The shortest month seems to be the time when all the short
story collections I reserved came in.
Having seen the author at PLA and again at Graham Chapel, I could hear
his voice as I read these stories, some of which are wildly funny, some tragic,
and some, yes, blasphemous. At PLA, he had
people laughing so hard they hurt; his appearance at Washington University,
which I convinced friends to go to based on my experience at ALA, had me
wondering, “He can say that? About
the chancellor? In a chapel?”
Some of these stories are stronger than others – I always have loved the
one that seems to have been the kernel of his wonderful movie, Smoke Signals. As a Spokane Indian who grew up both on the “rez,”
and went to a white private high school, his writing is always informed by his
experience as an Indian and an outsider.
Although I enjoyed the collection, there is a certain sameness about
many of them and reading a few at a time would be a better way to savor his
work. 466 pp.
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