rewriting myth.
Ultimately, though, as in the opening poem, "Influences," the body of
Alexie’s work "is not about sadness" but "the stories / imagined / beneath
the sleeping bags / between starts / to warm up the car . . . stories / I told my sisters
/ to fill those long hours waiting outside the bar, waiting for my mother, my father to
knock on the window." And these are stories which are sure to be repeated for
generations to come
from Scott Kallstrom, Review of First Indian on the Moon. Sycamore Review
6.1 (1994). http://www.sla.purdue.edu/sycamore/v61-b1.html
Review of Water Flowing Home
by Kelley Blewster
In truth, Sherman Alexie’s literary output can’t be circumscribed by a label focusing
on its racial themes. An elegant little chapbook of love poems titled Water Flowing
Home (1996) by itself belies such a description:
but I have salmon blood
from my mother and father
and always ignore barriers
and bridges, only follow
this simple and genetic map
that you have drawn
in my interior, this map
hat always leads back
to that exact place
where you are
(from "Exact Drums")
Accessible, lyrical, heartfelt, these are the kind of poems that do what poetry’s meant
to do: evoke and recall emotion rather than simply play with the language. No, Alexie
covers much, much richer terrain than just race relations; but it would be nearly
impossible for readers to come away from most of his works without feeling more
self-conscious about the color of their skin. Poems such as "Exact Drums" offer
a moment of grace amidst the gravity of much of his subject matter — they are welcomed
like the release of a pent-up breath.
from Kelley Blewster, "Tribal Visions." Biblio 4.3 (March 1999): 22.
Review of Old Shirts and New Skins
Alexie . . . here emerges as a Native poet of the first order. He captures the full
range of modern Native experience, writing both with anger and with great affection and
humor. Detailing the continuing deprivation and colonialism, the poet pointedly asks,
"Am I the garbageman of your dreams?" and defines Native "economics":
"risk" is playing poker with cash and then passing out at powwow. Focusing on
the Leonard Peltier case, Alexie exposes the ineffectualness of both white Indian-lovers
and some Native leaders in "The Marion Brando Memorial Swimming Pool":
"Peltier goes blind in Leavenworth. . . / and Brando sits, fat and naked, by the
Pacific ocean. There was never / any water in the damn thing." General Custer is
allowed to give an accounting of himself, as Alexie links genocide of America’s indigenous
peoples with Viemain, the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire and other acts of warfare and
destruction. Alexie writes comfortably in a variety of styles. Many of the poems turn on
grim irony, putting the author himself in the traditional role of the trickster. Adrian
Louis provides a powerful foreword, and Elizabeth Woody’s moody illustrations add to the
volume’s impact.
from Publishers Weekly 1 Feb. 1993: 87.