|
|
Adult Books - Fiction - General Fiction
|  |  | 
Ten Little Indians.
Alexie, Sherman (author).
June 2003. 272p. Grove, hardcover, $24 (0-8021-1744-9).
REVIEW.
First published April 15, 2003 (Booklist).
Spokane author Alexie’s latest set of short stories is an appealing, intelligent collection that not only challenges white culture’s stereotypes of Native Americans but also shows them grappling with their own assumptions about themselves and others. In “The Search Engine,” sharp college student Corliss discovers a 30-year-old book of poems written by a Spokane man in her school’s library. Neither she nor her family has ever heard of the man, Harlan Atwater, so she decides to track him down. Atwater rebuffs her at first, but then tells her the story of his only two poetry readings. “Can I Get a Witness?” is the powerful story of a dissatisfied, middle-aged Spokane woman who manages to survive the bombing of the restaurant where she was eating lunch. Wandering dazed, she meets a young man and shocks both of them with what she says and does in the aftermath. The narrator’s mother in “The Life and Times of Estelle Walks Above” bolsters the self-esteem of insecure white women, much to her son’s chagrin. “With difficulty, I still loved my mother, but she found blind acceptance from her white friends,” he observes, as he ponders his mother’s attachment to these women. Whether they are tough and determined like Corliss, at war with themselves like Richard (the man preparing for a political career in “Lawyer’s League”), or at a crossroads like the woman in the restaurant, Alexie’s characters are both memorable and introspective. — Kristine Huntley
| |
|
| Click here to find more books by this author |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|