The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven (20th Anniversary Edition)

"Mr. Alexie's is one of the major lyric voices of our time" New York Times Book Review editor Rich Nicholls wrote of Alexie after reading his work The Business of Fancydancing. Alexie opens The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven with this recollection, and I have to agree after reading his short story collection. Alexie shines light on the life of modern Indians, and all the tragedy and humor that goes along with growing up on a reservation. The twenty-four stories in this collection all center around Indians on the Spokane reservation and the different incidents that occur. Alexie writes with such intimacy about his characters that it becomes obvious some of these stories must be based in memory. Through his fiction Alexie manages to bring up painful issues of alcoholism and family strains that ring true for many in reservation life. The characters in Alexie's stories are the real gems of the collection. Victor and Thomas Builds-the-Fire stand out the most, as Victor narrators a majority of the stories either through first or third person. I felt the strongest stories in this collection centered on Victor and his family, whether it was dealing with the absence of his alcoholic father or his own alcoholism in later stories. Even though as a reader I had no experience with Indian Reservation life, through Alexie's exploration of personal relationships I connected with the characters. Thomas Builds-the-Fire, with his endless story telling, added amazing depth to the stories with references to Indian history and insight into the past. For readers not familiar with the past grievances between whites and Indians (Custer and Wounded Knee for example), some passages involving Thomas Builds-the-Fire might be slightly confusing. At times Alexie shifts from the present to the past without any warning, but this only makes the reader think more. Also, the weaving of the past and present adds demonstrates the importance of tradition for Indian culture. Overall, what gripped me about Alexie's story collection was how each story seamlessly flowed into the next while also being able to stand on its own. These stories could be read out of order or individually without losing any of their importance or meaning. My personal favorite, "Because My Father Always Said He Was the Only Indian Who Saw Jimi Hendrix Play `The Star-Spangled Banner"" uses a song to weave a tragic story of Victor's father abandoning him. It is the raw emotion; it is the ability of Alexie to allow his characters to admit their true feelings; it is Alexie's bravery to address controversial issues, that carries this collection. The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven is a powerful collection that celebrates the differences between Indians, while never forgetting the shared tragedy that links them. The unique stories, from betraying friends on rollercoasters to missing the winning basketball shot, demonstrate the complexity of the characters and the choices they must make. Alexie writes with such sharpness that readers can feel the haze of alcohol, can sense the ghosts of the past, and understand the importance of traditions they might have never known before reading this collection. This is one of the most eye-opening and magical collections and should be considered not just one of the most important books in Native American literature but American literature.

My only previous exposure to the work of Sherman Alexie has been his foray into YA fiction, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, a book that I found hilarious, moving, and profound. The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven, meanwhile, is the book that put him on the map, and while I liked it quite a bit, I can say that it didn't connect for me the same way that Diary did. A series of short stories and vignettes orbiting around life on the reservation, Lone Ranger feels like it's playing a similar game to Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried, using fiction to convey real experiences, and Alexie's notes on the book seem to confirm this, pointing to moments here and there that are drawn from his own life. Sherman's knack for language is undeniable, bringing a poetic sensibility to so many of these vignettes, to say nothing of a willingness to veer from literal to metaphorical without being overly concerned as to which is which or where we are. Sometimes that means plunging into stories told through myth; sometimes that means glimpses of alternate Americas; sometimes it's simply letting characters express themselves. The result is what I think of as a mosaic novel, one where the overall impact of the pieces - the overlapping characters, the motifs, the recurring threads of abandonment and alcoholism, the subsumed rage and frustration, the moments of hope - all create something that's cumulatively beautiful and effective. At the same time, though, these lean more vignettes than short stories - more glimpses of a moment in time than anything - and while I thought there was a lot of beauty here, I also struggled to really separate stories from each other so much as I did characters and moments. It's a beautiful and honest and darkly funny portrait of modern reservation life, and it's told with skill and grace; still, if you ask me, Diary is the one that I would tell people that they have to read, importance or no.

Sherman Alexie is a wonderful writer. This collection of short stories is a winner. Whether he’s called Native American, Indian or simply author extraordinaire, Sherman is entertaining, enlightening and educational in his stories about life near and in the Spokane Reservation. This is really a most entertaining book and a pleasure to read.

