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Summary: Tom Wolfe was wrong.
Review: Having spent my teenage years on the Nez Perce Reservation to the south of the Spokanes, I was sadly reminded of life there. I found very little humor in the book. Too many of the people, characterised in this collection of short stories reminded me of those who are still there. I fall into the heading as one of the urbans according to Alexie's definition. And as much as I have tried to forget, I am haunted by the memories of those I left.
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Summary: We all tell stories, some of us have only stories to eat.
Review: Sherman Alexi brings the heart out of the rez and lays it on our table. This world is hidden because it has no interpreters, not because it does not speak. Sherman, in this book and Reservation Blues, gives insight into what it means to be non-material. The best prozac is the stories you tell yourself, and Mr. Alexi makes it alright to tell others. Vive Spokane.
Rating:
Summary: Realistic and truthful for "REZ" and "URBAN" alike or not.
Review: This book said it all and then some. And made me realize that the,"Truth Is Out There", in more versions than one, and all is not well among, "The People" on any rez or urban setting. And they're all crying out the same thing. Generation to Generation. But is anyone listening? Time will tell. And stories will continue to be written on and on............
Rating:
Summary: Watch Out For Sherman Alexie
Review: Alexie's collection of short stories is only the tip of the iceberg in this amazing talented man. He's also a poet--see "Old Shirts and New Skins" among others--and novelist. "Reservation Blues" will blow you out of the water. Of course, Alexie is also a screenwriter now with the advent of the Chris Eyre movie, "Smoke Signals." Alexie is not a man to be ignored, a writer who will drag us kicking and screaming into the 21st century.
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Summary: Hemingway's dead, Alexie's alive (hopefully)
Review: Sherman Alexie tells stories like rain drops. You can't see them falling on your head, but they hit you all the time. Perhaps, Sherman Alexie is a rain drop in the first place, hammering in our minds that there's more to reality than the statistics of the Indian Health Service. If you want to know the difference between White Man's concepts and Indians' reality, here's the information, no, the emotion, no, the honesty, no, the real thing you're looking for.If you leave this book unaltered, you're the rock, Paul Simon was singing of.
Rating:
Summary: a lyrical depiction of "rez" life with a devotion to reality
Review: Sherman Alexie is such a brilliant talent that he will make you set your copy of The Lone Ranger And Tonto Fistfight In Heaven down to breathe and reflect on your own life, as well as the lives of everyone you have touched or discarded. It is a lyrical depiction of "rez" life with a devotion to reality. This compassionate set of stories about personal quagmires and insightful hopelessness is indeed near perfection. Sherman Alexie has compared the ordinary to medicine, and in this book he takes apart the things in which we do not notice and brings us to the realization that everything can be potent.
Rating:
Summary: A remarkable book
Review: This book haunts me. I have read this book three times, and reading the reviews of it here has made me want to read it again. There is something mystical about this book. Something almost sacred about it.
Rating:
Summary: Powerful as hell!
Review: As usual, Alexie writes with such power and humor that the reader must reach deep down into his own soul to keep up. If Alexie's words don't reach directly into your chest and grab your heart - you must not have one, or misplaced it.
Rating: 
Summary: Depressing and dark......not all like "Smoke Signals"
Review: If you are looking for a fleshing-out of the characters in "Smoke Signals", you will be disappointed. The movie cobbles together some very disparate elements of the stories here, but no one in the book resembles anyone in the movie. Thomas Builds-the-Fire, for instance, while a central character in the movie, gets one short story here, and a passing mention in a few others. And he is nothing like the likeable nerdy character in the movie. The story of Victor and Arnold Joseph is totally absent, etc, etc, etc..... While the movie had some "heart-warming" elements, the book is very depressing in it's exposition of living conditions on the reservation today. Now if you're a fan of Alexie's already, you might love this book. I have not read any of his other works, and was disappointed mainly because I loved the movie and was expecting something different from the book.
Rating: 
Summary: Native American Steinbeck
Review: Alexie's stories of the ordinary and extraordinary people on the reservation, told with a blend of humor and the insight of having lived "on the rez", remind me of John Steinbeck's tales of those on Cannery Row or Tortilla Flats. Alexie has also woven these tales into an outstanding film called "Smoke Signals" which should not be missed. I look forward to "Reservation Blues" next.
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