Corliss wondered what happens to a book that sits unread on a library shelf for thirty years. Can a book, rightfully, be called a book if it never gets read?

“How many books never get checked out?” Corliss asked the librarian.

“Most of them,” she said.

Corliss had never once considered the fate of library books. She’d never wondered how many books go unread. She loved books. How could she not worry about the unread? She felt like a disorganized scholar, an inconsiderate lover, an abusive mother,

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If you love Sherman Alexie, like i do, all you need to know is that he is coming out with a new collection!

If you don't love Sherman Alexie, get this book!

Some of the stories are found in other collections, but they are worth reading again. The new ones are full of the amazing voice, cadence, imagery, empathy, vision, hope, undertsanding and humor that make a weekend on the sofa with Sherman Alexie better than a weekend at your favorite vacation destination with your best friends!

(It is true tha More...

Sherman Alexie can do no wrong.

Thirty-one new and selected short stories 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, of course. 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 d More...

This collection of stories is not all new, which dropped the rating (not because they're not good stories, but because I'd already read them and really would have loved more new stuff).

What Alexie means by "Blasphemy" is, I think, that he's unafraid to talk about the things that most Indians don't want to talk about: the alcoholism, the HUD homes, the poverty of the rez, etc.. Very few of the stories fail to touch on one, if not all, of those themes, hammering home again and again how the Indian More...

Have read most of the stories, have been savoring them, but "Search Engine" prompted this short review and recommendation. Corliss is another wonderfully memorable character. The last one who struck me so was Ava in "Swamplandia". Although they are very different in a lot of ways, they are both strong young women, plotting their own paths in life--kind of going against the stream, or expectations others have of them. They remind me of my strong daughter, and their relationships with their mother More...

What a ride. I'm still rather new to short story anthologies (I tend to prefer a good novel) and this one hit me hard. I especially loved the final story, 'What you pawn I will redeem.' My chest still aches after finishing it just a few minutes ago. I usually give myself a little bit of time to write a review, but I was so impressed by "Blasphemy" I knew I had to go and write something right away and hopefully persuade someone to give the book a try.

Alexie writes like no one else I've come acro More...

Mordant, funny, and understated, facing contradictions head-on, often through switches in POV into sudden monologues. One of my favorite writers. For a writer who came of age in the "writing program years," he makes some interesting "mistakes." Especially viz. "show, don't tell." Of the many songs--honor songs, love songs, other--that lace through the stories approximately zero are transcribed, though the many reactions and effects are. Usually the only way to get out of being profiled as one so More...

My Philadelphia Inquirer Review

An Excerpt

QUESTION: Why does America love Sherman Alexie, author of Blasphemy: New and Selected Stories?

ANSWER: Well, he's a sometime standup comedian - who also happens to be a prolific, award-winning poet, novelist, young-adult writer, and filmmaker. Of course, successful isn't the same as lovable. A true comedian, Alexie lampoons all species of Americans in his writing, but what makes him popular is his inclusive embrace.

If Charles Dickens had been born to the S More...

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 More...

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. More...

Sherman Alexie is one of the most well-regarded voices in 21st century Native American literature. And, he's one of my favorite authors. So, it pains me greatly to rate Blasphemy with three out of five stars, when I know him to be a five-star author.

Blasphemy explores the continued modern-day alienation of Native Americans and his community's struggles with alcoholism, acceptance of homosexuality, and the death of strong Native American men. Darkly comic, Blasphemy makes the reader smile at time More...

Thank you to Goodreads and Grove Press for this copy of Sherman Alexie's amazing new collection. Not just an advanced reading copy, either. A super nice hardback. Very generous.

I am a recent convert to the brilliance of Mr. Alexie. I've only read his young adult novel, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian and another short story collection, The Toughest Indian in the World. Both of these scored highly with me and this collection was no different. There were a few of the same stories t More...

After reading the first story in Blasphemy which was instantly identifiable as an Alexie narrative, I thought this collection of short stories would be moving but not very different than the two other Alexie books I've read. And in fact, the stories are all very similar in style and subject matter involving dystopic reservations that few Indians escape mentally or physically, unsuccessful searches for cultural identity, basketball, alcoholism, racism, confused sexuality and an often futile searc More...

Short stories by Sherman Alexie might be one of the only things that can really explain the heartbreak and the beauty of the world. It's weird because one of the main themes in his writing is basketball, which yeah. Anyway, it's good to read some Sherman Alexie when you feel sad or lonely or stuck in your life, because he can give you a sense of connection in this unpretentious and real way that is grounded in various places in Washington state, often Seattle and Spokane.

While I was reading this More...

1book140's March pick of the month.


One story bleeds into the next. Not sure whether it's a good thing or not. Love the humor in this book, humorous yet tears at same time. Not an easy feat.

Wow! I had to pace myself with this Book....or perhaps "discipline" might be a more appropriate Word. I interspersed the amazing, all-too-real, often painful, usually humorous Stories with other Books I'm Reading, or I'd have finished in a single Read. I learned so very much from Sherman Alexie, who actually did grow up on a Spokane Indian reservation, in Washington State.

