Comment

Apr 21, 2015NHorel rated this title 5 out of 5 stars
I had intended to read Sherman Alexie for some time now, and this book has been my introduction into his works, ensuring that I will most definitely be doing my best to find more. Sometimes humour is the only way to deal with a dark situation, but sometimes it can be more of a deflection than a coping mechanism; Alexie keeps a knife-edged balance, writing with humour, yet never obscuring the harsh reality underneath it. Despair, weakness, and loss, are heavy throughout the text, there is also strength, humour, and a tentative hope. Here, Alexie's writing reminds me strongly of the late and lamented Jim Carroll, (particularly, The Basketball Diaries,) an inspiration Alexie himself acknowledges in one of the stories. It's an interesting tie in, and a mark of the strength of Alexie's own writing that he can draw from such a powerful source but stand so distinctly on his own.