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The Toughest Indian in the World

by Sherman Alexie

4.01 · rating details · 2,370 ratings · 164 reviews

Sherman Alexie is the winner of the Malamud Award for Excellence in Short Fiction from the PEN/Faulkner Foundation
- The Toughest Indian in the World was a national best-seller, appearing on the Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, and the Book Sense lists
- In addition of his film credits on the Sundance award-winning Smoke Signals, Sherman Alexie wrote and directed ...more

Paperback, 256 pages

Published February 1st 2001 by Grove/Atlantic, Inc.

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The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven by Sherman Alexie

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

Native American Fiction

6th out of 213 books — 116 voters

A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini

One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez

Somewhere carnal over 40 winks by Rom LcO'Feer

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Community Reviews

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Jan 17, 2009

Lance rated it

Shelves: have-read

I found this collection of short stories about various Native American related themes overall interesting, if only in the idea of juxtaposing related themes on a central topic. Some were definitely better than others. Alexie seems to have a fetish for disenfranchisement by white people and for sexuality, and he seems to have explored every possible outlet of sexuality. Some of the language is terse, and some of the images he draws are downright crude. As a work of entertainment, this book I ...more

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Jan 01, 2011

Alcina rated it

Shelves: native-american, fiction

I was moved to tears by several of the stories. I was totally surprised as I bought this secondhand book after reading his youth novel, The Absolutely True...which my 12 year old LOVED and which I also though was amazing (buy this book for any tween or teen male). I was not prepared for the sexual turns, the adultness of the material. Which was wonderfully done. I loved his humor and turns of phrase, his gender notes and homoeroticism. Also, noticed my feelings of pain as the outsider... the wh...more

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May 10, 2010

Lisa rated it

Shelves: queer, fiction-usa-2000s, american-indian, favorites

It's hard to say anything about these stories, because they're so good. They're delightful in substance, style, and soul. Reading them made me feel that Alexie loves writing and loves intensely what he's writing about . . . I think those are the highest qualifications for a writer. My favorite line came in the last story, where the narrator is standing by the side of the road with his dying father.

"I wanted to ask my father about his regrets. I wanted to ask him what was the...more

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Jul 28, 2010

Patti rated it

Shelves: contemporary-fiction, summer-2010

I've been meaning to read one of Alexie's books for a while, especially since I taught the short story "Dear John Wayne" in the class I TA-ed last fall. Unfortunately, I found the short story collection The Toughest Indian in the World to be disappointingly uneven. Part of this may be the result of Alexie's unifying theme here--he says in the introduction to this edition that he set out to write "love stories... of white-collar Indians," which in practice seems to mean rely...more

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Jul 30, 2011

Ronald Wise rated it

· review of another edition

Sherman Alexie has been attracting attention for his poetry and fiction since the early 1990s, when he was in his late twenties. This collection of short stories took its title from one of the stories therein, which was originally published by The New Yorker. The most obvious thread in common to all these stories is the presence of Native American characters living in a white-dominant society. The central characters, however, vary in the degree of assimulation, and the objects of their efforts a...moreSherman Alexie has been attracting attention for his poetry and fiction since the early 1990s, when he was in his late twenties. This collection of short stories took its title from one of the stories therein, which was originally published by The New Yorker. The most obvious thread in common to all these stories is the presence of Native American characters living in a white-dominant society. The central characters, however, vary in the degree of assimulation, and the objects of their efforts are not unique to their ethnicity — their expectations, approaches, and reactions often are.

The events related in these stories seem to be directly or tangentially related to the author's personal experiences: Coming from the Spokane Indian Reservation and making a life for himself in the greater world, which for him thus far is the Northwest, and specifically Seattle; Leaving the rez in search of the success not possible there, while experiencing a perpetual sense of loss as the physical and temporal distance from one's roots grows; Attempting to live with people about whom one's knowledge is based predominantly on movies and television, and dealing with a dominant culture whose expections of you have the same basis.

