The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven

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The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven

4.06 of 5 stars 4.06 · rating details · 10,968 ratings · 969 reviews

When it was first published in 1993, The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven established Sherman Alexie as a stunning new talent of American letters. The basis for the award-winning movie Smoke Signals, it remains one of his most beloved and widely praised books. In this darkly comic collection, Alexie brilliantly weaves memory, fantasy, and stark realism to paint a...more

Paperback, 242 pages

Published February 8th 2005 by Grove Press (first published September 1st 1993)

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The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie

The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven by Sherman Alexie

Native American Fiction

2nd out of 405 books — 247 voters

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Mar 02, 2011 Mariel rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: I'd rather dance with you

Recommended to Mariel by: Christy

"We have to believe in the power of imagination because it's all we have, and ours is stronger than theirs." - Lawrence Thornton

Make me jealous. If you can make me jealous, I am yours. I was kinda jealous of the community because they HAD one, despite tearing itself down in the no-past and no-future. I kinda loved these stories. I was almost belonging to it. Sometimes I felt lonely from the possessiveness of their heroes. That kinda sucked because I've been trying hard to avoid loneliness. Somet...more "We have to believe in the power of imagination because it's all we have, and ours is stronger than theirs." - Lawrence Thornton

Make me jealous. If you can make me jealous, I am yours. I was kinda jealous of the community because they HAD one, despite tearing itself down in the no-past and no-future. I kinda loved these stories. I was almost belonging to it. Sometimes I felt lonely from the possessiveness of their heroes. That kinda sucked because I've been trying hard to avoid loneliness. Sometimes I understood the loneliness that caused that and I'd have uncomfortable thoughts about why I don't feel community and communicative.
The possessiveness is what kept them connected, and also what kept them down. The lower points were fascination in what happened. My highs were the fascination in the stories of what could be. The imagination, Mariel!

The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight In Heaven is the second recommendation I've tried from karen's readers advisory for all group. karen's project for school is to help readers think about what they are looking for in a book, helping other readers find their deepest book desires. Like the kinds of books you REALLY hope to find but seldom know about how to go towards discovery (since I'm nuts I just call them my fetishisms to myself). The criteria can get really specific. I asked for recommendations for short stories that would make me feel as Winesburg, Ohio did (in my woefully lacking in real reaching out words). The feeling of Winesburg being the connected best way as souls turned inside (it's hard to put it how I mean it!). I wanted short stories because it is hard to take that kind of closeness for long. Sometimes you can't bear to be in that life prison for, well, life.
Christy (she hasn't read Winesburg) suggested reading 'Tonto'. Thank-you, Christy! (Check out her great review of this book that is much, much better than mine.)

"I know how all my dreams end anyway."

I was not a fan of the introduction by the author. If you ever read the ass-patting praise quotes on the back of book jackets? Alexie gave me major vibes of buying into that. "The great new voice". 'Tonto' was published in 1993. There was an indie film version, Smoke Signals . MIRAMAX DID IT. It played at SUNDANCE. Y'know, ROBERT REDFORD'S Sundance. Gasp! (I haven't seen it. That'll show those guys who used to insist I'd seen everything since the '70s. I clearly haven't!). Blah blah, it was in its tenth publication. He wanted to give a fuck you to this lady agent who didn't think the stories were ready yet, that they needed more work. Um.... The book is very good. But I don't like the feeling I get from the "great new voice" stuff. I think the book should live as best it can and not worry about being scene changing. What the hell is that, anyway? If you got published and it all worked out, why worry about some lady agent from freaking years ago (but not nearly long enough to be considered a classic).

Anyway, I thought that Alexie should have taken Thomas Builds-the-Fire's advice and live for the now. I really liked Thomas. I got the trying to know how other people felt through stories feeling from him. The inventing your own reasons to live by knowing others around you through imagining what could matter to them. Community type stuff there.

Alexie also wrote in the introduction that his detractors didn't approve of the alcoholism of his stories. I'm totally with him on that just being autobiographical. Do they really think that writing stories about people who drink is the problem in the situation? Really?
My mom was always calling my dad a drunk Indian (he died of drink, as did five of his six brothers. The other surely will do the same). (His father was Cherokee. I'm about as Cherokee as Johnny Depp is, I guess.) That and thinking he had a Jesus beard were my earliest impressions of him. (Not that my mama spared me the abuse stories. She didn't.) My mom might have meant it as a slur. But she STILL sighs over how good looking he was (these days I think he looked like a prototype hipster). My mom would totally be one of those annoying "white people" written about in 'Tonto'.

