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Ten Little Indians
by: Sherman Alexie

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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780802141170
ISBN: 080214117X
Label: Grove Press
Manufacturer: Grove Press
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 256
Publication Date: March 17, 2004
Publisher: Grove Press
Sales Rank: 24864
Studio: Grove Press

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Editorial Review:

Product Description:
Sherman Alexie is one of our most acclaimed and popular writers today. With Ten Little Indians, he offers nine poignant and emotionally resonant new stories about Native Americans who, like all Americans, find themselves at personal and cultural crossroads, faced with heartrending, tragic, sometimes wondrous moments of being that test their loyalties, their capacities, and their notions of who they are and who they love. In Alexie's first story, 'The Search Engine,' Corliss is a rugged and resourceful student who finds in books the magic she was denied while growing up poor. In 'The Life and Times of Estelle Walks Above,' an intellectual feminist Spokane Indian woman saves the lives of dozens of white women all around her to the bewilderment of her only child. 'What You Pawn I Will Redeem' starts off with a homeless man recognizing in a pawnshop window the fancy-dance regalia that were stolen fifty years earlier from his late grandmother. Even as they often make us laugh, Alexie's stories are driven by a haunting lyricism and naked candor that cut to the heart of the human experience, shedding brilliant light on what happens when we grow into and out of each other.

Amazon.com Review:
Sherman Alexie, a gifted poet and storyteller, plows familiar yet fertile ground in his third collection of short stories, Ten Little Indians. The book contains nine stories populated by at least one American Indian (usually of Alexie's Spokane heritage, and mostly living in Seattle), but 'little' is a bit of a misnomer; the book addresses human (not necessarily Indian), rituals, ceremony, love, loss, insecurity over life choices, and personal sacrifices. A lot of intense basketball is played, too.

When Alexie is at his best, his stories function at a profoundly sad level, where broken down characters are broken down even more, but are fierce-willed enough to attempt Phoenix-like transitions. Unfortunately, the weakest stories appear first, where characters and situations seem far too contrived or forced, the dialogue wooden, and questions or exclamatory sentences appear annoyingly in bunches. In the last half of the book, a married couple, once intensely in love but now lost in life's routines, deal with infidelity ('Do You Know Where I Am?'); a bright basketball prospect attempts a comeback--twenty years after giving up the game ('Whatever Happened to Frank Snake Church?'); and a transient Indian finds his grandmother's regalia in a pawn shop and seeks to quickly raise the lofty purchase price ('What You Pawn I Will Redeem'). Brilliant turns of phrase abound, such as ceremonies being 'pitiful cries to a disinterested God,' or when a gym rat plays against 'Basketball-Democrats who came to the court alone and ran with anybody and Basketball-Republicans who traveled in groups of five and only ran with each other.' Ten Little Indians is an uneven collection, but contains some significant, memorable stories. --Michael Ferch

Customer Reviews

Average Rating: out of 5 stars

Rating:

- "Dear Lord, how much longer should I mourn the loss of Jerry Garcia?"
I spent the past weekend soaked in Sherman Alexie. It was a pleasure to find out about Sherman Alexie (through his interview on KUOW's Weekday program). I really loved his short story collection Ten Little Indians. The stories reflect acute, honest observation of life, specifically from an Indian point of view. He doesn't sugar coat any flaws of Indians, or for that matter any other American. The genocide of Indians provides him with enough material to draw upon and every story made me laugh, cry and in some ways touched me deeply. The characters brim with humanity and you almost feel attached to the characters. I haven't enjoyed short stories this much in a long time.

His movie Smoke Signals is equally good and worth watching. But I think his books are far better.

Here are some of my favorite lines from the book:

"If a Poet falls in a forest, and there's nobody there to hear ... Read More

Rating:

- ken boire author of Inherit the Tide
Alexie has generated some top notch writing. "Ten Little Indians" is right up there with others. He tends to do variations of the same themes, but isn't this what most present day writers do? I sort of expect it. I would be somewhat amazed if the top fiction writers of 2006 turned out something outside of their usual pattern. Read the first Grisham, Follet, Roberts, Patterson, Clancy, etc and by the time you read down each list a bit, you will think the writer had some kind of a universal outline.

At least in the case of Alexie there is value in his courage and the insight he offers. One expects the voice of a present day urban Indian, and we get it. Sherman steps to the plate. One feels the pain, frustration, and distrust. It is wrapped around pride with a beating heart.

I liked "Ten Little Indians", I read parts of it twice. I put it on the shelf to read again later.

Rating:

- "It's tough to be a smart girl anywhere," (ain't that the truth)
"but it's way tough on the rez." From The Life and Times of Estelle Walks Above.

The thing about Sherman Alexie is that he examines life from the inside out. Or maybe it's more accurate to say that he examines life from the reservation out. He has a way of pointing out these specific characteristics and challenges that one faces growing up on the reservation and beyond. But when you pay close attention to what he's saying (in such beautiful language), you find yourself relating to an emotional landscape that is universal in all of humanity no matter what race, religion, nationality blah blah blah. One is ultimately left with the impression of a genuine and credible storyteller who has experienced personal conflict, triumph, tragedy and joy within the boundaries of the reservation, then again in the vastness of life outside of the reservation and finally within the borderless limits of his own mind ... Read More

Rating:

- A real gem!
All the stories in this book have Spokane Indians as main characters, but the stories are really about all of humanity, with its humor, tragedy, cruelty, and redemption. Every story made me laugh at some point, and every story touched me deeply at some point. The characters have to deal with poverty, others' preconceptions, their own deeply held stereotypes, good luck, bad luck, and just life in general. One homeless man tries to find $1000 to buy back his grandmother's pow-wow regalia. Another man honors one parent's death by giving up basketball and the other's death by taking it back up in middle life. Every highly readable story grabbed me from beginning to end. This is the first book I've read by Alexie, but it won't be my last.

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