The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven

Rating:
Summary: "Fistfight in Heaven" not a knockout
Review: I thought the book was good to pass the time in the car between Wisconsin and Chicago, but it's not the best book I've ever read. The stories seem to be in random order - you could read them in reverse order and it wouldn't make any difference. The shifting viewpoints can be powerful when used in moderation - this time, it wasn't. It just got confusing. (FYI: This is one of the few times where the movie is better than the book.)

Rating:
Summary: Confusing with a new voice in writing
Review: Throughout the course of the book, many characters and plots arose making it very difficult to follow the plot. Although it was funny and sad at times, it didn't flow enough for me to make any connection with earlier events that took place in the book. However, I also feel a different approcah to writing was experimented because there were many "unexpected and impossible-to-anticipate moves." The book started off talking about Victor and Thomas Builds-the-fire as younger children but then goes into many different scenes and characters. These new characters that were introduced such as Rosemary MorningDove, Frank Many Horses, and Lester FallsApart made it hard for me to connect back to Victor. The one thing that I did observe from the book was the distances between the Indians and Whites, males and females, and the many different Indian tribes. I was fascinated by how so many connections were made with the Indian's traditions of the past and what was going on in the modern times with the Indians. I was highly disappointed in that it wasn't one of those books that I was anxious to see what would happen next. I found myself going back through material that I had previously read and trying to analyze the events of the next scene or chapter. However, I am glad i took the time out to read it beacause it was very different kind of reading material than what I was used to.

Rating:
Summary: ?
Review: I found this book to have interesting parts but it was pretty confusing and thats why i put a question mark for the title. If the book had one focused theme or if the author made it easier for you to be able to tell who the narrator is it would have been a much more understood book and easier. The author would give good detailed conversations. Such as when they took a drug and they were describing what they saw. It made the reader seem as if he was right there listening to the conversation. The author could have been a little more thoughtful of how well the reader would understand the book. He had no central plot and and it kind of seemed more like some type of a documentary were they just record daily, what the characters do. Overall it was an ok book, but it could have been reader friendly and have some type of theme or plot that sticks out more boldly.

Rating:
Summary: Connections
Review: In the book The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fist Fight in Heaven Junior struggles with his background and his life. He lives on a Indian Reservation and through out the book he is telling stories about his life, his past, and his friends lives. Life is not easy on the reservation and many things that we take for granted are rare commodities there. The book is a collection of short stories that I found to be very confusing at times. When Thomas Builds the Fire is brought to trial and he tells the stories in his defense I was lost. Other Chapters I really enjoyed. The chapter about James and how he will not talk I found to be captivating. It was a change of pace from the rest of the book because I showed more intellect and more hope for the future generations. Some parts of the book were quite sad but written in a way that I found them quite funny. When Victor was diagnosed with cancer but uses hummor to try to get through it I found to be uplifting. He knew that he was going to die and because he thought that he lived a happy life he did not want to spend the last of it being sad and feeling sorry for himself. And when he has to be driven to get his wife and he gets the one person on the resorvation that drives backwards is so ironic. Driving backwards was his way of showing what a weird world that they were living in and even though it may be odd it does not mean that they can not be as happy or as sad as the rest of the world. I though that the book was well written and even though I did not particuarlly enjoy it I think many others will. It shows us a world that were in our minds strown with stereotypes about Indians and because of the this book I feel a little more enlightened into the world on a resorvation.