I did wonder if the introduction bitterness had to do about himself being one of the heroes who made it. That would be a funny feeling. To be a hero...(less)

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Aug 12, 2007 Monday rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: anyone and everyone

Shelves: books-i-teach, historical, magical-realism

This is one of my favorite books to teach. I give it to my tenth graders. We do most of it as a read aloud. We do most of it as discussion. My students enjoy this book because they don't think they'll be able to connect with native americans on the west coast when they're alt school kids on the east coast, but then they're amazed. Some themes - poverty, alcoholism, depression, love, passion, sex, confusion, loneliness, isolation - are universal.

This is one of the few books that I have read with...more

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Dec 30, 2007 Emma rated it 4 of 5 stars

"The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven" is one of Sherman Alexie's first collections of short stories. The collection deals with the lives and troubles of Indian in and around the Spokane Indian Reservation. The stories also deal with characters that Alexie would later revisit in his novel "Reservation Blues" (specifically, Thomas Builds-the-Fire, Victor, and Junior).

In a 1996 interview with Tomson Highway, Alexie explains a bit about the title of this collection: "Kemosabe in Apache mea...more "The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven" is one of Sherman Alexie's first collections of short stories. The collection deals with the lives and troubles of Indian in and around the Spokane Indian Reservation. The stories also deal with characters that Alexie would later revisit in his novel "Reservation Blues" (specifically, Thomas Builds-the-Fire, Victor, and Junior).

In a 1996 interview with Tomson Highway, Alexie explains a bit about the title of this collection: "Kemosabe in Apache means "idiot," as Tonto in Spanish means "idiot." They were calling each other "idiot" all those years; and they both were, so it worked out. It's always going to be antagonistic relationship between indigenous people and the colonial people. I think the theme of The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven is universal."

This universal theme permeates many of Alexie's stories here and in his other writings. The stories take a fresh, sometimes painful, look at life for modern Indians on the Spokane Reservation. Alcoholism, violence, and death all permeate this collection. At the same time, Alexie brings an extreme level of humor and compassion to these characters, making their hardships bearable to the reader.

The stories here mostly interconnect, referring to the same events or at least the same characters, creating a narrative that almost flows between stories. Exceptions to this flow include "Distances." "Witnesses, Secret and Not" and "Jesus Christ's Half-Brother Is Alive and Well on the Spokane Indian Reservation" also seem disconnected but remain similar in style to the rest of the collection. A follow up to "The Business of Fancydancing," a collection of short stories and poems, the stories in this collection alternate between a poetic style and a more conventional prose style.

The characters in these stories have not reached "happily ever after," it is not clear if they will ever get there. Sometimes, the characters are at fault for these failures. At other times they are victims of circumstances far beyond their control. Regardless of the reason, Alexie portrays his characters with compassion and the hope that they will one day succeed. Even Victor, a drunk continuously falling off the wagon, and Lester FallsApart (whose name might say everything) are presented with a certain dignity and afforded a degree of respect throughout the stories.

When writing about such modern problems as car wrecks and alcoholism, there is always the risk of being too serious, too tragic. In "A Good Story" Alexie acknowledges this fact when his self-proclaimed storyteller, Thomas Builds-the-Fire, goes out of his way to tell a happy story.

Other stories remain less concerned with themes discussed and instead are focused on presenting rich narratives. One favorite is "The Only Traffic Signal on the Reservation Doesn't Flash Red Anymore" in which Victor and his friend watch reservation life from their porch while drinking Diet Pepsis. However, bar none, the best stories in this collection are the title story and "Somebody Kept Saying Powwow." Both stories are as evocative and compelling as any novel. Furthermore, in each story Alexie creates characters that are unique, well-developed and completely absorbing--no easy feat for stories of around ten pages.

"The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven" does two important things. First, it illustrates Sherman Alexie's wide range of talents as a writer. Second, it tells a lot of good stories.
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Jun 18, 2008 Aerin rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: short-stories, pnw, americana

While in the process of moving, a friend of mine was giving away all of her old books; she invited me to come over and pick out anything I wanted. With a name like The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven, how could I pass this one up?

Largely autobiographical, these twenty-two short stories take place in the Spokane Indian Reservation in eastern Washington State. They offer a window into a culture and way of life I wasn't very familiar with, colored most strikingly by poverty, hopelessness,...more

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May 27, 2008 Christy rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: native-american-lit-and-history, readinglist1, short-fiction, books-for-teaching

Alexie's collection of linked short stories is a tale of life on an Indian reservation; it is an exploration of the ways in which Indians deal with the pains and the joys of their lives (storytelling, dance, basketball, food, alcohol); it is a reflection on the relationship between past, present, and future; and it is a meditation on storytelling as a means of bearing witness and as a means of creation and change.