In each of these stories, however, Alexie presents a close-up of both societies that jars the reader's concept of American society. Perhaps there is a unique Native American way of seeing things, or a specific ethnic sense of humor. Or perhaps it's simply how a conquered people perceives the dominant group as portrayed through its commercial media. The dialogues in these stories — both internal and interpersonal — are well worth reading carefully.

I found something meaningful in each of these stories, but my favorite was "South by Southwest". Especially thought-provoking in this one was the way in which Alexie tries to tease apart the emotional needs of closeness to another human being, and the sexual aspects of that closeness. This was a perfect example of how Alexie can take specific individuals and produce a cross-section of the human experience which spans cultures and time.

I have some Native American history in my own family and have met many people of Native American identity over the years. Reading this book, I kept looking at the author's photograph on the back cover and wondering if I hadn't met this man before. Deciding I probably hadn't, I wish that I had or possibly might. Alexie's fiction seems to contain a great deal of autobiographical material, and I like to believe more of it is based on his experiences than is probably so. I look forward to reading more of his fiction.
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Nov 30, 2009

Cayr rated it

Native Americans are the greatest story tellers. Sherman Alexie is the best of the best. This is the best book of short stories that I have ever read.

One of the things I liked the most about it was that while each story carries some of the same themes of how being a Native American is ironically kind of like being a stranger in a strange land, the characters in each story are all unique and three dimensional. I liked that I was able to hear the voice of a reservation Indian telling ...more

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Jul 23, 2009

Spike rated it

A few good short stories here, but too many clunkers. Some are awful, and were they not written by Alexie would never see print. The title story has a shocking turn of events that seemed unbelievable and nonsensical. Alexie knows how to write well: it's the constant theme of evil whites and poor Indians and how nobody knows 'Indian' like another Indian that becomes annoying.
If you want to see Alexie's skills at their best, I suggest "The Absolutely True Diary of a Part time Indian"...more

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Mar 06, 2008

Ruth rated it

Alexie continues to blow me away with his brillant character development and ability to integrate humor and sadness in the shortest sentences. I'm not a huge fan of short stories buy I loved almost everyone in this book.

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Sep 05, 2010

Melissa rated it

Shelves: fiction

One notable line: A character says he is Indian, and someone responds, "Dot-on-the-head Indian or arrow-in-the-heart Indian?" I appreciate the window this book gave me into Indian culture as Alexie knows it. However, it seemed that almost every story had some mention of sex or sexual disfunction, and after awhile I started wondering if it was necessary. At one point a character says, "I just want to tell the whole story," and I do think this is part of Alexie's writing, to wr...more

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May 16, 2010

Shar rated it

This is the second collection of stories by Alexie, and I think it shows. Some of these stories, which explore in different styles the modes and definitions of love, are spectacular. Some of them are really good. Some of them are kind of reaching, as if his interest in experimenting overwhelmed his storytelling.

My husband just said to me that he's been disinclined to read much into Alexie's work because it's so obvious that Lone Ranger and Tonto was the book he had in him all his li...more

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Oct 24, 2011

Joanmom rated it

Shelves: short-stories

My third Alexie book, and yes I'm hooked. He is definitely unpredictable. You just don't know what to expect or what it means. But it's hard to put myself in the skin of a Spokane Indian. Which may be his point. No wonder's he's acclaimed as "one of the best American fiction writers under 40" by - The New Yorker?! I looked up the demographics of The New Yorker's readership and annual median income is over $86k. Now how they can relate to Alexie's characters is the puzzle. Such as the...more

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Aug 01, 2009

Librarian rated it

Shelves: adultfiction, fantasy, feminista, glbtq, indigenous, lonely-people, postcolonial

I know it's been said by others many times, but let me repeat it. Alexie is, at heart, a poet. It's because of this that even the short stories in this set that I didn't care for on other levels could still capture my interest. Things can be going along, a bit mundanely even, but then a turn of phrase would just knock my socks off.