Rating:
Summary: This book on the whole was good, but some stories were borin
Review: Sherman Alexie's book, "The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven" is a captivating masterpiece about the lives of Native Americans. Native Americans are regarded by many as people we often forget about or look over, and this book gives us a window into their hearts, souls, and ideas. We follow the lives of many ordinary Indians like Victor and Thomas builds-the-fire. Victor who must face the pain of a nine year old growing up without a father and Thomas whose only means of expression is through his stories which are the same stories that ended in his downfall and imprisonment. For Thomas the stories he had linked him to his heritage, and though many thought he was unjustly imprisoned he faced injustice by his own people. Sherman Alexie is able to intertwine memory, fantasy, and dreams together to write a compilation of short stories that are poetic in many ways. Although many different authors narrate many chapters, it does not take away from the realism of the stories. One stops to care about who is talking and starts to care only about what they are saying. Alexie combines the harsh realism of the everyday world for a Native American with a great amount of humor that goes along as well in the lives of the Indians. The Native Americans continually talk about how the white man has been the root of all their problems, but through the eloquence and narration of these short stories, the Native Americans themselves have contributed as well. Whether it be drinking heavily or losing respect for there own roots. Alexie has truly written a masterpiece and has made us all look differently upon American culture because of this book and it is a definite must read for anyone. If ur reading this, "Hello".

Rating:
Summary: Comedy and Confusion
Review: As I read this book, I realized it was one of those texts which you had to finish. If you said you only read half of it, I won't believe you! This book introduces us to a whole range of characters (American Indians) living on a reservation. Sherman Alexie takes us into their lives, which is filled with humour, and also frustration. My favorite character was Victor. I liked him because he has a huge history and rich culture... and it mixes with the new western civilization. We also see how he developes, so it was interesting. All in all, if you are remotely interested in learning about the difficulties of a "coming of age" in the US, or just looking for a few hard-to-put-down tales about Native Americans... buy this book.

Rating:
Summary: must read
Review: I keep giving away copies of this book. I want everyone to read it. It is complex, deep, darkly humourous, disturbing, stark, naked, poetic. ALexie portrays life on the Spokane Reservation in a trustworthy way. His prose is so genuine that I find myself wondering if these are true stories, and yet they approach the fantastic and absurd. Brillant stuff.

Rating:
Summary: Beautifully constructed...Powerful...Enlightening
Review: I am an African American female who teaches writing at a private college. More than 97% of the student population is White. Sixty percent or more are from upper middle-class New England families. I mention this because I'm trying to set up a distinction here. Many of my students are not aware of the plight, culture, contributions, etc. of the American Indian, or other peoples of color. I am reminded of this daily when I am questioned as to the reason we are reading such and such. I take a deep breath, exhale, and begin a speech that I seem to have constructed years before I knew I'd need it. (I won't bore you with the details).The Chair of the English Department, who happens to be a former professor of mine, chose two of Alexie's novels for the incoming Freshmen class to read. Being a former student of "John's" I am very aware of his strong interest in Native American culture. I was not surprised then when he informed me of the books we would be reading. I love this book by Alexie. There is a kinship I feel that cannot be expressed in words. I understand the alcoholism that pervades the Native American community, the "quiet storms" that come suddenly, end quickly, but cause immeasurable damage. Poverty, Hunger, Unemployment, Depression...powerful, soul-stripping entities that can cause one to die slowly, ever so slowly, each and every day. There is a line in the novel that reminds me of something Toni Cade Bambara once said: "It's the small things that hurt the most"(p. 49). Understood, Alexie. Definitely understood. Thank you, Alexie, for this window into the hearts, minds and souls of Native American peoples. Bravo!

Rating:
Summary: This is what I call good writing.
Review: So much American fiction, these days, seems to be shallow trash, knocked off in a few afternoons, that I think I will read this book over several more times, just to savor its beauty. This is not prose. It's poetry. Sometimes, I did not quite grasp the exact meaning of a story, but it didn't matter. The words still conveyed the feeling. However, if you're expecting "Smoke Signals," I found this much less upbeat. Before Alexie, I read some novels by D'Arcy McNickle. He was a prominent Native American who died in the '70's and whose books dealt mostly with the early reservation period. I was touched by his depiction of frustration, and of failure despite educational opportunities. It's very sad to realize that, in the 90's, Native American authors are still having to deal with these same themes.

Rating:
Summary: Absolutely delicious!
Review: This is a treasure for ardent readers. Not since Ann Beattie ("Where You'll Find Me") have I read someone who could put so much poetry into prose.