The first story of the collection, "Every Little Hurricane," introduces both the fu...more Alexie's collection of linked short stories is a tale of life on an Indian reservation; it is an exploration of the ways in which Indians deal with the pains and the joys of their lives (storytelling, dance, basketball, food, alcohol); it is a reflection on the relationship between past, present, and future; and it is a meditation on storytelling as a means of bearing witness and as a means of creation and change.

The first story of the collection, "Every Little Hurricane," introduces both the functions of storytelling and the interconnectedness of pain and joy. Told from the perspective of a nine-year-old boy, "Every Little Hurricane" describes a scene at a party in which the young protagonist watches his uncles fight in the yard: "He could see his uncles slugging each other with such force that they had to be in love. Strangers would never want to hurt each other that badly" (2). Immediately, we are shown this connection between hate and love, between the "specific and beautiful" and the "dangerous and random" (5). The young boy, Victor, does not really take part in the action of the story, however. He is merely a witness: "They were all witnesses and nothing more. For hundreds of years, Indians were witnesses to crimes of an epic scale" (3).

The second story, "A Drug Called Tradition," takes up the question of time. Three young Indian men try a new drug together, one that gives them visions of a glorious past (horse stealing, music, dance), only to be warned in the end against the seductive appeal of this past as Thomas tells them "not to slow dance with [their] skeletons" (21). This is explained further: "Your past is a skeleton walking one step behind you, and your future is a skeleton walking one step in front of you" (21) Sometimes these skeletons can trap you or they may try to tempt you, but "what you have to do is keep moving, keep walking, in step with your skeletons. . . . [and] no matter what they do, keep walking, keep moving. And don't wear a watch. Hell, Indians never need to wear a watch because your skeletons will always remind you about the time. See, it is always now. That's what Indian time is. The past, the future, all of it is wrapped up in the now. That's how it is. We are trapped in the now" (22). The past, tradition, can be glorious, Thomas warns the young men, but looking only backward is dangerous; similarly, looking only forward to a potential future is dangerous. Both are dangerous because they prevent a clear vision and an actual experience of the actual, present, real world.

In "Imagining the Reservation," Alexie presents a formula that is key to the entire book. He writes, "Survival = Anger X Imagination. Imagination is the only weapon on the reservation" (150). He notes the limitations of imagination, asking, "Does every Indian depend on Hollywood for a twentieth-century vision?" (151) and "How can we imagine a new language when the language of the enemy keeps our dismembered tongues tied to his belt? How can we imagine a new alphabet when the old jumps off billboards down into our stomachs?" (152). But he also ends the story with a call for more imagination, for imagination that has concrete results:

"There are so many possibilities in the reservation, 7-11, so many methods of survival. Imagine every Skin on the reservation is the new lead guitarist for the Rolling Stones, on the cover of a rock-and-roll magazine. Imagine forgiveness is sold 2 for 1. Imagine every Indian is a video game with braids. Do you believe laughter can save us? All I know is that I count coyotes to help me sleep. Didn't you know? Imagination is the politics of dreams; imagination turns every word into a bottle rocket. Adrian, imagine every day is Independence Day and save us from traveling the river changed; save us from hitchhiking the long road home. Imagine an escape. Imagine that your own shadow on the wall is a perfect door. Imagine a song stronger than penicillin. Imagine a spring with water that mends broken bones. Imagine a drum which wraps itself around your heart. Imagine a story that puts wood in the fireplace." (152-3)

The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fist Fight in Heaven is a book that is not without hope, but it is a hope that is thoroughly aware of what has lost that cannot be regained and of what losses may be sustained in the future. It is a hope that dares not look into the future at the expense of the present or the past. Alexie writes in the final story, "Witnesses, Secret and Not," that "sometimes it seems like all Indians can do is talk about the disappeared" (222), asking "at what point do we just re-create the people who have disappeared from our lives?" (222). At what point is the storytelling and the memory a new creation and what is the cost of this memory and this creation? Imagination--the key component of both this kind of memory and of storytelling--he seems to say, is both a burden and a tool. (less)

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Jan 06, 2008 Christine rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: aspiring writers, natives, anyone

