A review by jrosenstein
War Dances by Sherman Alexie

4.0

Just another reason to love Sherman Alexie. When writing fiction for adults Alexie is best off sticking to short stories, though he writes excellent novels for teens. I've been a fan of his for a long time, and there's a nice sense of continuity here. You can see how this is the guy who wrote The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven 15 years down the road. He's moved from the reservation to the city. He's older, more concerned with families and the relationships between parents and children. He's looking out at the world, not just at his own painful past. He tries to understand people who are very different from himself, and find some common humanity even in men who do awful things. Alexie's writing is still strongest when it seems grounded in his own experience, but his empathy and striving for emotional truth are always moving.