In this 20th anniversary edition the stories of Sherman Alexie ring ever as personal, lyrical and insightful as they did two decades ago. Having grown up just next door to the setting of these tales in Pend Oreille County, the scenes and city were as clear in my mind as ever. What was new when I first read it and again in reading this edition, was the peak into a very real and enduringly dynamic Native American culture. What Alexie is able to do in these context of these stories is open the reader up to the complex personhood behind the stereotypes; behind the rhetoric. I remember reading this as a young man in High School and how, even then, Thomas Builds-the-Fire spoke to me. Alexie acknowledges more readily now the autobiographical nature of these stories in many ways and it is in him we see not just Vincent but Thomas. Thomas was the modern day historian and wise man of the tribe though no one was willing to see it. He spoke the stories and words that needed to be spoken and needed to be heard both inside and outside of the reservation. Alexie does that as well, in this and in other books, capturing snapshots that speak to the humanity of history and its inherent subjectivity. This is what storytelling should be, telling us what we need to know that we had not realized and were even perhaps intent on avoiding. Things will never be what they were for any culture prior to expansionism, but hey, there is always a rising basketball star to put our hopes in. Worth getting the Anniversary Edition just for the final two additional stories.

How do you "become" a person? That is to say, how do you become connected to your Society? Where do you fit? Who are your People. To what Tribe do you belong? The answers to these questions - we need to ride them for many years, perhaps for all our days. Ahead of us, our Parents couldn't provide us. They had their own thing to do through & we have ours. Some of these questions we need to answer by ourselves, by living daily life, making mistakes, & taking notice of where we have ended up now. Behind us, our children are growing up. Will they see us as losers, chronically depressed misfits? If we are blessed (or cursed) by creative dreams of how life could be, would be, should be, & if we try to implement some of these dreams so that the fantasy of them may diminish, but the reality grow....that's a Way, isn't it? But to travel on this Path of Life, you would need guidance from HIgher Good People. Nu? I am not trying to be Right, I'm just ridin' these questions. Anyhow, this lil' book has some wonderful information on how to be, & how not to be. If you think it's not about you, maybe you are continuing to think with a forked mind. Too bad about that. It is the roots of the movie Smoke Signals, so if there are any of you men out there with a real issue of the relationship with your Father, read this & be sure to see the movie. It may save you from years of Therapy that wouldn't help as well. Sherman Alexie's best place is describing the FAther-Son relationship, & detailing how it is your job as a son to get thru the hate, authority issues, behaviors, & traumas of that, & doing it to find the forgiveness & Love. There is nothing more important for you, your wives, your children, your family, your time of life. *Alan*

I'd read a previous work of Alexie, "The adventures of a part-time Indian" and enjoyed it. I wanted to check out more of his work; the title of this one stuck out for me. "LR and T fist fight" had its bits of humor as well as sadness. Alexie weaves the stories with creative wordplay and biting realism, from childhood tales to road tripping. The stories are delivered like an autobiography. And there are quite a few memorable lines peppered through the book, too many to list here. But, if you're expecting a happy go lucky book, this isn't it.

I will confess to having known almost nothing about this book before buying it. "Native American" writing is sometimes filled with spiritualism, and with rare exceptions I avoid the stuff. However, Sherman Alexie gave a great interview in the New York Times book review last month, full of warmth and humor, and expressing a personal dislike of "Native American" books himself. He won my admiration and I decided he had earned my book purchase. To me, this book seems to have a lot in common with Tim O'Brien's " The Things They Carried ," in that it's fiction, but uses fiction to tell deeper truths than might have been possible with a strict work of nonfiction. Also, like "The Things They Carried," this is a collection of short stories, but with so much overlap in themes and characters and setting that it more-or-less tells a single story. It's a story about childhood, and being an Indian (Alexie uses the word freely, so I'm going to use it here), and growing up on the "rez." And it's a story about a world drenched with alcohol and drug abuse. I found "The Trial of Thomas Builds-the-Fire" and "Jesus Christ's Half-Brother is Alive and Well on the Spokane Indian Reservation" to be the strongest pieces in the collection. Some of the characters in some of these stories experience victory, but for the most part they're stuck in a difficult place, far from the centers of commerce and culture, jealous of their ancestors, bitter at their contemporaries, proud even when there don't seem to be any concrete accomplishments to be proud of. I've lived in areas with significant Native American populations, but I think my empathy is much deeper for having read this collection than it could possibly have been before. This is the 20th Anniversary Edition, and it includes two introductory essays. One is an e-mailed dialog between Alexie and a fellow Native American Writer. This is forgettable. The other is Alexie's reminiscences about publishing his first collection of poems, and how against incredible odds it was picked up by the New York Times Book Review and given a glowing review, and how totally his life changed as a result. This collection was his follow-up to that small book of poems. I am glad this essay was included, to remind us that, for all the injustice and difficulties in this country, including those experienced by Indians living on reservations, sometimes America does deliver on its promise.

The stories never ended where I expected but took me to places where it felt right. Humor and insight fills this book as it delves into the contemporary Indigenous experiences. The book is haunting yet magical. This is a book for storytellers and their audience. A masterful work.