Maybe Alexie's best book--rough and eloquent, sweet and brutal, smoky and colorful and moving, always honest--made we want to write so bad it hurt. I found it in City Lights in SF when I was on a $300 Tercel-no-air-conditioning but a pup tent honeymoon. It's a book I always go back to. Have been following his work since...god, a long time. First went to a fiction panel he was on at Writers@Work, then in bright white Park City. My husband was the only native in the audience, maybe in the building...more Maybe Alexie's best book--rough and eloquent, sweet and brutal, smoky and colorful and moving, always honest--made we want to write so bad it hurt. I found it in City Lights in SF when I was on a $300 Tercel-no-air-conditioning but a pup tent honeymoon. It's a book I always go back to. Have been following his work since...god, a long time. First went to a fiction panel he was on at Writers@Work, then in bright white Park City. My husband was the only native in the audience, maybe in the building, maybe in Park City. "Everything I write, I write to spite the white people who had set me up to fail," he says...an opening of sorts. White people in audience said things like, "If I want to learn about Native Americans, I go to white people because they're objective and unbiased. HOly mother of god. I live on the same planet with these people? And we're stuck within the same atmosphere, you say? But Alexie held his own with the little chimps, and we (David and I) had a new hero. At one point, white-guy-with-cough-cherokee-grandma said "I once sat in a ceremonial circle with ten traditional Lakota medicine men" and Alexie says, "If you once sat in a circle with ten traditional Lakota medicine men, they were neither Lakota nor traditional." Or SOMETHING like that...don't quote me on it. Hubby and I were in love with Alexie immediately and forever. Of course, I already had a good start, having read Lone Ranger...oh! and poetry before that, I think, still in Moscow Idaho, I think...

But I'm still reading his most recent. Over the long long long holidays my husband read ABSOLUTELY TRUE DIARY... on his side of the bed while I read THEIR EYES WERE WATCHING GOD on mine. Our conversations (just not with each other): Oh. Oh! Oh, god. Fuck me. Oh my fucking god. Amazing. So beautiful. One more. One more paragraph. Wow. One more page. Just one, one, one, one... Had to turn the radio on so our children wouldn't hear. Too stunned for sex, we'd just try to sleep like that--book closed finally, knowing we've got too much work to do a.m., looking at the ceiling anyhow, hands buzzing, head buzzing, thinking of all the lovely possibilities and tongues of phrase. Thinking of all we could let go of to find that thing Alexie found or Zora found...that evocative elixir that makes you want to simultaneously die and live and pull like taffy (not like THAT...I'm a girl, nothing to pull but the longitudes themselves), then just slice off that way quietly, left to think ourselves to bliss. But now it's my turn for ABSOLUTELY TRUE. So, good night.
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Apr 15, 2007 Lee rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: anyone interested in past and contemporary struggles of american indians

Shelves: alreadyread

alexie's most famous book. was developed into the indie-movie hit smoke signals. a collection of inter-connected short stories that follows a few central characters through reservation life in the latter half of the 20th century. american indian myth, religion, and traditional culture all are addressed by alexie as he attempts to find a place for them in contemporary life. also, the paradox (and alexie seems to argue, at times, crutch) of the reservation is exposed. alexie's prose is wonderful a...more

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Jul 27, 2007 Libby rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: everyone everywhere

Shelves: booksilove, sherman-alexie

This is the book that really made me fall in love with Sherman Alexie, made me want to name my cat after him, made me go on to read everything I could find of his. I had seen the movie Smoke Signals, which was written by Alexie based on this book, a few years before and though I had liked it very much and my mother has me do my Victor/Thomas calls often, it took me awhile to actually read the collection of stories the film was based on. Alexie has a repetitive way of writing, that you don't real...more

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Aug 07, 2008 Shayla rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: bbc-book-club

Well, I still like Alexie, but I had higher hopes for this collection of short stories, because I really loved Ten Little Indians. The duality and complexity that I've found in his other books and short stories was missing for me in this collection. I didn't really laugh or cry and instead, I just felt blah by most of the stories. My two favorites were DISTANCES and INDIAN EDUCATION. It's not like these two stories were the most upbeat or anything, in fact far from it, but they really resonated...more

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Aug 03, 2007 sydney rated it 4 of 5 stars

A book of funny and melancholy short stories about life on the Spokane Indian reservation. Alcoholism, family, basketball, car crashes, mythology, tradition, love, and mistrust. I liked the fact that the main characters show up in most of the stories, and each story informs the others by filling in missing information. I also liked that Alexie constantly references pieces of American history and culture-- Crazy Horse, Jimi Hendrix at Woodstock, the 1980 Olympics boycott-- because it grounds the...more

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Jun 28, 2007 Emily rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: anyone who reads books worth reading

Shelves: theeternallyappreciated, booksofthepast, to-read-again

No one can convince me that Sherman Alexie isn't one of the greatest writers alive today. Like all his work, this book weaves together the tragic, the mundane and the hilarious without an ounce of self-pity from the characters. As they move through their lives, Alexie's characters take you with them without any effort. His prose is stunning and his skill in conveying experiences about which most of us know nothing approaches genius (if not surpasses it). I heart Sherman Alexie.