That said, there were stories here that I loved from top to bottom. My favorite was "Saint Junior," but I am a sucker for a believable love story...more

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Jul 19, 2010

Sherri rated it

More Sherman short stories, I think this is my favorite form of his work. I like how he creates characters that sometimes overlap into his other stories, they are like old friends, even like family. There was one particular story in this book that affected me because I felt my life was in these pages and it scared me a little. Sherman said in a speech in March that people often tell him how his books have affected them and I have to say some details in this story seemed eerily personal and I wan...more

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Sep 07, 2009

Phil rated it

Nine short stories by Sherman Alexie. My copy says he was "selected by The New Yorker as one of the best American fiction writers under 40". He is an Indian and he writes about modern Indians living in on and off the "res" in the American North West.

Each story is quite different - from startling to moving. (And in my view, the editor chose to put the startling ones first..)

I quite enjoy reading about people and ideas I have not encountered, and ...more

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Apr 05, 2008

Steven rated it

Shelves: short-stories

I'm of two minds about this collection. One mind says that these are fabulous stories, and if I didn't see Alexie's name as the author I'd think it was an impressive debut collection. Very PoMo and postcolonial. Very feminist and gay friendly. Very dominant discourse bashing. In short, the very essence of current political and literary correctness. Guaranteed to be on the top of the multicultural reading list. And maybe deservedly so. With its discussion and paper generating utility, the book ha...moreI'm of two minds about this collection. One mind says that these are fabulous stories, and if I didn't see Alexie's name as the author I'd think it was an impressive debut collection. Very PoMo and postcolonial. Very feminist and gay friendly. Very dominant discourse bashing. In short, the very essence of current political and literary correctness. Guaranteed to be on the top of the multicultural reading list. And maybe deservedly so. With its discussion and paper generating utility, the book has great potential in freshman comp classes. On the other hand, that is precisely my beef. To be sure, Alexie, as an "Other," can claim an honest allegiance to these viewpoints that many other writers can't. It does seem, however, that he is reaching a bit, as if now that he is well established (and has the pulpit), he's abandoned what was original in his writing, and is striving to use all the tools of the "Dominant Discourse" to make political, social, and cultural statements. As ex-rapper, now TV star, Ice-T says, your job is to join the establishment and change it from the inside. Fair enough. My criticism here is that with this book Alexie has written in a style that just about anyone could have written, and he's written about themes just about anyone could have written, whereas with his early books he was clearly writing in a style that no one else could have written. The writing is superb in these stories, but the agenda is way too blatant, and in some cases that blatancy causes the art to fail. Even worse, he destroys some beautiful heart-breaking moments by surrounding them with political statements. I think "The Sin Eaters" is perhaps an exception; as an extended metaphor it comes closest to succeeding as art. "Indian Country" on the other hand might be the worst offender in the blatant pandering to multicultural rhetoric category. Even if everything he says is true and needs to be said, he should have done what Gass recommends and put it into an essay. If he'd toned down the rhetoric, if he'd shown instead of told, "Indian Country" could have been a devastating story. Of course, as followers of Eagleton will argue, politics is the only purpose of literature. And for that camp, Alexie is perhaps the new standard bearer.(less)

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Dec 09, 2007

Trish rated it

Sherman Alexie really kicks ass, doesn't he?

I always approached the tenth most attractive white woman at any gathering. I didn't have enough looks, charm, intelligence, or money to approach anybody more attractive than that, and I didn't have enough character to approach the less attractive.

My feelings are my feelings, said Salmon Boy, they belong to me, and you don't have to worry about them at all.

"What did you do?"
"I broke my heart....more

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Dec 30, 2007

Emma rated it

"The Toughest Indian in the World" is one of Sherman Alexie's collections of short stories. It comes before his most recent collection ("Ten Little Indians") but before "The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven" (which features many of the characters who would later appear in Alexie's novel "Reservation Blues"). It is also the first one I read. Unfortunately, I feel like it may not have been the best first choice.

