mariahhanley's review against another edition
3.0
I started reading Alexie’s works about 4.5 years ago. At that time, they felt like an introduction to Seattle as an “adult,” and seeing places I recognized in Seattle and Spokane made me feel like I was home. His writing (prose?) was precise when it described the human experience, expansive when it described the human landscape, and sometimes, overdone above all. But, I loved what he wrote.
Fast forward 4.5 years. While War Dances remains one of my favorite anthologies and Go, Ghost, Go makes me cry every time, Blasphemy made me feel not like an adult or like I was going home, but like what I was reading was too much.
Too expansive, too precise, gone over so many times to make it lyrical that it only became words again. I can’t deny that some of the stories (Frank, the pawnshop, Breaking and Entering) hit me in the ways Indian Killer or The Absolutely True Diary did, but the rest of the book fell flat for me. Maybe I didn’t “get it,” and that’s fine, but I felt like I was slogging through it, not savoring it.
Fast forward 4.5 years. While War Dances remains one of my favorite anthologies and Go, Ghost, Go makes me cry every time, Blasphemy made me feel not like an adult or like I was going home, but like what I was reading was too much.
Too expansive, too precise, gone over so many times to make it lyrical that it only became words again. I can’t deny that some of the stories (Frank, the pawnshop, Breaking and Entering) hit me in the ways Indian Killer or The Absolutely True Diary did, but the rest of the book fell flat for me. Maybe I didn’t “get it,” and that’s fine, but I felt like I was slogging through it, not savoring it.
kandicez's review
3.0
I love Alexie’s narrative voice. His Absolutely True Diary… is still one of my favorite books. Not one of my favorite YA books, but favorite books period. He writes with such a self-deprecating and yet true voice. He never backs away from hard truths and I’ll be honest, I love how he always uses the word Indian and never Native American. I always feel Native American is patronizing because it was applied so “after the fact.” My husband says Original American, and I think that would be another acceptable moniker, but that’s another debate.
There are about thirty pieces of fiction in this collection, some very, very short and some a bit longer. My favorite, Green World, was only four pages. It’s about a man who is hired to clear dead birds killed by windmills. All the Indians hired for the job quit because it’s just so sad. There is so, so much death. The bodies pile up and the stink doesn’t go away. They can’t handle it.
The windmills themselves seem to represent the relationship between the whites and the Indians. They were obviously sold as an ecological energy solution and yet… all these dead birds. One Indian shoots one of the windmills and seems to almost wait for the blood to appear. He doesn’t kill it, or even injure it, with his shot. There is no winning. The white man actually doing the job of clearing the dead birds is just happy to have ANY job and the fact that Alexie shows us how desperate he is makes the desperation of some of the Indians in the other stories strike home even more. Desperation is color blind.
There are also many tales about basketball. Well, to be fair, they are not about basketball, but about grief. Alexie just likes to use basketball like some authors use commas! It’s a great vehicle for his wonderfully deep, yet seemingly shallow tales of grief, shame, anger, all the gritty emotions that Alexie writes about so effectively. Because Alexie is Indian himself his stuff never comes across as preachy, just very, very true.
I liken Alexie’s work to Annie Proulx’s. Life is not always fair, easy or beautiful. Sometimes it’s unfair, hard and dirty. You don’t have to actually enjoy reading something to appreciate it’s beauty and craft.
There are about thirty pieces of fiction in this collection, some very, very short and some a bit longer. My favorite, Green World, was only four pages. It’s about a man who is hired to clear dead birds killed by windmills. All the Indians hired for the job quit because it’s just so sad. There is so, so much death. The bodies pile up and the stink doesn’t go away. They can’t handle it.
The windmills themselves seem to represent the relationship between the whites and the Indians. They were obviously sold as an ecological energy solution and yet… all these dead birds. One Indian shoots one of the windmills and seems to almost wait for the blood to appear. He doesn’t kill it, or even injure it, with his shot. There is no winning. The white man actually doing the job of clearing the dead birds is just happy to have ANY job and the fact that Alexie shows us how desperate he is makes the desperation of some of the Indians in the other stories strike home even more. Desperation is color blind.
There are also many tales about basketball. Well, to be fair, they are not about basketball, but about grief. Alexie just likes to use basketball like some authors use commas! It’s a great vehicle for his wonderfully deep, yet seemingly shallow tales of grief, shame, anger, all the gritty emotions that Alexie writes about so effectively. Because Alexie is Indian himself his stuff never comes across as preachy, just very, very true.