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Aug 27, 2008 Pamela rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: To anyone interested in Native American authors...to EVERYONE....everyone should read this...

We need more authors like Sherman Alexie. Being Native American in the U.S. is like living in our own foreign country within a country. No one besides an Indian REALLY knows what it is like to live on a reservation. Alexie vividly paints this picture in a no-nonsense, brutally honest way. I love that. I wish general joe-public had more of a grasp of what growing up Native American is like instead of applying the age-old stigmas of uneducated diabetic drunks who run the casinos and play BINGO.

I...more

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Dec 21, 2007 Lisa rated it 2 of 5 stars

I went through different emotions while reading this book. The first time I picked it up I read a few pages and decided I wasn't in the mood to read it. This last time I picked it up I actually thought it was a different book, but read it anyway.

It's interesting the way Alexie writes, combining vulgarity with such a poetic voice. The first story made me want to put the book down again, but my brother convinced me to trudge on. The second story had a bit of what I assumed my brother loved about...more

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May 08, 2008 Alex rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: native american lit fans

Recommended to Alex by: Kevin

Shelves: fiction

Sherman Alexi definitely has a different style from the basic writer. While not bad, those people who are very uppity about grammar and sentence structure may be put off by it. Although I'm an editor, I found I was able to look past the style since it wasn't over the top and added a certain feel to his work.

Possibly one of the funniest pieces in this collection of short stories is "The Approximate Size of My Favorite Tumor." Although the topic is death, it's light-hearted and amusing and gives a...more

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Mar 06, 2008 April rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: EVERYONE!

I was taking a fun English class in college where we just read a bunch of fiction and our textbook included the Short Story "The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven." I read that and was hooked. I went and bought the whole collection of his short stories. I've never read anything that moved me so much. These stories are depressing and sad, but they made me smile too. I developed an entire addiction to learning and reading about Native Americans because of Sherman Alexie. This book of short...more

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Dec 02, 2007 Kate rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: books-i-own

I really like the book, and the way that he uses language is beautiful. But the book makes me sad. Not because the stories are sad (though a lot of them are), but because of the stark reality of like on an Indian reservation. It's awful. Not exactly the thing I need to be reading before work, but I can't seem to help myself.

Just before the barbecue Victor pushed the piano halfway across the reservation, up against a pine tree, flexed his muscles, cracked his knuckles, sat down at the keys, and p...more

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May 17, 2008 Carolie rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Anyone needing a new perspective

Recommended to Carolie by: Donna Johnson

Read this book and 3 others by Sherman Alexie prior to his appearance at "Talking Volumes", a collaboration of Minnesota Public Radio, The Loft and other Minnesota groups. Sherman's most recent plublications include a novel for teens "The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian" and a novel for adult readers called "Flight". I read 5 of his books (in date of publication order) and found his style evolving and growing as he himself admitted. Sherman is constantly re-inventing himself and has...more

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Jun 11, 2007 Caroline rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

It was so hard for me to read this book with fresh eyes, given that I've seen the movie based on it several times (Smoke Signals). Without having seen the movie, I think I would have felt pretty ungrounded in these little snippets of stories, but I guess that's sort of the point. This isn't supposed to hang together in any logical order; it reads more like an ethnography than a novel, with nostalgic musings on alcohol, racism, and that annoying kid on the playground who's always trying to tell y...more

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Jan 27, 2010 Jesseb added it Recommends it for: anyone

Recommended to Jesseb by: teacher

Sherman Alexie’s book The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fist Fight in Heaven is a compilation of short stories that depict the life of Indians on a reservation. Sherman Alexie writes about the harsh reality of the life that Native Americans live on their reservation. Alexie shows the reader the drugs, alcohol, lack of government help, and the difference between whites and Native Americans in her book. All of the 22 short stories connect in one-way or another. This can be confusing to read in the beginni...more

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Jan 26, 2010 John G added it Recommends it for: everyone

The collection of short stories that make up Sherman Alexie’s “The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven” provide good examples of how Indian’s coped with their life on an Indian reservation. This book shows a good point of view and similarities they are faced with along with the reader. Also I enjoy that the book is written in the first person and that shows a relation my life.

