Ten Little Indians - Softcover

Alexie, Sherman

Softcover

ISBN 10: 009946456X ISBN 13: 9780099464563

Publisher: Vintage, 2005

Synopsis

Sherman Alexie offers nine poignant and emotionally resonant stories about Native Americans who find themselves at personal and cultural crossroads. In 'The Life and Times of Estelle Walks Above', an intellectual feminist Spokane Indian woman saves the lives of dozens of white women all around her, to the bewilderment of her only child. In 'Do You Know Where I Am?' two college sweethearts rescue a lost cat - a simple act that has profound moral consequences for the rest of their lives together. In 'What You Pawn I Will Redeem', a homeless Indian man must raise $1,000 in twenty-four hours to buy back the fancy dance outfit stolen from his grandmother fifty years earlier.

Even as they often make us laugh, Sherman Alexie's stories are driven by a haunting lyricism and naked candour that cut to the heart of the human experience.

About this title

Review:

Sherman Alexie, a gifted poet and storyteller, ploughs familiar yet fertile ground in Ten Little Indians, his third collection of short stories. 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.

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, 20 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." Ten Little Indians is an uneven collection but it contains some significant and memorable stories. --Michael Ferch, Amazon.com

Review:

"[Written] with engaging humour and acuity... These stories irreverently explore the yearning for the sacred" (Guardian)

"Arresting and funny" (Times Literary Supplement)

"Intensely absorbing...Like Raymond Chandler, small deeds ripple through these lives without necessarily changing them, but Alexie's rich tales will certainly affect, if not change, yours" (Scotsman)

"Alexie's painfully funny and astute stories chase the dilemmas of the Spokane diaspora, stripped of any myth or presumption of what Indian might be" (Independent)

"A potent collection that takes a swipe at modern life and gives it a universal human face" (Herald)

About this edition

• Publisher: Vintage
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 009946456X
• ISBN 13: 9780099464563
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 256