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War Dances

by Sherman Alexie

3.83 · rating details · 1,792 ratings · 432 reviews

Fresh off his National Book Award win, Sherman Alexie delivers a heart-breaking and hilarious collection of stories that explore the precarious balance between self-preservation and external responsibility in art, family, and the world at large. With unparalleled insight into the minds of artists, laborers, fathers, husbands, and sons, Alexie populates his stories with ord...more

Hardcover, 209 pages

Published October 6th 2009 by Grove/Atlantic, Inc. (first published January 1st 2009)

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Lists with This Book

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

42nd out of 213 books — 116 voters

Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird by Christopher Sergel

YA Books With Minorities

84th out of 124 books — 33 voters

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Community Reviews

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Jun 26, 2011

Jennifer (aka EM) rated it

Suffered by comparison to Erdrich's The Plague of Doves, but I needed a palate cleanser and this was nearby. The short stories were ... okay. The poems were less than okay and didn't add anything. Generally, I like poems that play with language and are more lyrical - this kind of spare, naive stuff only works when it's clearly integrated into the rest of the collection - these didn't seem to be so.

I found the whole thing a mish-mash, lacking any clear focus or overall point of view...more

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Jan 04, 2012

Christina Marie Rau rated it

Having fallen in love with Sherman Alexie's writing style and themes, I picked up War Dances, a collection of his short stories. That's what its label says, but that's not really what it is. This collection has stories, but it also has poetry and even fragments that are in the form of Q&A that tell a story through the juxtaposition of question content and incongruent answers. Alexie's emotional description of alcohol abuse on reservations and the often overlooked difference between white and Spo...more

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Nov 22, 2011

Mari Butler rated it

I first saw Sherman Alexie as a featured guest author on an episode of The Colbert Report. At the time he told Stephen Colbert that he didn’t want his books on the Kindle. He felt that it compromised the integrity of the book because it wasn’t written in ink on paper and could be altered. I thought it was interesting that he was Native American and he was resisting technology to preserve traditional publications. I got both the hardcover copy and the audio book of “War Dances” from the library ...moreI first saw Sherman Alexie as a featured guest author on an episode of The Colbert Report. At the time he told Stephen Colbert that he didn’t want his books on the Kindle. He felt that it compromised the integrity of the book because it wasn’t written in ink on paper and could be altered. I thought it was interesting that he was Native American and he was resisting technology to preserve traditional publications. I got both the hardcover copy and the audio book of “War Dances” from the library so I could listen to the author read them to me in his own voice while I looked at the pages.

This modality enriched my reading experience because I could literally hear his distinct almost singsong way of speaking. This unique rhythm becomes the language of a man who comes from a people who have a history of oral storytelling so it only seemed fitting. I could imagine myself sitting around a tribal fire. I am not sure what this compilation is called because I have never read a book of this nature before. This book contains nonfiction accounts miss-matched with fictional stories, sonnets, soliloquies and odes. I was listening to Jazz on the television when I first picked up the book. Hearing Alexie recite the poem on the CD over the background music gave the poem a beatnik feel.

The first poem called “The Limited” is an 8 stanza poem about a time when the narrator witnessed a man going intentionally out of his way to run over a dog with his car. It reminded me of a poem I read in my Introduction to Non-Fiction, Fiction and Poetry class. It was about a man driving a truck and the dog flew out of the truck bed when the owner took a corner too fast. Speeding away, leaving the dog in the road. The reader immediately sympathizes with the dog and can identify with the author who wants to take action against the driver. I was left wondering if this actually happened to Alexie or if maybe he had read the poem and was so inspired. Having the book in front of me was essential for the poem “Ode For Pay Phones” to get the full visually effect.

There is a fictional account entitled “Breaking and Entering” where a man alone in his home hears a crash in the basement and makes the decision to confront the burglar. The home owner bashes a young hoodlum who breaks into his home to steal his CDs. In a jarring culmination he hits him so precisely in the head with his own son’s Little League baseball bat that he kills him instantly. Later he finds out that the boy had no prior record and was basically good.

The story “Kafka’s Baggage” is the first enumerated first person entry in the chapter “War Dances”. The use of the word “baggage” is both metaphorical and literal when a man finds a dead cockroach in his suitcase and wonders if it felt “existential dread”. Numbered entries recount a son slowly losing his father to a “natural Indian death” from liquor and diabetes. He subsequently learns that he himself may have a brain tumor.