Sherman Alexie is modern Native American and he is able to incorporate that into his stories. The book is told from...more

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Dec 14, 2008 Christine rated it 2 of 5 stars

Okay, I'm reading up on Mr. Alexie because he's coming to College Station in the Spring 2009 and this book I like okay. The title is good. I can totally relate to the drunken loser men and women who sit around and do nothing but dream of when they were younger and better (reinvent themselves better in their memories) this is natural something many people (of all socio-economic levels) do. It's funny and part of human nature. The fact that these dudes just happen to be Indian makes it interesting...more

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Apr 15, 2013 Josh rated it 2 of 5 stars

Coming from Sherman Alexie, I expected better. Maybe that was my problem, that I expected too much and this book did not meet those expectations.

TLRATFIH (let's call it), is a collection of semi-autobiographical short stories about an Indian's experiences in modern America. Alexie has said that the characters of Victor, Thomas, and Junior are all loosely based on some part of him. Thomas is the old-fashioned kind of Indian storyteller, Victor is the modern Indian struggling with his culture's pl...more

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Feb 16, 2013 Kiersten Lawson rated it 3 of 5 stars

After reading a recent, thrilling, story by Alexie squatting in the little bookstore in Yachats, I finally picked up his first book of stories from 1994. I'm glad I did:

"'Will my children love me when I'm old?' she asked but I knew she wanted to ask me, "Will I regret my life?'"

"He could see his uncles slugging each other with such force that they had to be in love. Strangers would never want to hurt each other that badly."

"My sister told me she could recognize me by the smell of my clothes. She...more

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Jan 29, 2013 Nshslibrary rated it 3 of 5 stars

In The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven by Sherman Alexie, the reader is brought into the world of the Spokane Indian Reservation in Washington State. Through a compilation of short stories, Alexie shows the reader the hardships of the forgotten, neglected tribes that used to populate the United States. This collection illustrates the struggle faced by Native Americans accurately, but its change in narration and inconsistent timeline make it very hard to follow. At many points in this b...more In The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven by Sherman Alexie, the reader is brought into the world of the Spokane Indian Reservation in Washington State. Through a compilation of short stories, Alexie shows the reader the hardships of the forgotten, neglected tribes that used to populate the United States. This collection illustrates the struggle faced by Native Americans accurately, but its change in narration and inconsistent timeline make it very hard to follow. At many points in this book, it is very unclear as to who is narrating and when the event took place in relation to the other stories. In addition to the narration and timeline being unclear, the text in general can be quite confusing. Sherman Alexie’s collection focuses on the guised meaning rather than the literal meaning of the text. These subtleties and lack of storyline deterred me and made it highly difficult for me to relate to the main characters, Junior and Victor. Themes also play an immense role in shaping the various storylines written throughout the book. Two of the main themes include alcoholism and identity, each represented within the two main characters, Victor and Junior. The world surrounding Victor becomes so bleak that he reverts to alcohol, as a way of escaping reservation life. Even as a child, Victor struggles to fit in, wearing “horn rimmed” “U.S. Government glasses”(171) and having the “other Indian boys [chase] [him] from one corner of the playground to the other.” (171) Junior also experiences similar struggles, finding his identity, and breaking an awful drinking habit. Both Victor and Junior fall in love with white women, and are both left by these women. Both try to embrace the world outside the Indian Reservation and fail, exemplifying the struggle Native Americans have in finding an identity. Ultimately, I do not recommend to book to anyone. The lack of plot and storyline make the stories very difficult to follow and comprehend. If you enjoy over analyzing ambiguous text and spending more time interpreting rather than reading, this book is for you. ~ Student: Nick M.(less)

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Jan 28, 2013 Jendimmick rated it 2 of 5 stars

