The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven by Sherman Alexie (2005)

I have read other Sherman Alexie books and liked them. This one I could not get into. It did not make sense to me. ( )

The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven is a collection of short stories set on a contemporary Indian reservation. The stories, loosely interconnected, focus on the lives of Victor, Junior, and Thomas Builds the Fire, weaving back and forth between childhoods marked by alcoholic parents and adulthoods of broken dreams. The collection is both a eulogy for a lost culture and a testament to the bleak lives awaiting the children of a broken people, but each story relates these themes in a unique way. Some of them are harsh and realistic, while others drift into fantasy, post-apocalyptic science fiction, and magic realism inspired by the legends of Native American culture. What ties the story together is the unique rhythm of Alexie's prose, coupled with a sense of humor that keeps these sad stories from becoming too depressing to read. This is a rare glimpse into a world too few of us see or understand, and it left an impression on me that I'm sure will linger for awhile. ( )

The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven is a collection of inter-related short stories, that all take place on the Spokane Indian Reservation in Washington. Alexie does a great job of evoking a very bittersweet atmosphere about the reservation, and as the same cast of characters are woven in and out of each of the stories, so we get a sense of their community and relationships and struggles.

But the greatest conflicts in these stories aren't from relationships, but from the attempt to reconcile being an American Indian in a modern American culture that doesn't especially care about American Indians. They love and cling tight to their traditions, but also see the inevitable motions toward assimilation. And really, everything that they gained from assimilating is bad: alcoholism, homophobia, fathers walking out on their families and children. The book raises the question of what American Indians should be asking of America - or rather, what they *can* ask of America. ( )

A series of 24 short stories of interwoven characters who reside on a Spokane Washington Indian reservation.

Alexie is an incredible writer who paints vivid images of reality and poetry blended together.
Many of the stories, while depressing, are also hopeful.

There is a passion and a desperate attempt to make sense of the life of the American Indian, rich in past tradition trying to survive in the current modern world.

Disinfranchized and living marginally, exisiting in substandard HUD housing, Alexie's stories combine the hope of better opportunities while paradoxically depicting lives filled with alcoholism and self imposed defeat.

Alexie's writing is mythological in scope and I highly recommend this book. ( )