As far as I’m concerned Sherman Alexie dances to the beat of a different drummer. Overall, I found the book to be an eclectic weird grouping of literary genres. I had to check the spine of the book for the “F” that designates it as fiction. Alexie’s tone of voice is so conversational and because it was in first person I thought at first that it was all autobiographical. “The Theology of Reptiles” is structured like a poem and has a rhythm. I loved the way he gives an account about his brother finding a snake that has died in “midmolt” and he shocks it back to life using “lightning bolts” by hanging it over an electric fence. The author gives me encouragement that if I am courageous I too can write about ordinary things stylistically.

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Sep 04, 2011

Tyler Hill rated it

Shelves: read-in-2011

Sherman Alexie is one of those authors that, for a while now, I've felt like I should check out. He's a fellow Seattleite, and when I've heard him speak on NPR and other places, I've generally found him pretty entertaining to listen to. That said, I also tend to be wary of authors who's subject matter could be described as one-note... and with most of his novels titles featuring the word "Indian" in them, I was concerned it might be the case with his writing.

With that in min...more

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Aug 21, 2011

William Thomas rated it

I don't suffer from white guilt. So I'm not one to blow smoke up an author's ass for the simple fact that they are black or Asian or American Indian. I won't go easy on a writer for the simple fact of their ethnicity. But I will praise them when they deserve it and damn it all if Sherman Alexie doesn't deserve all of my praise.

I know that sounds strange with the three star rating. The book wasn't perfect by any means. What it was was honest. Completely unabashed honesty. Not stories f...more

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Jun 16, 2011

Elliot Ratzman rated it

Sherman Alexie: a Seattle-based author, Native American. War Dances was the “One Book Philadelphia” pick for 2011. This is a somber variety show of dreamy sketches, clever poems, faceless dialogues and short stories that take an autobiographical hue—or is it autobiography taking on a guise of fiction? Most are confessional with a touch of historical anger. “I wrote the obituary for the obituaries editor” begins one story. “Sherman” is a character and Alexie’s life and circumstances reappear, or ...more

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Jun 05, 2011

Jeff rated it

This being the One Book One Philadelphia choice for 2011, I thought I'd support literacy in my city by reading Alexie's collection of short fiction, poetry, and mix-use contemporary vignettes.

I need to critique this book in two completely separate fashions:

1) It is a great choice for the OBOP project, as it is easy to read and presents challenging issues of race, homophobia, and parental abandonment. These things are very important to the fabric of Philadelphia, especially t...more

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Apr 26, 2011

Steve rated it

I attended a reading here in Chicago and heard Sherman Alexie describe this book--and I'm paraphrasing here--as an iPod on "shuffle". Okay, and I think the only way to approach this collection of prose and poetry and often times the combination of both (proetry?; poetrose?) is exactly as that: a shuffle of themes and structures and characters and language. There's a little "Tonto" here, there's a little "10 Little Indians" and maybe even a hint of "Toughest In...more

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Jan 29, 2011

Patty rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: 2011, fiction, family, fathers-and-sons, contemporary-fiction, american-literature, native-americans, short-stories, poetry, washington, audiobook, humor, storytelling

I think I have fallen in love with Sherman Alexie's voice. I do not usually listen to talking books done by the author. Unfortunately the ability to write is not tied to the ability to narrate. However, this is the second book I have listened to by Alexie and I can't imagine going back to just reading his stories and poems. Last time I used a Playaway, this time I had the book in MP3CD format.

This book is a collection of over 20 stories and poems. I found most of them to be wonder...more

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Oct 23, 2010

Lisa Lewis rated it

I had forgotten how much I love Sherman Alexie's writing. He has this unique perspective, part American pop culture, part someone-around-my-age, part American Indian subculture... and, of course, the perspective of a man. His poems and short stories are told from the point of view of men who do sweet and wonderful things, or (more often), many who do sort of awful things and have to deal with them. The stories and poems read quickly, but then the images and thoughts linger... I know that the s...more

