Sherman Alexie is not a finicky writer. He is often messy and in-your-face in a way that can make you laugh (or shudder) when you least expect to. . . . War Dances is Alexie's fiercely freewheeling collection of stories and poems about the tragicomedies of ordinary lives." O, the Oprah Magazine
Alexie has a wry, subversive sensibility. . . . The structure [in War Dances ] is sophisticated yet playful, a subtle way to bring lightness to heavy topics such as senility, bigotry, cancer, and loneliness. . . . A mix tape of a book, with many voices, pieces of different length, shifting rhythms, an evolving story." Los Angeles Times
Smart modern stories interspersed with witty and deep-feeling verse." San Francisco
Chronicle
Sherman Alexie mixes up comedy and tragedy, shoots it through with tenderness, then delivers with a provocateur's don't-give-a-damn flourish. He's unique, and his new book, War Dances , is another case in point." Seattle Times
Alexie's works are piercing yet rueful. He writes odes to anguished pay-phone calls, to boys who would drive through blizzards to see a girl, to couples who need to sit together on airplane flights even though the computer thinks otherwise. . . . [A] marvelous collection." Miami Herald
War Dances taps every vein and nerve, every tissue, every issue that quickens the current blood-pulse: parenthood, divorce, broken links, sex, gender and racial conflict, substance abuse, medical neglect, 9/11, Official Narrative vs. What Really Happened, settler religion vs. native spirituality, marketing, shopping, and war, war, war. All the heartbreaking ways we don't live nowthis is the caring, eye-opening beauty of this rollicking, bittersweet gem of a book." PEN/Faulkner judge Al Young
Few other contemporary writers seem willing to deal with issues of race, class, and sexuality as explicitly as Alexie . . . [War Dances" is] a virtuoso performance of wit and pathos, a cultural and familial critique and a son's quiet, worthless scream against the night as his father expires . . . [that] reminds me of the early 20th Century master of the short form Akutagawa Riyunosuke. . . . Yet again Sherman Alexie has given us a hell of a ride."Barnes & Noble Reviews
" War Dances is maybe the most personal book Alexie has ever published, and it's certainly one of his most readable. The closest thing to a historical precedent for this book is Palm Sunday , Kurt Vonnegut's wildly entertaining self-described autobiographical collage' of anecdotes, fiction, reminiscences, and other work. . . . Each piece firmly builds on some part of the other, like the songs on a good mix tape. . . . The asymmetrical collection on display in War Dances works as a supremely gratifying reading experience." The Stranger
Penetrating . . . Alexie unfurls highly expressive language . . . [in] this spiritedly provocative array of tragic comedies." Publishers Weekly
Encounter [Alexie's work] once and you'll never forget it." Library Journal
Alexie is at his best in this collection of hilarious and touching stories." Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
[With War Dances ], Sherman Alexie enhances his stature as a multitalented writer and an astute observer of life among Native Americans in the Pacific Northwest. . . . [An] edgy and frequently surprising collection." Bookpage
Remarkable . . . Wonderful . . . [Alexie's] work reveals both the light and dark within native American life. A paradox in his writing is that you can be in the middle of delighted laughter when he will hit you with a sentence so true to the core of a character's pain that you suck your breath or are startled to realize you are crying." The Globe and Mail
Alexie is a master storyteller whose prose is laced with metaphoric realities of life, mixed with triumph and tragedy. . . . Wa
