Synopses & Reviews
Poetry. Fiction. Published in 1992, well before Sherman Alexie became well-known as the screenwriter for the film SMOKE SIGNALS, THE BUSINESS OF FANCYDANCING has now been turned into a film with none other than Alexie himself in his directorial debut. The screenplay for the movie, which recently won the Audience Award at the San Francisco Film Festival, is loosly adapted from this book. Many film-goers will want to visit or revisit the elegaic poems and stories that set the tone for the film itself. "In an age when many 'Native American' writers publish books that prove their ignorance of the real Indian world, Sherman Alexie paints painfully honest visions of our beautiful and brutal lives"—Adrian C. Louis.
Review
"Sherman Alexie is one of the most vital younger writers to emerge in the late twentieth century in this country. He is a compassionate trickster who travels the page carrying an amazing bag of tricks. In the bag are permutations of chance, weather. Crazy Horse is back, he never left. Alexie's father is always the star player on a team that can never lose. These elegiac poems and stories will break your heart. Watch this guy. He's making myth." Joy Harjo
Review
"In an age when many 'Native American' writers publish books that prove their ignorance of the real Indian world, Sherman Alexie paints painfully honest visions of our beautiful and brutal lives. The Business of Fancydancing is a brilliant debut by a young and talented, authentic American Indian writer." Adrian C. Louis
Review
"When I first read the poems of Sherman Alexie, I realized that I was confronting the work of a poet destined to be a major influence in the coming years." Jay Griswold, editor, Red Dirt
Review
"Among the new American Indian writers, perhaps the most commanding voice will belong to Sherman Alexis...whose first publication, The Business of Fancydancing, is so wide-ranging, dexterous and consistently capable of raising your neck hair that it enters at once into our ideas of who we are and how we might be, makes us speak and hear his words over and over, call others into the room or over the phone to repeat them. Mr. Alexie is one of the major lyric voices of our time." James R. Kincaid, New York Times Book Review
Review
"Displays a mastery of language, a breadth of vision, and an astonishing range of voice and emotion." Studies in American Indian Literature
Review
"Tremendous pain and anger, but there is also love, humor and plenty of irony....recommended for literature collections in all types of libraries." Library Journal
About the Author
Sherman Alexie is an enrolled Spokane/Coeur D'Alene Indian from Welpinit, Washington, on the Spokane Indian reservation. He has published his poetry and fiction in Another Chicago Magazine, Beloit Poetry Journal, Caliban, Hanging Loose, Journal of Ethic Studies, New York Quarterly, Zyzzyva, Red Dirt, and others. This is his first book.