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Oct 12, 2010

Danny Shelton rated it

War Dances is a book best read in one sitting for no other reason than the likelihood that a reader wouldn’t want (or need) to stop reading it in the first place.
Sherman Alexie is a Spokane Indian, and Grove Press published the book in 2009.
The book follows a general pattern and is divided up into sections, making the book very fluid and easy to read, with a length of just over 200 pages. Roughly, the sections begin with a poem, are followed by a short story, then a sort of inter...more War Dances is a book best read in one sitting for no other reason than the likelihood that a reader wouldn’t want (or need) to stop reading it in the first place.
Sherman Alexie is a Spokane Indian, and Grove Press published the book in 2009.
The book follows a general pattern and is divided up into sections, making the book very fluid and easy to read, with a length of just over 200 pages. Roughly, the sections begin with a poem, are followed by a short story, then a sort of interview with the author’s psyche, and are tailed by another poem. The poetry is easily read and would bear meaning without context, but taken together with the supplements Alexie supplies their impact is multiplied. They are sometimes chilling and haunting, and other times hilarious. The sections themselves are Breaking and Entering, War Dances, The Senator’s Son, The Ballad of Paul Nonetheless, Fearful Symmetry, and Salt. Each follow their own theme but are alike in that they all lay bare the human core; rarely does Alexie examine someone who an audience would have trouble empathizing with. On another level while each character is exceptionally human, each is flawed, and comparisons arise between War Dances and Winesburg Ohio, by Sherwood Anderson.
As opposed to a brief of what the sections of the book entail, it would be more befitting War Dances to detail the collective mural that the book paints. Alexie never shies away from an issue, at one end dealing with death, drug abuse, sex, infidelity, divorce and loneliness and at another dealing with mass media, consumerism, cultural authenticity, religion and racism. The myriad emotions the book evokes in a reader is compounded by the empathy, in every work, that the reader is forced to regard.
As an example, in the Ballad of Paul Nonetheless Alexie discusses a man who is fiscally and domestically successful, running a successful business, married to a strikingly beautiful woman, and the father of 3 teenage daughters. In spite of these things his success is meaningless, as he is separated from his wife after cheating on her. Still madly in love with her, he simply fails to have a sexual desire for her because her pain through childbirth made him feel inadequate as a husband. He could not comfort her, or make the pain stop, or assist her in any way, and the fear and terror he felt forever altered his relationship with her. This knowledge is only divulged to the reader, and he is never able to repair his relationship with his children or his wife and is stuck between his fiscal success and his lack of connection to anyone, especially those that matter most to him. Alexie manages to force empathy for a man who in another work might be reprehensible, concerned only with outward appearances and with little regard for the well being of his wife or his children.
What Alexie does in War Dances is to show ordinary people for what they truly are. Each character has their own story, and Alexie manages to turn their blank faces into a canvas on which the deepest human emotions can be seen and felt, those of alienation, loneliness, and failure.
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Aug 29, 2010

Norah rated it

Usually I don't read short story collections straight through. I read one, two, three stories and stop for a while because stories are complete and I need some time before jumping back into the collection. Alexie's collection has this drive to it, this feeling of an overall narrative that made me keep reading, that made this collection feel like a solidified, self-contained book much more than most other collections I've read. The stories aren't linked. There are thematic links -- a lot about de...more

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Jun 22, 2010

Suzanne Auckerman rated it

The review says what is pasted below, but I didn't quite keep the same impression. There is alot of politics in it, especially The Senator's Son and some of the others remind me of the radio show, The American Life, when I wonder do people really act like this. Also, in the narration, there is not enough time to distinguish one item from another and there are several interspersed that are only a paragraph. They are interesting, but often confusing for the listener.

Fresh off his Nat...more

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Jan 28, 2010

Ciara rated it

Shelves: read-in-2010

i just put this book on hold at the library as soon as i heard of its existence. i didn't know if it was short stories or a novel or what. it turned out to be short stories mixed with poetry. i wasn't entirely psyched about this, because i am really not a fan of poetry. i know poetry is really sherman alexie's big thing--the dude writes a lot of poetry. i surprised myself by actually liking a lot of it. they were like observations in prose form, as opposed to whimsical crap about nature or whate...morei just put this book on hold at the library as soon as i heard of its existence. i didn't know if it was short stories or a novel or what. it turned out to be short stories mixed with poetry. i wasn't entirely psyched about this, because i am really not a fan of poetry. i know poetry is really sherman alexie's big thing--the dude writes a lot of poetry. i surprised myself by actually liking a lot of it. they were like observations in prose form, as opposed to whimsical crap about nature or whatever. i usually can't get into poetry because it's a medium that lends itself so well to incredibly subjective interpretations of things that don't interest me, but this stuff was really good, & the short stories were even better. i was scared (a little) when i read the flap & it was all, "these are stories about men--fathers, husbands, son--struggling with masculinity & manhood, men men men, it's raining men, MEN!" sherman alexie is one of the very, very few male writers that i count as a favorite...he might even be the only dude on my list of authors i'd whole-heartedly recommend to people. but that doesn't mean that i want to read a whole book about men. i usually don't get too psyched about books that have exclusively male protagonists. but i'd say this short story collection might be his best yet--definitely better than ten little indians & giving the lone ranger & tonto fistfight in heaven a serious run for its money. alexie can seem a little gimmicky sometimes--i mean, just look at that cover, with the red pumas. shit like that can be clever, but i can seem a little too precious sometimes, like he's trying to hard to have a finger on the pulse of popular culture. there's a reason that i prefer indian killer to reservation blues--it was more thematically hearty.

i guess my point is that alexie had a lot of things working against him here--i really couldn't get into his most recent novels, the absolutely true diary of a part-time indian (which was admittedly for a YA audience</u> & flight (alexie can be really hit & miss when he delves into sci-fi elements...& i don't care for fantasy anyway), the book has a gimmicky cover, it's all about dudes, & half of it is poetry. but i'd buy this book at full-price (despite its brevity--it was only about 200 pages) & i'd certainly recommend it to people. plus he's great at readings, he gives an excellent interview, & he really cares about fostering a culture of reading & paper. this is high praise, coming from me.(less)

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Dec 20, 2009

Irene rated it

Recommends it for: Sherman Alexie fans

If half-stars were allowed, I'd have given this book 3 1/2 stars. Compared to the other Sherman Alexie books I've read, I figured I'd round up.

Ken saw this book at the library and checked it out for me. It's the first book of Sherman Alexie's that I've read that does not focus entirely on Native American Indians. His other books that I've read tell fanciful tales of colorful characters who are young and unique and conflicted in some way about their American Indian-ness. This book's c...more

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Nov 04, 2009

jeremy rated it

sherman alexie is a swell guy. he's funny, creative, antagonistic, self-deprecating, and unabashed. these qualities are evident in his writing, and make for a refreshing, enjoyable read. war dances, alexie's newest collection of short stories, short pieces, and short poems, is an entertaining work. while i don't find any of it to be extraordinary, per se, there certainly is much to like. of the stories, "breaking and entering," "the senator's son," "the ballad of pa...more

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Oct 12, 2009

Brad rated it

Recommends it for: Alexie fans.

Alexie was one of the polestars of my Creative Writing days- 'The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight In Heaven' is one of my favorite collections. At his best- Alexie is humorous, brokenhearted, poignant- he captures the complexities of identity- and doesn't look away from alchoholism, addiction and despair.

This book seems to illustrate the dangers of success, for writers. Largely gone are the dusty, reservation locations. Instead, we find protagonists in upscale Seattle neighborho...moreAlexie was one of the polestars of my Creative Writing days- 'The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight In Heaven' is one of my favorite collections. At his best- Alexie is humorous, brokenhearted, poignant- he captures the complexities of identity- and doesn't look away from alchoholism, addiction and despair.

This book seems to illustrate the dangers of success, for writers. Largely gone are the dusty, reservation locations. Instead, we find protagonists in upscale Seattle neighborhoods- men who boast of making "$325,000 a year". The black humor of broken truck reservation misadventures is replaced with airport lounge kvetching.

Emblamatic of this is 'The Ballad of Paul Nonetheless'- the story of a philandering everyman, with injections of pop-culture pathos. He cheats on his family. His wife leaves. He has a Marvin Gaye Jr. themed breakdown in an airport security lounge. Yes, it's funny. Yes, it illustrates the fragility of maleness in this cultural moment (You've got the job. You've got the clothes. You've got the beautiful wife. You don't have satiety. You don't have peace). No, I won't remember the title of the story in a month. It would fit nicely into this month's Maxim or GQ.

It made me shake my head to read Alexie covering ground that second-tier writers mined out in the 70's.

The titular 'War Dances' has moments of grace. There's a hilarious scene involving folks of Native American extraction exchanging blankets at hospital- wryly commented upon, and self aware. The quality of prose is high, but Alexie demonstrated his mastery a decade ago.

The only thing that stuck with me from this collection was a superb poem, 'Birdwatching at Night.' In just a few clean lines, it captures the wild mystery of adolescent love, as well as the mature grief of reflection on that love from a removed distance.

