Sherman Alexie’s Reservation Blues
Warner Books, 1996.

Thomas tried to hide the salmon behind his back, but the guitar saw it.

“We’re plannin’ on burnin’ me up?” the guitar asked.

“Yeah,” Thomas said. He could not lie.

The guitar laughed.”That’s all right,” the guitar said. “You eat your fish. I’ll just play some blues right here.”

The guitar played itself while Thomas smoked the salmon. Before she died, Thomas’s mother, Susan, had draped the salmon across a bare mattress frame, threw the frame over the fire, and smoked it that way. Thomas didn’t have the courage to do that, so he cooked salmon in the old smokehouse that Samuel, his father had built years ago.

That’s Sherman Alexie; he’s a MRE author for me.

If you like this peek at his style, I think you’ll enjoy this novel, his first.

Music, Magic and Survival.
Truth, Irony and The Elements.
Tragedy and Tradition

Sherman Alexie’s fiction rocks.

Doncha think?

Companion Reads: Ray Robertson’s Moody Food (the whole music thing), Thomas King’s Green Grass Running Water (because it has film where RB has music), Sherman Alexie’s The Absolutely True Adventures of a Part-time Indian (for the basketball game).