This is Sherman Alexie's first book of short stories. Many of these stories will be familiar to fans of Alexie's film, Smoke Signals because the movie was based on stories from this collection and parts of his novel, Reservation Blues.
I love this collection and I love Sherman Alexie. These stories are filled with poetry, beauty, and magic. They are also filled with poverty, alcoholism, and pain, and many of the stories dwell on the relationships between fathers and sons.
For most of us this is a glimpse into a foreign world of hud houses, government checks, and low expectations. It is disturbing because the reservation is not a foreign world, it is right here, in our own back yard. This is not to imply however that these stories exist merely as social statements. Alexie is an artful craftsman, full of sly humor and his work most definately stands on its own.
Sherman Alexie is the Raymond Carver of our generation and this book is a good introduction to his fiction. Highly reccomended.

I am sending this to fellow bookcrosser, notbob in Omaha, Nebraska.