Alexie fans (like me) will pick it up, no doubt- it's never boring or poorly written- but it seems strangely gentrified and distant from the outsider humor of early Alexie- much more the work of a wildly successful writer- and for my tastes- much less interesting.(less)

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Jan 17, 2012

Julka rated it

Shelves: general-fiction, 52-books-2012

War dances to zbiór różnych form literackich: opowiadań, wierszy i innych trudniejszych do sklasyfikowania. Sherman pisze w swoich tekstach o rasizmie, problemach małżeńskich, kryzysie tradycji, zmianach przekonań. Mamy więc młodego Indianina, który odbywa staż w lokalnej gazecie gdzie pod czujnym okiem dziennikarki uczy się pisać nekrologi, syna senatora, który musi nauczyć się wielu rzeczy o winie i odkupieniu, czy też niewiernego małżonka, który po portach lotniczych szuka nowej miłości swoje...more

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Sep 21, 2010

Rachael rated it

I have always loved Sherman Alexie -- before I realized books were my calling and that literature my greatest passion, I loved Sherman Alexie. When I was 17, I read Reservation Blues and couldn't believe that such a book existed in the world. And ever since, when I see a new story in the New Yorker I get this thrill of something like ownership, because sometimes I feel like the first person to love Alexie, even though that couldn't be more wrong.

Regardless, I held off reading this c...more

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Jul 07, 2010

Nicole rated it

Shelves: fiction, poetry, short-stories

My fave, "Ode to Mix Tapes":

These days, it’s too easy to make mix tapes.
CD burners, iPods, and iTunes
Have taken the place
Of vinyl and cassette. And, soon
Enough, clever introverts will create
Quicker point-and-click ways to declare
One’s love, lust, friendship, and favor.
But I miss the labor
Of making old school mix tapes— the mid air

Acrobatics of recording one song
At a time. It sometimes took days
To play, ...more

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Oct 16, 2009

Amber rated it

Sherman Alexie’s classic short story, “This is What it Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona,” makes you feel as though someone has Kung-Fu gripped your heart, just really squeezed the hell out of the thing. In the immortal words of John Mellencamp during his prolific “John Cougar” phase, Alexie’s writing hurts so good. <i)War Dances</i>, Alexie’s latest collection of short fiction, poetry, autobiography, and genre defying acrobatics, is no exception.

In “On Airplanes” one of War Dan...moreSherman Alexie’s classic short story, “This is What it Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona,” makes you feel as though someone has Kung-Fu gripped your heart, just really squeezed the hell out of the thing. In the immortal words of John Mellencamp during his prolific “John Cougar” phase, Alexie’s writing hurts so good. <i)War Dances</i>, Alexie’s latest collection of short fiction, poetry, autobiography, and genre defying acrobatics, is no exception.

In “On Airplanes” one of War Dances longer poems, the speaker complains about couples who ask him to give up his aisle seat for a middle seat, so that they can sit together. “How dare you/Ask me to change/My life for you/How imperial/How colonial.” But then something peculiar happens. The comedy gives way to an entirely different sort of experience. “But, ah, here is/The strange truth/Whenever I’m asked/ To trade seats/For somebody else’s love/I do, I always do.” There’s a twist at the end, a unexpected shift in tone that undercuts (or perhaps underscores) everything that has preceded it. That last stanza, for me, as sweet as it is, is like a sucker punch to the gut. Reading Alexie is like having someone caress you with one hand and wail on you with the other.

Alexie is the preeminent American Indian writer—quite possibly the world’s most famous living Indian—and as cool and grand as all of that sounds, it short-changes him; those sorts of qualifiers are unnecessary for genius of this order. Though his heritage has obviously shaped his world-view and politics, though his protagonists are primarily Indians, his talent is ferocious and his themes are universal.

And boy does Alexie loves his themes.

Whether it’s a cute but poignant poem about building the Lego Star Wars Ultimate Death Star with his sons or a somber short story about a Republican senator’s son who places his father’s political career in jeopardy by committing a hate crime, the pieces in War Dances are primarily about four things: fatherhood, the responsibility we have to our parents, disillusionment, and memory. So this would be my only criticism of the book: I understand the need for a thematically cohesive collection but for any Alexie fan this is well-worn territory. It would be intriguing, if nothing else, to see him tackle a few new themes. Notwithstanding this, War Dances is utterly readable (I finished it in just a couple of hours) and several of the stories are actually too funny. While I can waste hours watching trashy basic cable reality shows with the best of them, this is the kind of book that makes happy to be literate.(less)

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Nov 05, 2011

Joan rated it

· review of another edition

War Dances is a book of short stories many examining relationships between fathers and sons, women and men, between strangers and more familiar, over time and short duration - as well as some observations about society in general. Some of the stories extend over several chapters, while others are short snippets of a sentence or two.

