Synopses & Reviews
A beloved American writer whose books are championed by critics and readers alike, Sherman Alexie has been hailed by
Time as "one of the better new novelists, Indian or otherwise". Now his acclaimed new collection,
The Toughest Indian in the Word, which received universal praise in hardcover, is available in paperback.
In these stories, we meet the kind of American Indians we rarely see in literature the kind who pay their bills, hold down jobs, fall in and out of love. A Spokane Indian journalist transplanted from the reservation to the city picks up a hitchhiker, a Lummi boxer looking to take on the toughest Indian in the world. A Spokane son waits for his diabetic father to come home from the hospital, tossing out the Hershey Kisses the father has hidden all over the house. An estranged interracial couple, separated in the midst of a traffic accident, rediscover their love for each other. A white drifter holds up an International House of Pancakes, demanding a dollar per customer and someone to love, and emerges with $42 and an overweight Indian he dubs Salmon Boy. Sherman Alexie's voice is one of remarkable passion, and these stories are love stories between parents and children, white people and Indians, movie stars and ordinary people. Witty, tender, and fierce, The Toughest Indian in the World is a virtuoso performance by one of the country's finest writers.
Review
"Make no mistake: Alexie's talent is immense and genuine....On this big Indian reservation we call 'the United States,' Sherman Alexie is one of the best writers we have." Leslie Marmon Silko, The Nation
Review
"Hard-edged and urban, distinctly individual...The characters in Mr. Alexie's work are not the usual kind of Indians....They are not tragic victims or noble savages...they listen to Jimi Hendrix and Hank Williams; they dream of being basketball stars....And unlike most Indians in fiction, they are sometimes funny." Dinitia Smith, The New York Times
Review
"Alexie moves in for the kill, consistently surprising us with stories that are neither sentimental nor angry but far more emotionally complex. Highly recommended." Library Journal
Review
"Alexie knows he's contemporary literature's 'Indian du jour' (a phrase he has often used), and isn't quite sure how he feels about it. That ambivalence gives his writing a salutary charge of energy, making him one of our most challenging, interesting, and promising young writers." Kirkus Reviews
Synopsis
The author of Reservation Blues now presents a collection of love stories love between parents and children, white people and Indians, movie stars and ordinary folk his first new anthology since the bestselling The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven.
About the Author
Sherman Alexie is the author of Reservation Blues, Indian Killer, The Toughest Indian in the World, and Ten Little Indians. He wrote and directed The Business of Fancydancing and also wrote the award-winning screenplay for Smoke Signals, a film based on his short-story collection The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven.