, featured mainly older, more mature characters who might even be considered average. They were regular people dealing with ordinary, or sometimes extraordinary, circumstances. While other Sherman Alexie books put the American Indian heritage and plight front and center, this book either keeps them in the background, or else excludes it entirely; there were a couple stories that didn't feature any American Indian characters at all. Mostly these books were about people, in general, and human nature. And I have to admit, one reason I like Sherman Alexie so much is because of the way he weaves the stories American Indians into other stories. Still, as usual, Sherman Alexie wrote these pieces with wit, humor, and carefully crafted poetry disguised as prose. It did also include a number of actual poems, some light-hearted, all accessible. There were some pieces formatted like question-and-answer sessions, and I'm not sure what I was supposed to take away from them, but if nothing else, they illustrated the way sometimes, the questions people ask are not the ones worth answering.
No comments:
Post a Comment