Blasphemy Pdf Summary
Sherman Alexie’s stature as a writer of stories, poems, and novels has soared over the course of his twenty-book, twenty-year career. His wide-ranging, acclaimed stories from the last two decades, from The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven to his most recent PEN/Faulkner award-winning War Dances, have established him as a star in modern literature.
A bold and irreverent observer of life among Native Americans in the Pacific Northwest, the daring, versatile, funny, and outrageous Alexie showcases all his talents in his newest collection, Blasphemy, where he unites fifteen beloved classics with fifteen new stories in one sweeping anthology for devoted fans and first-time readers.
Included here are some of his most esteemed tales, including “What You Pawn I Will Redeem,” “This is What it Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona,” “The Toughest Indian in the World,” and “War Dances.” Alexie’s new stories are fresh and quintessential—about donkey basketball leagues, lethal wind turbines, the reservation, marriage, and all species of contemporary American warriors.
An indispensable collection of new and classic stories, Blasphemy reminds us, on every thrilling page, why Sherman Alexie is one of our greatest contemporary writers and a true master of the short story.
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Blasphemy Review
5.0 out of 5 stars Alexie does an outstanding job of portraying the people as a lot like the rest of us
Reviewed in the United States on September 15, 2017
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Some of these stories are hard reading for me, a white person. Having lived among Native Americans for several decades I’m familiar with some conditions on reservations, and some of the hard history. Mr. Alexie does an outstanding job of portraying the people as a lot like the rest of us … except for the unique circumstances which are to be expected from them having been the subjects of a cultural genocide that began in the 1600s and continues to this day.
Some of his stories made me laugh very hard, others left my teeth on edge — which is okay because in order to get messages across in a country where the straight and honest history of Europeans’ unjust, sometimes criminal and frequently horrifying treatment of indigenous Americans still is not taught in enough public schools it is necessary to be direct. He does than with his own unmistakable flair for contrasting details. (And one does realize that the Natives also did horrifying things to white people as they were being persecuted. In wars nobody comes out ready for sainthood.
I don’t think the pain is ever going to end for America’s native peoples until there has come into existence — and been so for a number generations — way more transparency in what has long been and, to a lesser extent, still is taught in schools, and more effort by the government to address the wrongs. For starters perhaps try apologizing the way the Canadian government is doing with the First People.
In this particular collection of stories Sherman Alexie shows both the up and down sides of contemporary Native living. There are some drunks, some sad, some crazy, one or so dull (that’s just part of the story), but they are his kind of drunks, people whose stories touch you. There are also successful professional Indians living in cities for the most part, but usually with a connection to the reservation that can be extremely strong. As somebody who cares about good education being available to all people, everywhere, I liked reading about people in these strories who had that, and put it to work. How they did … well, that’s the point of the stories, and I enjoyed it all.
To me an achievement of his writing is that whoever you are, you will gain unforgettable insights into the realities of being Native American here and now, while both laughing and gritting your teeth and possibly crying, too. As with Alice Walker writing about black Americans, when I see a Sherman Alexie book I haven’t read yet, picking it up feels …. just a little …. like putting my hand on something that might shake me up. Do I dare to open this door? Oh, yes, well worth it.
3.0 out of 5 stars very easy to mix up any two of his short stories
Reviewed in the United States on April 19, 2015
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The focused reader will note that all of Alexie’s stories are to some degree autobiographical, as much as he would deny it, and all very repetitive in characters and motifs. It is, as such, very easy to mix up any two of his short stories. Sometimes the narrator is a poor, alcoholic, homeless Indian living on the “Rez,” sometimes he/she is that lucky Indian who gets off the Rez and is adopted by the world of the white middle class. Invariably, there is an archetypal “Junior” in the story who confirms all stereotypes Alexie attributes to his people, and there is the narrator’s conflict with his/her place in Indian culture or between cultures. Although many Native American studies educators will roundly deny this, Alexie’s bigotry is spread thin and wide throughout his stories — one must assume that he finds catharsis in waxing philosophical on killing all the whites, for revenge or otherwise.
Those are all my qualms about Alexie’s writing. By the same token, he is also an amazing writer, who can drown the reader in the emotion of the story, and of the narrator, so that you can almost feel the suffering, or the isolation, or the existential crises of the stories. You will learn a good deal about Native American culture and the contemporary “Indian Problem” — no longer referring to the white euphemism for the need to eradicate or reeducate the Indians but the struggle of the widespread poverty and squalor that Native Americans face on and off reservations today. Alexie explores issues of identity and culture unabashedly and beautifully, and this selection of stories is very representative of his best writing. He may be controversial, but not many others are stepping up to write on these matters as viscerally as him.
About Sherman Alexie Author Of Blasphemy pdf Book
Sherman J. Alexie, Jr. Author Of Blasphemy pdf Book, was born in October 1966. A Spokane/Coeur d’Alene Indian, he grew up on the Spokane Indian Reservation in Wellpinit, WA, about 50 miles northwest of Spokane, WA. Alexie has published 18 books to date.
Alexie is an award-winning and prolific author and occasional comedian. Much of his writing draws on his experiences as a modern Native American. Sherman’s best known works include The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven, Smoke Signals, and The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. He lives in Seattle, Washington.
Blasphemy pdf, Paperback, Hardcover Book Information
- ASIN : 0802120393
- Publisher : Grove Press; 1st edition (October 2, 2012)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 480 pages
- ISBN-10 : 9780802120397
- ISBN-13 : 978-0802120397
- Item Weight : 1.69 pounds
- Dimensions : 6.13 x 1 x 9.25 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #1,791,655 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #27,413 in Short Stories (Books)
- #79,402 in American Literature (Books)
- Customer Reviews: 4.5 out of 5 stars 289 ratings
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