I am no reviewer, but when I love a Book, tis generally because the Author has touched my Soul; my favorite Story-Tellers mu More...

Alexie writes like the film editor in his story Breaking and Entering. He omits all unnecessary information, and jump cuts to what's funny, artful and odd, painful or simple enough to be true. He writes dialogue that is honest and good enough to have earned the right to name a character Leonard Elmore. He can break your heart and make you laugh simultaneously. (Like when he writes "The fear of poetry was multicultural and timeless.") If I wasn't a former library clerk, I'd steal the copy I check More...

a great collection of Sherman Alexie stories. Unfortunately the length of the collection allows the reader to notice not just similarities between the majority of the stories but the straight-up repeats of ideas/lines almost word for word. Because Alexie covers the same topics as well, it does lead to some burnout. Since the work is technically out of context- I can't say whether his repetition of exact sentences between stories was intentional to the original collection or not. If anything- thi More...

Actually I started last night. So now I'm reading two short story books concurrently. I've always liked SA but haven't read him in a while. The first two stories combine elements of poetry, wry humor, endless sadness and some redemption and optimism. It's tough being Native American in the white world but it doen't have to be drunken and brutal as well. That's an individual choice... He's trying to push that message I think.

And onward through "The Toughest Indian in the World" and "War Dances". More...

I am not a Native American, which disallows me saying all that much of anything about just how authentic a voice Sherman Alexie is when writing about Northwest Indians, but he is an astounding writer. I am not a big fan of the short story, and this collection is made up of a full range of less-than-novella length stories (some are just a couple of pages and others are much longer). Despite that limitation, I loved the book, which means that in addition to being a great writer that he is also a g More...

Sherman Alexie writes about evil and shame so beautifully, I am now convinced that evil and shame are good things.

He also writes about wisdom, sex, and the repercussions that come with both. Here is an example:

"Every woman can have all the men she wants if she lowers her standards a bit."

Every short story in this collection is excellent, but if you want to know which ones are my favorites they are:

Green World. Incredible imagery. A short story that takes place in the future. Windmill farms, bi More...

This is possibly one of the best short story collections that I've read. Often with short stories, I'm left feeling like I still have only an abstract view of the characters. Alexie does a fantastic job of creating moving, deep, thought-provoking situations and characters. The stories in this book center around the lives of Native Americans in the Pacific Northwest, and the diversity of characters still dealing with common themes is extremely interesting and leaves you wanting more. I especially More...

I have enjoyed Alexie's writing over the years. It is nice to have this anthology and to revisit the 15 republished stories that comprise his best work in this style. (I'm partial to his poems and shorter novels, particularly "Flight" and "Dangerous Anatomy", but the man can write a story!) Some of the 16 new works are also strong and atmospheric but I'm unlikely to revisit more than 3 or 4 of those.

Ultimately I think that gathering these particular stories together was a disservice to the autho More...

Once again I am reminded how difficult it is to write reviews of the best works. I feel ridiculous writing about a master writer.

If you take a look at the back flap of any of Sherman Alexie's books you'll see that he has been awarded many literary titles, and if you read any of his stories you'll easily see just why that is. The best I can do to explain this is to say that Alexie has the right words.

The stories he tells meander around and repeat and skirt and directly approach and tell the tru More...

This is Sherman Alexie's newest collection of short stories. It includes some previously published stories as well as new ones. His short stories include Native American characters and often include occasions that are unique to current-day Native Americans. Most of his stories are set in the Northwest. But his real talent is, through these characters and their experiences, to bring focus to common human emotions. For me Alexie writes with just right balance of humor and pathos. His stories make More...

If you haven’t read Sherman Alexie before, his new collection of short stories, Blasphemy, might be a good place to start. Alexie speaks from an experience very few of us share and yet one we are compelled to understand. Alexie has no intention of putting an unnecessary sheen on Native American character, experience, sprirituality or morality nor does he shy away from describing the very real issues of reservation life or urban Native American experience, even when they include problems of crime More...

Ok, I admit that I was disappointed that there were so many stories in this book that I've read before. They are awesome stories, however. Still, I grabbed that big, fat, new Sherman Alexie book thinking I'd get all new awesomeness. Sigh. There was new awesomeness, though. Any bone Sherman Alexie wants to throw I will happily gnaw on it.

Sherman Alexie is my favorite writer. I've loved everything I've ever read by him. He's funny. He's sad. He's intelligent. He's honest.

Whether he's written a poe More...

Once again, Sherman Alexie brings to the reader an intense, realistic prose. His characters are so real, you know they are true! Because he writes in the first person, the reader feels that every short story is an audio biography of Alexie's life. (Though of course this may or may not be true.)

Some stories may be a bit too graphic for the uninitiated reader, however, these are short stories--a person can skip the ones they don't like! It's worth it to check out this book just to read stories two More...