Alexie speaks from the perspective of a Native American, but many of the observations can be generalized beyond his social context. The story of a son v...more

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Aug 25, 2011

James rated it

Shelves: poetry, short-stories

I thought this was the first book to be assigned in my college career, but it has turned out that I didn't need to read it. Regardless, I'm glad I read, at least in order to see the kind of book that modern American college classes assign. My review will thus be mostly concerned with the college aspect, since the first assignment is a major happening. Although a few of Alexie's stories are memorable, I don't think that there's really much of great sustenance here. As for the rest, it's quite med...more

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Jan 06, 2011

Travis rated it

Shelves: 2009

This is a collection of short stories and poems linked mainly by the fact that they're about whiny guys. I don't know. I did like a couple of the stories (especially the last one, Salt, and the title story), but the ones that left a bad taste in my mouth really left a bad taste in my mouth and kind of overpower all the rest. The Ballad of Paul Nonetheless was just gross, and I get that he was supposed to be a gross asshat guy, but I don't really need to read a story about a guy who's just wallow...more

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Aug 07, 2010

Sara Habein rated it

Thanks to Sherman Alexie, I will forever be pilfering the phrase “terminally nostalgic.” When I saw him read back in December, I asked him how he felt about seeing the places he has written about disappear over time. He said that he was constantly thinking about what was no more, even down to the now-closed doughnut shop where he worked for three weeks, and that as a Spokane Indian, nostalgia will always be a part of who he is.

Because of this, Alexie’s work is forever filled with a s...more

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Feb 15, 2011

King Dinösaur rated it

Shelves: short-stories-collections, poetry, fiction

Sherman Alexie is a genius. There. I said it.

I was a little down on him after his last collection of short-stories, "Ten Little Indians", feeling like he was just retreading previous themes. Well, I was wrong and he was right. While I still have the wild fantasy that Alexie will one day write a full-on horror novel (hey, he might), it is apparent that he wants and needs to be a strong voice for the American Indian. It's who and what he is, it's what he knows and it's wha...more

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Oct 13, 2010

Cedar Nicol rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: first-reads

***Free through Goodreads***

"a short story is like a kiss in the dark from a stranger." Stephen King

I have to admit this is not a book I would have necessarily just 'picked up' in a bookstore, however the blurb sounded fantastic, and I really wasn't let down.

I'm currently in a short story phase, something I go back to now and then, when things really get hectic in my life, and instead of having an hour or two in the company of a novel, my windows have red...more

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Oct 21, 2009

Mark rated it

This is my first experience reading Alexie, even though I've known about and admired him for years. He moved to Seattle and started writing in the early '90s -- about the same time I did moved here, so I feel an affinity with him for that reason. However, he is also the kind of accessible writer that appeals to you on a down to ear level. You feel like he's your friend even though you've never met him. His writing is effortless to read, it flows and twists and takes you on a trip. It makes ...more

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Apr 17, 2010

Lindsey rated it

Shelves: 2010

Coming to WAR DANCES after THE SUMMER OF BLACK WIDOWS, as well as several stories from THE NEW YORKER, I was excited to see Alexie work his poems together with a narrative thread, or see how he would arrange his stories in the context of his poems (or vice versa). An example of the masterful editing and compiling of the book can be seen through the connections of the first poem, "The Limited," and the following short story, "Breaking and Entering."

Alexie's poetry ...more

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Sep 28, 2010

Parvoneh rated it

This felt like it was written by one of your friends' smartest dads. Clever but approachable and sometimes tender. Some of the poetry was a bit too cute for me, but I liked pieces of most of the poems. A few stories were held down by Modern Times Name-Dropping (Target, Power Bars, Trader Joe's, Pumas)--I think this could have been less jarring if more general terms were used (superstore, protein bar, yuppie grocery?, sneakers). Haha, this has turned into me re-writing Sherman Alexie and that is ...more

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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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Books by Sherman Alexie

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven

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Quotes from War Dances

“It's not oil that runs the world, it's shame.” — 11 people liked it

“But none of them laughed as hard about my beautiful brain as I knew my father would have. I miss him, the drunk bastard. I would always feel closest to the man who had most disappointed me.” — 2 people liked it

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War Dances

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