false 52879 7 Sherman Alexie, a gifted poet and storyteller, plows familiar yet fertile ground in his third collection of short stories, <I>Ten Little Indians</I>. The book contains nine stories populated by at least one American Indian (usually of Alexie's Spokane heritage, and mostly living in Seattle), but "little" is a bit of a misnomer; the book addresses human (not necessarily Indian), rituals, ceremony, love, loss, insecurity over life choices, and personal sacrifices. A lot of intense basketball is played, too.<p> When Alexie is at his best, his stories function at a profoundly sad level, where broken down characters are broken down even more, but are fierce-willed enough to attempt Phoenix-like transitions. Unfortunately, the weakest stories appear first, where characters and situations seem far too contrived or forced, the dialogue wooden, and questions or exclamatory sentences appear annoyingly in bunches. In the last half of the book, a married couple, once intensely in love but now lost in life's routines, deal with infidelity ("Do You Know Where I Am?"); a bright basketball prospect attempts a comeback--twenty years after giving up the game ("Whatever Happened to Frank Snake Church?"); and a transient Indian finds his grandmother's regalia in a pawn shop and seeks to quickly raise the lofty purchase price ("What You Pawn I Will Redeem"). Brilliant turns of phrase abound, such as ceremonies being "pitiful cries to a disinterested God," or when a gym rat plays against "Basketball-Democrats who came to the court alone and ran with anybody and Basketball-Republicans who traveled in groups of five and only ran with each other." <I>Ten Little Indians</I> is an uneven collection, but contains some significant, memorable stories. <I>--Michael Ferch</I> 1636 book 6 2003 Ten Little Indians total:1390|5:462|4:617|3:264|2:43|1:4| 1390 5660 1857 168 4 1 false false Sat Dec 13 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Fri Dec 12 18:22:01 -0800 2008 Sat Dec 13 14:07:28 -0800 2008 1 more...]]> 3 1 false false Mon Sep 01 00:00:00 -0700 2003 Fri Dec 21 08:28:06 -0800 2007 Fri Dec 21 08:29:14 -0800 2007
IMHO, Alexie is a talented writer, using poetic turns of phrase as well as solid ideas. His characters cope with the demands of Nati...more...]]> 5 1 false false Sat Sep 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Thu Nov 29 19:56:02 -0800 2007 Thu Nov 29 20:07:35 -0800 2007
"Wha...more...]]> 5 0 false false Fri Apr 03 16:04:46 -0700 2009 Fri Apr 03 16:05:01 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Fri May 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Wed May 20 19:55:19 -0700 2009 Wed May 20 19:55:19 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Tue Feb 10 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Tue Feb 17 12:45:45 -0800 2009 Tue Feb 17 12:52:13 -0800 2009 more...]]> 4 1 false false Tue Mar 01 00:00:00 -0800 2005 Thu Oct 11 20:10:49 -0700 2007 Thu Oct 11 20:13:43 -0700 2007 more...]]> 2 0 false false Sun Feb 01 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Thu Feb 26 16:33:50 -0800 2009 Thu Feb 26 16:34:27 -0800 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Wed Mar 11 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Wed Mar 11 16:46:31 -0700 2009 Wed Mar 11 17:23:48 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Wed Oct 14 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Wed Oct 14 15:55:08 -0700 2009 Wed Oct 14 16:14:48 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Sun May 10 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sun May 10 20:21:29 -0700 2009 Sun May 10 20:24:50 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Sat Mar 28 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sun Mar 29 04:27:03 -0700 2009 Sun Mar 29 04:29:09 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Sun Mar 01 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Sat Mar 07 07:22:09 -0800 2009 Sun Mar 22 21:50:44 -0700 2009
Poverty

When you’re poor and hungry
And love your dog
You share your food with him.
There is no love like his.
When you’re poor and hungry
And your dog gets sick,
You can’t afford to take him
To the veter...more...]]> 5 0 false false Wed Jul 30 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sun Jul 27 09:31:29 -0700 2008 Thu Jul 31 10:09:05 -0700 2008
The nine stories were so fascinating and painted such a diverse picture of Indians in America or ...more...]]> 5 1 false false Mon Dec 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Wed May 21 08:04:26 -0700 2008 Mon Dec 01 14:32:29 -0800 2008
The thing I like best about short story collections (by a single author), if they're written well and compiled well, is the feeling I get, after reading each story, of comprehending an intimate secret the author needed me to understand. Poe...more...]]> 4 0 false false Tue Jan 22 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Sat Mar 08 09:30:30 -0800 2008 Sat Mar 08 10:16:18 -0800 2008 more...]]> 4 0 false false Fri Jul 20 10:11:50 -0700 2007 Sun Aug 26 13:04:14 -0700 2007 Drinking Coffee Elsewhere," it starts off the collection with a tale based on the theme of how a person's gotta fight to get a chance to read...
Successive stories demonstrate Alexie's nuanced grasp of male sexuality, co...more...]]> 5 0 false false Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2004 Thu Oct 30 21:51:59 -0700 2008 Thu Oct 30 21:51:59 -0700 2008
I want to be a yellow and orange leaf some little kid picks up and pastes in his scrapbook.

As for my father, he was so long gone that my mother and I called him Long Gone and told each other bedtime stories that always ended with him getting eaten by wild dogs.
...more...]]> 5 1 false false Thu Jun 25 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue Jul 14 23:01:15 -0700 2009 Tue Jul 14 23:03:43 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Wed Aug 12 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sun Jul 19 18:11:15 -0700 2009 Wed Aug 12 05:50:02 -0700 2009 more...]]>