I liken Alexie’s work to Annie Proulx’s. Life is not always fair, easy or beautiful. Sometimes it’s unfair, hard and dirty. You don’t have to actually enjoy reading something to appreciate it’s beauty and craft.
cr33pycrawlspace's review
5.0
This is a highly respectable collection written by a well respected man. Sherman Alexie portrays Native Americans in an honest disillusioning way that many do not agree with. He pushes the envelope with these stories. They are both interesting and funny. I like the fact that Alexie doesn't care what others think which is evident in his writing.
claire_melanie's review
5.0
Some of these stories sing and others punch you right in the guts. The author is a complete short story genius
dave37's review
5.0
You know when you finish a book sobbing that's it's been a good one. Great to re-read old favorites and be mesmerized by new additions to Alexie's incredible body of work. I admit to a strangely powerful connection to him, but my most objective self posits that these are GREAT short stories.
missprint_'s review
2.0
Blasphemy: New and Selected Stories by Sherman Alexie (2012)
I've read several of Alexie's earlier story collections as well as his novels Flight, Reservation Blues and The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. Alexie is an incredibly talented writer shining a light onto a part of America's culture that is very rarely seen in modern literature.
That said, his work is never easy to take filled with wasted potential, sadness and a pervasive sense of everything that an entire culture has lost thanks to Western expansion and modernization. It is a bleak, cold world. It is bleaker and colder if you are an Indian in an Alexie story.
While Alexie provides some moments of whimsy and wonder, his stories are generally heavy. Clocking in at 480 pages Blasphemy is even heavier than earlier collection or novels. It is also not at all indicative of The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian so if you're expecting that kind of story here just walk away now.
The collection is comprised of new and older stories so it's a nice introduction to Alexie except that most of my favorite stories ("Somebody Kept Saying Powwow", "Distances", "Saint Junior", "A Good Story") are not found in this collection though other familiar ones including "The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven" and "The Toughest Indian in the World" do appear.
My favorite of Alexie's collections is either The Business of Fancydancing or The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven. They were shorter, more balanced collections that tempered the inherent sadness of many stories with lighter stories of hope and sometimes even redemption. Even the characters who didn't get that happy ending had a certain dignity--something the felt lacking to me in this collection.
You can find this review and more on my blog Miss Print
I've read several of Alexie's earlier story collections as well as his novels Flight, Reservation Blues and The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. Alexie is an incredibly talented writer shining a light onto a part of America's culture that is very rarely seen in modern literature.
That said, his work is never easy to take filled with wasted potential, sadness and a pervasive sense of everything that an entire culture has lost thanks to Western expansion and modernization. It is a bleak, cold world. It is bleaker and colder if you are an Indian in an Alexie story.
While Alexie provides some moments of whimsy and wonder, his stories are generally heavy. Clocking in at 480 pages Blasphemy is even heavier than earlier collection or novels. It is also not at all indicative of The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian so if you're expecting that kind of story here just walk away now.
The collection is comprised of new and older stories so it's a nice introduction to Alexie except that most of my favorite stories ("Somebody Kept Saying Powwow", "Distances", "Saint Junior", "A Good Story") are not found in this collection though other familiar ones including "The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven" and "The Toughest Indian in the World" do appear.
My favorite of Alexie's collections is either The Business of Fancydancing or The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven. They were shorter, more balanced collections that tempered the inherent sadness of many stories with lighter stories of hope and sometimes even redemption. Even the characters who didn't get that happy ending had a certain dignity--something the felt lacking to me in this collection.
You can find this review and more on my blog Miss Print
pattieod's review
4.0
Funny, poignant, and you hear them in Sherman Alexie's voice (if you're an NPR listener).
I'd give it 5 stars if I didn't hate basketball so much.
I'd give it 5 stars if I didn't hate basketball so much.
bookswithbrittanica's review
4.0
This novel was one of the most enjoyable to read out of his short stories, but I think they may be because he combines all of his great former short stories into this collection. I also liked the fact that I skipped a few because I have already read them in his other collections such as "War Dances". A good collection overall- and a few good surprises.
I just wish he wrote stories that were a little more different. Even though it may be a different scene, it could be the same kind of Indian or same name he has used multiple times. Switch it up man....
I just wish he wrote stories that were a little more different. Even though it may be a different scene, it could be the same kind of Indian or same name he has used multiple times. Switch it up man....
spiderfelt's review
4.0
It is heartbreaking to see all the ways a relationship can fall apart, all the ways a life can break apart. Another title for the book could be Fifty Ways to Fall Down. Sherman Alexie is a brilliant writer who breaks my heart in the most beautiful ways.