Reservation Blues

Musical lyrics lead into each chapter of Sherman Alexie’s Reservation Blues, their voice growing convincingly stronger as the novel progresses, providing a powerful song above the tale. Magical realism threads chapters together like guitar strings playing the tune. And heavy shadows of alcoholism and abuse form a drum-beat underneath. Reservation Blues is probably the most musical novel I’ve read recently, appropriately as it’s a haunting tale of musicians, talent and betrayal.

Is talent a gift, a labor, or a curse? Is music the stuff of dreams or of nightmares? Is the reservation a haven or a prison? And is family a treasure or a millstone? This story, told through the eyes of a native American, is stark in its portrayal of show more ill-treatment at the hands of conquerors, yet beautiful in its magical sense of hope in the face of despair. Even as everything turns to dust, the voice of Big Mom waits, offering wisdom to those who will listen, practical help to those who will pause long enough, and sorrowful regret for those she knows will do neither.

With magical realism used to perfect effect, this novel contrasts Native myth with Catholic practicality, drunken folly with the follies of power, and story with reality. It’s oddly beautiful, haunting and evocative… and musical.

Disclosure: I’ve wanted to read it for ages and I was delighted to finally get my own copy. show less

It takes only a page or two of Reservation Blues to realize that Sherman Alexie is a gifted writer. His characters live and breathe, move in unexpected ways through the story, and continually fascinate. The Spokane Indian Reservation feels, too, like a real place: He captures the desolation, the grinding poverty, the hopelessness, and the bonds that tie the residents to the place and to each other. Alexie spins the plot out of small things, but conveys (without ever coming out and saying so) that, for the characters, these things are immense, and the stakes enormous.

It also takes only a few pages to realize that Alexie is interested in layering the fantastic and the magical into his sharply observed story of the real. The arrival of show more Robert Johnson, the legendary bluesman – still running, after all these years, from “The Gentleman” to whom he once bartered his soul at a southern crossroads – pretty much takes care of that. Big Mom, the Indian woman to whom Johnson turns for help, likewise has only one foot in our world. So, for that matter, does Alexie’s hero: Thomas Builds-the-Fire, whose music comes from a someplace magical, and whose dreams link him (if not always in ways he understands) to the dark and troubled history of Indians in America.

It takes more than a few pages (or a few chapters) to realize that the magical-mystical elements of Alexie’s story never quite gel with the here-and-now elements (gritty social realism, leavened with humor) into a satisfying whole. It takes the better part of the book, and when it ends you’re left with a slightly baggy-feeling plot full of unresolved threads. By then, though, it doesn’t matter. By then, Alexie has you so wrapped up in the characters and their story that you don’t mind in the slightest. show less

Legendary (isn’t he dead?) blues player Robert Johnson brings his accursed guitar to the Spokane Indian reservation. Although he has tried to abandon it several times before, it has always returned to him. This time however, it latches onto young Thomas Builds-the-Fire who finds himself the lead guitar player of a native band called Coyote Springs, under the tutelage of a mysterious woman called Big Mama. Big Mama says she taught Elvis how to sing and also watched the massacre of her people at Wounded Knee.

The band skyrockets from local to regional success and eventually has the opportunity of a record contract in New York City.

But all is not well on the reservation. People there resent Coyote Springs’ triumphs and failures alike. show more They are not fond of the band’s two white women groupies or that two of the band members are Salish.

This is an original, searing and sarcastic look at Reservation life, including the white people on the reservation (especially the Catholic church). It’s brutal, honest and original.

It’s also funny as all get out. Because, as the author postulates, if you can’t make fun of your problems, you are not Indian. show less

A group of Spokane Indians form a rock and blues band with the help -- if "help" is quite the right word -- of Robert Johnson's supernaturally gifted guitar. Although that description doesn't give any true sense of what this novel is about. What it's really about is the blues, both the musical and the existential kinds, about what it means be an American Indian in the modern world, and what life on a reservation can do to people. I suppose you'd call it magic realism, although what it emphatically isn't is the kind of romanticized New Age-y mysticism that white people like to associate with Native Americans. (Alexie has some rather uncomplimentary things to say about that stuff.)

The story is a little unfocused, and I don't think this is show more nearly as sharp and powerful as his The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven. But I was deeply impressed by that book, so don't take that statement as any kind of insult. Alexie's just a damned good writer, and, fantasy elements or not, there's always a strong feeling of truth to his work. show less

Witty, serious, humane, raging, life-affirming, and tragic: life among today's Spokane Indians, with their ramshackle HUD housing, their commodity applesauce, their cheap beer, and their mixed religions. No punches are pulled, and many are thrown as Thomas Builds-the-Fire, Victor Joseph, and Junior Polatkin get a hold of Robert Johnson's guitar and ride it where it takes them.

It's Indian culture that is the true protagonist of this book, the story and the characters existing mainly to draw its portrait, and not Indian culture as you've seen it in the movies and television. There are no medicine men here, no stern warriors, no elderly chiefs full of strength and wisdom. Instead we've got young people suffering the effects of abuse and show more neglect and older adults beaten by disappointment, alcoholism, and bad choices. It's grim, but it's never boring, and never quite too much to take. This is partly because of the bleak but restorative laughter that comes back again and again to lighten the mood, and partly because there's so much to learn here about the human spirit and how it survives no matter the circumstances. It leaves you strangely confident that someday, somehow, the Indians will have healed from what's been done to them. show less

This was my first exposure to Sherman Alexie and I was just blown away by his style. I first picked this up at a local bookstore and decided tio read a few pages, just to see if I liked the flavor. The opening scene, the legendary blues guitarist Robert Johnson making an appearance on a modern reservation in Spokane, Washington, got my attention right away. Twenty pages later, and still standing in the aisle of the bookstore, I realized I did not want to put it down.

The characters created by Alexie are so real to me, I could hear them talking as I read the story. I was very surprised when I heard an NPR interview with the author and he sounded exactly as I had imagined the lead character of this narrative, Thomas Builds-the Fire, would show more sound.

"Reservation Blues" is a blend of history and fiction, though I would not classify this as Historical Fiction, and glimpses of modern reservation life, some of which I presume is semi-autobiographic. There are also elements of magic and time travel blended in, but this work should not be confused with Science Fiction. There is also a very large dose of social commentary that is integral to the story.

In short, there's a little something here for almost every reader's taste. Try it, you'll like it! show less

According to Wikipedia, this was Sherman Alexie's first novel although he had published both poetry and short stories prior to Reservation Blues. After reading a little about the author it is apparent that he used some of his own experiences to create this picture of reservation life in the 90's. One of the questions explored here is "What does it mean to be Indian today, especially reservation Indian?".

I think that this book would have caught me sooner if I hadn't been going through a bit of a reading slump when I started it. I did know pretty early on that I would finish it and half-way through I was definitely hooked. Alexie somehow manages his mix of comedy and tragedy very well and I particularly loved the way he referenced so show more much pop culture. In fact the story begins with the sudden appearance of legendary bluesman Robert Johnson at a crossroads on the Spokane Indian Reservation along with his guitar.

Recommended. show less