In this compilation of short fiction stories, Sherman Alexie shows the sempiternal hardships and difficulties that Native Americans endure. The Native Americans in this book are located on Spokane Reservation, Washington State. Through the book’s depiction of this multi tribal society, the reader is presented with the conflicts and strife the Spokane people face. Alcoholism and discrimination run rampant in the lives of these Native Americans, who endlessly try to find their identity amidst a na...more In this compilation of short fiction stories, Sherman Alexie shows the sempiternal hardships and difficulties that Native Americans endure. The Native Americans in this book are located on Spokane Reservation, Washington State. Through the book’s depiction of this multi tribal society, the reader is presented with the conflicts and strife the Spokane people face. Alcoholism and discrimination run rampant in the lives of these Native Americans, who endlessly try to find their identity amidst a nation that wants to take it away. While The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven thoroughly illustrates the difficult lives of those living on the reservation, I did not enjoy the book. The narration is neither clear nor systematic, and the stories are not placed in chronological order. This makes it difficult to follow each character’s sequence of events. Alexie also focuses more on themes and symbols than building a storyline, which sometimes left me wondering about the specificity of each character’s events and actions. While Alexie’s style grants an ample opportunity for profound analysis, it does not yield to an emotional connection with Alexie’s two central characters, Victor and Junior. From beginning to end, these two characters battle with identity, a profound theme in the story. Toward the beginning of the book, Victor moves into Seattle to try and adapt to American society. In the end, he moves back to Spokane Indian Reservation after constantly being judged through stereotypes of a typical Native American. Junior also experiences problems fitting in with society. After having a child out of wedlock with a caucasian in college and being discriminated against by his teacher, he does not know where he belongs. When choosing between school and the reservation, he states, “It’s a matter of choosing my own grave” (242). Victor and Junior struggle to find their identity because they do not fit any societal norm. As a result, they live in perpetual exile. While this book effectively uses these two characters to convey the theme of identity, the lack of plot, action, and structure is my reason for giving it two stars out of five. Unless you want to deeply examine and analyze a book with profuse, opaque content, I suggest you leave this one on the library’s bookshelf. ~ Student: Matthew M.(less)

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Jan 23, 2013 Vivian added it

Sherman Alexie is a poet, writer, filmaker, and an occasional comedian. The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven is a book written by Sherman Alexie and is a collection of short stories, all having to do with his experiences as a native american growing up on the Spokane Indian Reservation. Frequent themes used in Alexie's stories are; culture clash, poverty, stereotypes, racism, suffering, and imagination. A story that stood out in the book was "The Fun House" Victor's(the main character i...more

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May 16, 2012 David McDannald rated it 4 of 5 stars

People have said that Alexie was the Native American voice we were waiting for, with insight and wit coming in equal doses. Lame Deer, the Sioux medicine Man who wrote Lame Deer, Seeker of Visions had a similar voice and more weight to his writing. But Alexie is a star in his own right, and these stories are addicting and hilarious. First a taste of the gallows humor: "Imagine Columbus landed in 1492 and some tribe or another drowned him in the ocean. Would Lester FallsApart still be shoplifting...more

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Apr 09, 2012 Ron rated it 5 of 5 stars

Sherman Alexie is some kind of phenomenon. In his short life (born 1966), he has garnered a truckload of accolades and can lay claim to a wide range of achievements as poet, novelist, screenwriter, filmmaker, public speaker, media personality, humorist, recognized spokesman for Native Americans, and on and on. He's won any number of prizes. And all with the inauspicious beginnings of an Indian boy, growing up on the Spokane reservation in Washington.

It's pretty easy to see the promise that is to...more Sherman Alexie is some kind of phenomenon. In his short life (born 1966), he has garnered a truckload of accolades and can lay claim to a wide range of achievements as poet, novelist, screenwriter, filmmaker, public speaker, media personality, humorist, recognized spokesman for Native Americans, and on and on. He's won any number of prizes. And all with the inauspicious beginnings of an Indian boy, growing up on the Spokane reservation in Washington.

It's pretty easy to see the promise that is to be found in this early collection of short stories, published when he was still in his twenties. The range of literary forms and voices used to express a complexity of sentiments and a deeply rich sensibility in a writer so young is remarkable. The many customer reviews already posted here (90 as of this writing) attest to the author's impact on his readers. And he is not just a Native American writer. The mix of grief, suppressed rage, and wry humor in these 22 stories cuts through to universals underlying all cultures.

In the title story of the book, the Lone Ranger and Tonto do not make an appearance, let alone fight, but what the relationship between these two men represents to Indians infuses the entire book. This particular story begins and ends with encounters with white men - the first concerning a late-night visit to a 7-11, where the initial fearful suspicion of the white clerk relaxes as his Indian customer starts to joke with him. Later, the narrator is forced to admit that a white basketball player is better than he is. In between, the story tells of his return from the city to live again on the reservation, his concerned mother, a white girlfriend, and an aimlessness that resolves into finding a job. Like Tonto, for better or worse, he makes a place for himself in the white man's world.

