April 22, 2004

Ten Little Indians

I love reading short stories, find them a good meal. Sherman Alexie’s Ten Little Indians, a book of very big short stories, is at the top of my list. Alexie is a potent writer, irreverent, bold and witty. In each story it seems the direction shifts quickly, without warning (keeping the bedtime reader awake), creating real people. Each story is about a different Spokane Indian off the reservation living in Seattle. Alexie draws very different pictures for each story.

One of my favorite lines comes in a story about a woman who is hurt when a bomb goes off in a restaurant in which she is having lunch. “She wondered if her brain had been more seriously damaged by the blast than she’d thought. Maybe her skull had been ripped open and her brain was exposed for all to see. Wouldn’t that be the most extreme form of public nudity?” The stories do expose the depths and heights of human emotions, pointedly, unpredictably, eloquently.

Posted by leya at April 22, 2004 07:52 AM