Alexie is a wonderful writ...more"The Toughest Indian in the World" is one of Sherman Alexie's collections of short stories. It comes before his most recent collection ("Ten Little Indians") but before "The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven" (which features many of the characters who would later appear in Alexie's novel "Reservation Blues"). It is also the first one I read. Unfortunately, I feel like it may not have been the best first choice.

Alexie is a wonderful writer, of whom I am a huge fan. His writings usually revolve around the lives of various Indian ("bow and arrow not dot on the head") characters and their complicated feelings about the reservation they love while being desperate to get away from it. This collection of stories follows a similar theme.

The thing about short stories is they're short. Writers only have a limited amount of time to explain everything and to develop characters. I don't know how other readers feel, but I'm of a mind that I like Alexie better as a novelist because there is more time to get to know his unique characters and understand his (at times) complex plots. I found "The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven" to be more engaging because different stories clearly refer to the same characters--making them more dimensional.

Back to this collection:

As is true with any talented writer, Alexie does have some gems here. "Saint Junior," "One Good Man," and "South by Southwest" are especial favorites of this reviewer possibly because these stories most resemble the combination of acerbic humor and gravity common to Alexie's novels. To take "Saint Junior" as an example: Alexie examines the relationship between a married couple who met at "Saint Junior" university and continue to choose each other every day. In the story, the husband goes to take his SAT's wearing a traditional dance costume while, later in the story, his wife preserves the tribal tradition of making Salmon mush.

These stories are not passive. If anything, they are visceral. This collection combines elements of magical realism with painfully real moments of sadness and hardship in the lives of Alexie's modern Indian characters.

The main problem I saw with this collection is that it remained distractingly distant. Most protagonists go unnamed, sometimes barely described, which makes it difficult to connect with either the characters or their stories. Worse, the stories alternate between nearly absorbing to disturbingly jarring. "The Sin Eaters" hauntingly presents an apocalyptic world where Indians are put through their own kind of Holocaust. This story is angry and, no doubt, important. But by the end it is too angry and too horrific, so that it became a chore to read the remainder of the book for fear of what other catastrophes it might describe.

Any fan of Sherman Alexie's writing will want to read through "The Toughest Indian in the World" to get a better sense of Alexie's work on the whole. That said, readers unfamiliar with Alexie would be better off beginning with one of his novels or perhaps a different story collection.
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Jan 17, 2009

Flaky Genius rated it

It's weird because what I have with Sherman Alexie's works can't be put into words. Okay, it can be, but it's morning and I was really disturbed by the lack of content on my Goodreads pages so I've been adding stuff all morning and now I've run out of things to say, just as I've reached my favorite author and my second favorite book by him. I'm going to go get coffee. The coffee craze began in Seattle and Sherman Alexie lives in or near Seattle and ... I'll fix this later.

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Oct 25, 2008

Kris rated it

Shelves: own-it, book-club

This collection of short stories is a bit of a departure from Alexie's other works. While the stories are still those of Native Americans, this one deals - quite graphically - with sex. I'm afraid that some who pick this up as their introduction to Alexie would never pick up another of his books! And that would be a shame - he is a wonderful writer, and has a lot to say (especially for us 'white folk' I think). But I would not recommend this as your introduction to his work. Read <a href="...more

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Jun 21, 2010

My Bookshelf rated it

My friend Nick gave me a copy of this after he finished reading it. I can't remember when he gave it to me, but I think it may have been in 2003 when I visited him while he was living on the Big Island of Hawaii. I was teaching at the time and went on my spring break. I probably didn't read it until a few months (years?) later as I distinctly remember reading The Wind Up Bird Chronicle on the flight to Los Angeles and then Kona.

