Alexie once again reasserts himself as one the most compelling
contemporary practitioners of the short story. In Blasphemy, the
author demonstrates his talent on nearly every page. . . . Will appeal
to fans of Junot Diaz, George Saunders, and readers new to Alexie will
find this enriching collection to be the perfect introduction to a
formidable literary voice. . . . [Alexie] illuminates the lives of his
characters in unique, surprising, and, ultimately, hopeful
ways.--Boston Globe
Told in [Alexie's] irreverent, unforgettable voice . . . You'll feel
you've been transported inside the soul of a deeply wounded people. But
they are a people too comfortable in their brown skins to allow those
wounds to break them. . . . With irony and sardonic wit, the Native men
and women in Alexie's imagination find a way forward, and they endure. .
. . [A] great triumph.--Los Angeles Times
Sherman Alexie's stature as a writer of stories, poetry, and novels has
soared over the course of his twenty-book, twenty-year career. His
wide-ranging, acclaimed fiction throughout the last two decades--from
The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven to his most recent
PEN/Faulkner Award-winning War Dances--have established him as a star
in contemporary American literature.
A bold and irreverent observer of life among Native Americans in the
Pacific Northwest, the daring, versatile, funny, and outrageous Alexie
showcases his many talents in Blasphemy, where he unites fifteen
beloved classics with sixteen new stories in one sweeping anthology for
devoted fans and first-time readers. Included here are some of his most
esteemed tales, including "What You Pawn I Will Redeem," in which a
homeless Indian man quests to win back a family heirloom; "This Is What
It Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona," a road-trip morality tale; "The
Toughest Indian in the World," about a night shared between a writer and
a hitchhiker; and his most recent, "War Dances," about a man grappling
with sudden hearing loss in the wake of his father's death. Alexie's new
stories are fresh and quintessential, about donkey basketball leagues,
lethal wind turbines, a twenty-four-hour Asian manicure salon, good and
bad marriages, and all species of warriors in America today.
An indispensable Alexie collection, Blasphemy reminds us, on every
thrilling page, why Alexie is one of our greatest contemporary writers
and a true master of the short story.
