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War Dances |  | Author: Sherman Alexie
Publisher: Grove Press
List Price: $23.00
Buy New: $13.28
as of 11/24/2009 16:42 CST details
You Save: $9.72 (42%)
New (39) Used (12) Collectible (3) from $13.27
Seller: a1books
Rating:  3 reviews
Sales Rank: 15801
Media: Hardcover
Edition: First Edition
Pages: 256
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 8.4 x 5.4 x 1
ISBN: 0802119190
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780802119193
ASIN: 0802119190
Publication Date: October 6, 2009
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Fresh off his National Book Award win, Alexie delivers a heartbreaking, hilarious collection of stories that explores the precarious balance between self-preservation and external responsibility in art, family, and the world at large. With unparalleled insight into the minds of artists, laborers, fathers, husbands, and sons, Alexie populates his stories with ordinary men on the brink of exceptional change. In a bicoastal journey through the consequences of both simple and monumental life choices, Alexie introduces us to personal worlds as they transform beyond return. In the title story, a famous writer must decide how to care for his distant father who is slowly dying a “natural Indian death” from alcohol and diabetes, just as he learns that he himself may have a brain tumor. Alexie dissects a vintage-clothing store owner’s failing marriage and his courtship of a married photographer in various airports across the country; what happens when a politician’s son commits a hate crime; and how a young boy discovers his self-worth while writing obituaries for his local newspaper. Brazen and wise, War Dances takes us to the heart of what it means to be human. This provocative new work is Alexie at the height of his powers.
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| Customer Reviews:
Not Alexie's strongest work November 21, 2009
doc peterson (Portland, Oregon USA)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
_War Dances_ is a mixed bag of Alexie's short stories and poetry. There are gems and glimpses of the brilliance that one expects from Alexie: "Fearful Symmetry" about a writer's screenplay that sufferes a death of a thousand cuts as the producer, director and corporate pointy-heads transform art into schlocky, formulaic "entertainment" and "the poem "Another Proclimation" are the strongest pieces. But intermingled are stories and poems that feel as if Alexie phoned them in. The result is an uneven reading.
There is a rhythm to the collection as successive stories and poems are loosely related and connected to each other - a story about a traveling salesman's repeated connections with another traveler ("The Balland of Pual Nonetheless") preceeds the poem "On Airplanes"; the poem "The Theology of Reptiles," introduces the short story "Catechism", about the Coeur 'd Alene and their conversion to Catholcism (and the underlying issues of Native assimilation so common to Alexie's work.) This formula works as each piece is interrelated with the next, a way of preparing the palatte for the next course.
The themes common to Alexie - alienation, guilt, the struggle of identity and wrestling with one's personal (and historic) past are all here, and all have the semi-autobiograhical feel that is indicitive of his earlier work. Fans of Alexie will not be disappointed; he is a great writer. For those who aren't familiar with his work, my recommendation for a first read would be The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. There are nuggets of brilliance in this collection, but it was too uneven to warrant five stars.
 Brilliant as ever October 23, 2009
A. A. Curtis (Austin, Texas USA)
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
I've come to expect a certain caliber from this author's books. As usual, his writing here is jaw-dropping. Some sentences must be reread because of their beauty and power. Typical Alexie here -- disturbing, funny, and truer than most nonfiction. These stories will suck you in. Not as riveting as the National Book Award-winning "The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian," but that may be because short stories don't allow the reader as much time to become intimate with the characters. I'd also recommend "Flight: A Novel," "Reservation Blues," and "The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven."
 If the guilt doesn't get you, the shame will September 14, 2009
Elena Lechuza Blanca
17 out of 22 found this review helpful
Blending short stories, bits of prose and poems, this new collection by Sherman Alexie is too short a read. The book feels sketchy, as if a sculptor sat down with a sketch pad, and drew exercises intended for later use. But the sketches are no less beautiful for it. Sherman Alexie's voice makes the bitter "I", sweet--well, mostly. The Short story "Ballad of Paul Nonetheless" is like something from the Savage Love podcast--a man stuck in his own lens. Another short story, "War Dances", links fragments reflecting fear, grief, and love --the last few lines are the best--anger, tears and laughter--such economy. "Breaking and Entering" written in staccato--so much so that I could not remember the stories content after the first read, details blurred in the jumbled confusion, I had to read it again. I liked it more the first time around, before digesting the ugly details. "Salt"--beautiful story and out of the bunch feels the most whole. The collection reminds me, `if the guilt doesn't get you, the shame will'. And maybe that is as it should be. If you're already a Sherman Alexie reader, you'll probably enjoy this book. If you've never read his work, I would suggest you start with one of his other books, like The Toughest Indian in the World (short stories) or The Business of fancy dancing (poetry) and read War Dances after you've read all his other adult works.
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