Probably the best-known story from this collection is "This Is What It Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona," made into the film "Smoke Signals," about the quirky and unlikely companionship between two young Indians who drive to Arizona to retrieve the remains of the dead father of one of them. My personal favorite, however, is "The Approximate Size of My Favorite Tumor," about a dying man who makes light of every adversity. His encounter with a racist, corrupt cop is full of clever, laugh-out-loud wit, and his relationship with his wife is told with deeply tender humor.

I heartily recommend this book as an introduction to modern Indian literature. It captures for anyone with a mind and heart the complexities of Indian identity that lie behind the stereotypes that prevail in the popular imagination - whether racist or sentimental. Readers of Alexie's books will also like Adrian Louis' novel, "Skins." (less)

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Dec 13, 2011 Gretchen rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: adult-fiction

The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven is a collection of short stories by Sherman Alexie which center around a Native American reservation in Spokane, Washington. Alexie’s stories are infused with the traditions of modern Native Americans, dealing with the characters’ struggles to keep their traditions with their “American” daily lives. The stories have an emphasis on alcoholism and storytelling. Alexie gives the stories a satirical feel, and they’re all very amusing.

I loved this book....more The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven is a collection of short stories by Sherman Alexie which center around a Native American reservation in Spokane, Washington. Alexie’s stories are infused with the traditions of modern Native Americans, dealing with the characters’ struggles to keep their traditions with their “American” daily lives. The stories have an emphasis on alcoholism and storytelling. Alexie gives the stories a satirical feel, and they’re all very amusing.

I loved this book. Every story was very interesting, and it gives the reader a lot of information about modern Native American life that he or she most likely didn’t know. Unlike most short story collections, in this book many of the characters remain the same or recur in later stories. Several of the stories focus on the character Victor. Alexie’s writing is easy to read, and he uses themes very effectively. This collection also focuses on storytelling (like that of Wideman in Fever) by Alexie uses the storytelling character as an example of repressed tradition. The other characters don’t want to hear stories of their past, showing that the two cultures are not successfully blending.

There’s a lot of basketball in this book, which represented escaping the reservation. The characters think they have no other way of getting a successful life, and in many of the stories they become alcoholics and lose their basketball careers, causing them to remain stuck on the res. Alexie really loves basketball, and I’m sure you could easy find a video of him discussing the subject.

After we read this book, we watch the movie Smoke Signals, which was based on one of the short stories in this collection. The movie is hilarious. I definitely recommend it. The acting is pretty great. The movie is especially powerful if you read the collection first because it solidifies all the ideas Alexie is trying to get across in his writing.

I really like this book, and I recommend it to anyone ever. Also, Alexie’s twitter is really funny. Check it out.(less)

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Nov 13, 2011 Sandie rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: dinner-book-group, short-stories

Fascinated by the title, I had been wanting to read this book for a long time. Finally it came into my life. I am one of those people who like Sherman Alexie, I read his Indian Killer many years ago and thought it was powerful but dark. This book was written earlier. In a series of short stories with some overlapping characters, it portrays the life of Spokane/Coeur d'Alene Indians on the reservation and in Seattle. The stories are partly comic, partly fantasy, and partly darkly realistic. The c...more

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topics	posts	views	last activity
Tierra Encantada ...: Contemporary life	18	23	Oct 12, 2012 12:44pm
Tierra Encantada ...: "Drunk Indians"	15	30	Oct 12, 2012 12:36pm
Tierra Encantada ...: Meaningful signifigance	15	23	Oct 12, 2012 11:45am
Tierra Encantada ...: The Trial	18	25	Oct 12, 2012 11:21am
Tierra Encantada ...: Distances continued	12	22	Oct 09, 2012 03:06pm
Tierra Encantada ...: Distances	16	21	Oct 09, 2012 10:34am
Tierra Encantada ...: Manhood	17	25	Oct 04, 2012 09:28am

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About Sherman Alexie

Sherman J. Alexie, Jr., was born in October 1966. A Spokane/Coeur d'Alene Indian, he grew up on the Spokane Indian Reservation in Wellpinit, WA, about 50 miles northwest of Spokane, WA. Alexie has published 18 books to date.
Alexie is an award-winning and prolific author and occasional comedian. Much of his writing draws on his experiences as a modern Native American. Sherman's best known works in...more

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“Your past is a skeleton walking one step behind you, and your future is a a skeleton walking one step in front of you. Maybe you don't wear a watch, but your skeletons do, and they always know what time it is.” — 40 people liked it

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