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Nov 04, 2007

Katie rated it

It isn’t easy to describe one of Sherman Alexie’s provocative collections of short stories. Reviews often seem limited to a string of adjectives—touching, funny, angry, passionate, bittersweet, tender, mysterious, magical, vivid and haunting. Real. Suffice to say that he is incredibly skilled at directing human emotions into words, which is no small feat considering most of us can’t even put our own thoughts into words, let alone good words. Really good words, as the case may be. Alexie is ...more

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Sep 07, 2010

Aniel Luna rated it

I really liked this book because it's a really funny and good book. In this book there are different stories about different type of Indians. For example you rarely here about Indians falling in and out of love in books. Also in one of the chapters a b oxer is looking to defeat the toughest indian in the world. This book is a really great book by Sherman Alexie. He's one of my favorite authors. This has a lot of different stories.

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Oct 11, 2009

Zach rated it

Shelves: 2009-books, native-american-literature

I am a huge fan of "Part Time Indian", but this was disappointing. Some of the stories had Alexie's ability to combine brilliant humor with some truly heartbreaking moments, the last story One Good Man is brilliant, but many of the others are not as strong. The themes Alexie attempts to address about Native Americans in the modern world, life off the reservation, are interesting, but the quality of the writing is not Alexie's best.

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Mar 29, 2009

James rated it

Shelves: character-studies, culture-and-politics, humor, memoirs, regional, relationships, spirituality-and-or-religion

Another outstanding collection of short stories about life on the rez from, as one review says, one of the best American writers of any color today. He presents a range of portraits of Native Americans and their daily lives; his work is funny, barbed, angry, poignant, and often surprising, with unforgettable images. He reminds me of Kurt Vonnegut, and that's one of the best things I could imagine saying about any writer.

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Dec 28, 2010

Audrey rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: short-stories, fiction, native-american

Lovely. Absolutely lovely short stories. Alexie really enjoys skewering white (in general, but especially those who stubbornly identify with their fractional Indian blood) anthropology professors, eh? A few of the stories ("Dear John Wayne", "One Good Man", "The Sin Eaters", "Saint Junior") are near perfection. Read this if you want to laugh and feel weepy at the same time. Four and a half stars, rounding up to five.

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Jul 07, 2011

Kelley rated it

Shelves: 2008-2011

A collection of short stories by a Native American author. Some of them were a little dry but two definitely stood out. One story told of a futuristic society in which Native Americans were used to further the human race (I think because the tale was so chilling it really stuck out) and another one was the love between a Native ex-basketball player and the love of his life.

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Apr 15, 2009

Emily Yoder rated it

An excellent, cohesive collection of short stories. Alexie has mastered developing rich, complex characters in such short narratives.

At the end of each short story, I longed to know more about the lives of the protagonists, other than the few glimpses I had been allowed. Very few authors could get an audience so emotionally invested over the span of several pages.

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Dec 31, 2011

Jenny rated it

The end of the first story in this collection will always stay with me: "They loved each other across the distance." That alone made me fall in love with the book. Other than that, Alexie is one of the best contemporary authors and doesn't need me to defend his writing capabilities! Just read the book and everything else he's written. You won't be disappointed.

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Jul 18, 2011

teatotaller rated it

Shelves: general-fiction

I would read more by this author. The title story was my favorite, though I think the dystopian Sin Eaters will probably stay with me the longest. I enjoyed reading stories about American Indians who lived in cities, who went to college, who had jobs and good relationships - or failing relationships. Portraits that go against the stereotype.

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Dec 28, 2011

John Stone rated it

In this collection of short stories, Alexie takes on the assimilation of Indians into white society, and does it well. From the pain of separation to the constant pull of his culture to the inherent racism of both red and white, he illustrates the bottom line: We are all simply human.

Some Indians think he is a sellout, but this assimilated Indian thinks they haven't read him objectively.

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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 w...more

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The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven

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“He loved her, of course, but better than that, he chose her, day after day. Choice: that was the thing.” — 212 people liked it

“When you resort to violence to prove a point, you’ve just experienced a profound failure of imagination.” — 14 people liked it

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