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Sherman Alexie

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The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven: Stories Kindle Edition

by Sherman Alexie (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

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Sherman Alexie’s darkly humorous story collection weaves memory, fantasy, and stark reality to powerfully evoke life on the Spokane Indian Reservation.

The twenty-four linked tales in Alexie’s debut collection—an instant classic—paint an unforgettable portrait of life on and around the Spokane Indian Reservation, a place where “Survival = Anger x Imagination,” where HUD houses and generations of privation intertwine with history, passion, and myth.

We follow Thomas Builds-the-Fire, the longwinded storyteller no one really listens to; his half-hearted nemesis, Victor, the basketball star turned recovering alcoholic; and a wide cast of other vividly drawn characters on a haunting journey filled with humor and sorrow, resilience and resignation, dreams and reality. Alexie’s unadulterated honesty and boundless compassion come together in a poetic vision of a world in which the gaps between past and present are not really gaps after all.

The basis for the acclaimed 1998 feature film Smoke Signals,the Chicago Tribune noted, “The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven . . . is for the American Indian what Richard Wright’s Native Son was for the black American in 1940.”

The collection received a Special Citation for the PEN/Hemingway Award for Best First Fiction.

This ebook edition features a new prologue from the author, as well as an illustrated biography and rare photos from Sherman Alexie’s personal collection.

Print length

234 pages
Language

English
Sticky notes

On Kindle Scribe
Publisher

Open Road Media
Publication date

15 October 2013
File size

5994 KB
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Sherman Alexie
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Product description

About the Author

Alexie is a poet, novelist, and screenwriter. He has won the Pen/Faulkner Award, Stranger Genius Award in Literature, Boston Globe-Horn Book Award for Excellence in Children's Literature, and the Malamud Award.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00FEZ24DM
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Open Road Media; 20th Anniversary edition (15 October 2013)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 5994 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 234 pages

Best Sellers Rank: 487,342 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- 206 in Native American Studies
- 822 in Native American Literature
- 2,273 in Cultural Heritage Fiction

Customer Reviews:
1,448

About the author

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Sherman Alexie

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Sherman Alexie is the author of, most recently, Blasphemy, stories, from Grove Press, and Face, poetry, from Hanging Loose Press. He is the winner of the 2010 PEN/Faulkner Award, the 2007 National Book Award for Young People’s Literature, the 2001 PEN/Malamud Award for Excellence in the Short Story, and a Special Citation for the 1994 PEN/Hemingway Award for Best First Fiction. Smoke Signals, the film he wrote and coproduced, won both the Audience Award and the Filmmakers Trophy at the 1998 Sundance Film Festival. Alexie lives with his family in Seattle.

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Amazon Customer

Worth every penny

Reviewed in Canada on 25 February 2021

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Great book

Zoenuka

Rien à signaler

Reviewed in France on 13 October 2019

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Livre reçu en temps et en heure. Aucun soucis à relever il n’est pas abîmé et c’est bien l’article conforme à la description.

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Emily Gutierrez

The most eye-opening story collection

Reviewed in the United States on 1 December 2011

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"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.

2 people found this helpful

murillo98

Very depressing

Reviewed in France on 15 October 2017

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Bought this after seeing Smoke Signals, but don't expect the same lighthearted tone. The author doesn't gloss over the severe social issues facing North American Indians. Some of these stories were the most depressing reads I've had in a long time. But having my eyes opened to a world I know nothing about is a good thing. Hence four stars.

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The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven: Stories Kindle Edition

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