Rating: 
Summary: Not Alexie's best
Review: I have read much of Sherman Alexie's work, and I found most of the stories in this collection to be mediocre, and frankly, disappointing. One story, entitled "What You Pawn I Will Redeem" is the exception, and shows how good Alexie can be when he's writing at his best.
Rating: 
Summary: Great Book!
Review: I recommend this book for several reasons. Not only is it a thoroughly entertaining read, it also makes an important statement about all the things that people in this day and age are going through. I didn't feel as though I was reading about Native Americans from a white person's point of view. I felt like I was reading about fellow human beings who go through some of the same things I do. Reading this book made me feel a range of emotions, and also left me with a different way to look at situations that life may present me with.
Rating:
Summary: Great Book!
Review: I recommend this book for several reasons. Not only is it a thoroughly entertaining read, it also makes an important statement about all the things that people in this day and age are going through. I didn't feel as though I was reading about Native Americans from a white person's point of view. I felt like I was reading about fellow human beings who go through some of the same things I do. Reading this book made me feel a range of emotions, and also left me with a different way to look at situations that life may present me with.
Rating:
Summary: Great Book.
Review: I thought the stories in this collection were all worth reading, although some were better than others. Other reviewers have said Alexie is getting redundant, well, I don't know about that. I enjoyed his book, Indian Killer, but I haven't read all his other short stories. I loved his perspective on love, success, terrorism, and the women's movement, and found that it was not so different from my own, a woman of similar age who grew up in an Italian-Irish-American household where the only books in the house were mine, and the people were, in my opinion, way too accepting of their "station in life," whatever the hell that is. So I felt like I was reading a book written by a Native American cousin of mine--when some white folks were here killing his ancestors, others were back in Europe starving mine, regardless of being the same color. Now, we all have to deal with the same issues, fear of terrorism, adultery, losing a child, failing our dreams, making it in the dominant culture, being ourselves. Anyway, I recommend this book. It's not perfect, but it shines.
Rating:
Summary: Rising son of the West
Review: Last year, while exalting Larry McMurtry as the most popular writer of the American West, the Los Angeles Times relegated Sherman Alexie -- without specifically naming him -- to a group of praiseworthy Western writers who lack mass appeal largely because they explore only microcosmic corners of this vast region. True, no contemporary author has succeeded in popular Western fiction like McMurtry, the old stud horse in the sparse herd of the region's literary writers. But Alexie is the mustang: Wild, irreverent, defiant, bold, unpredictable, sleek, distant, erotic, swift and hard to corral -- everything McMurtry never was, even in his prime. Not that Alexie cares. He's a provocateur who never left a pot unstirred. He's a trickster not above mocking himself. He's a proud Spokane/Coeur d'Alene Indian who is just as likely to skewer Indians as totem-loving liberals and Yale-educated conservatives (yeah, him.) And he's a best-selling author who knows exactly how far to push the sensibilities of his gentler readers. And his latest collection of short stories, 'Ten Little Indians,' once again shows him to be not just one of the West's best, but one of the most brilliantly literate American writers, even funnier than Louise Erdrich, even more primal than Jim Harrison, and even more eloquent than Annie Proulx. Since his 1993 debut, 'The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven,' Alexie has had few, if any, sacred cows. Including Indians. As with his last collection, 'The Toughest Indian in the World,' the reader is submersed in yarns that are sometimes funny and sometimes heartbreaking, where Indians find themselves between worlds, between lives, and between loves. 'Ten Little Indians' comprises nine easy pieces in the puzzle of Sherman Alexie, who ranks with the best, even if he stands alone.
Rating: 
Summary: Some Good, Some Not So Good
Review: Sherman Alexie is a fine writer, but some of the stories in this book remind me of college freshman level stories, where the writer wants to throw in a bunch of references to things they've recently learned to make themself appear sophisticated. I was a bit shocked that a writer of Alexie's talent would have such sloppy stuff published. Also I agree with the other reviewer who noticed that Alexie is rehashing themes that are becoming very redundant is his stories.
That said, a few of the stories in this book show the great talent that I expect from someone like Sherman Alexie.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent!
Review: Sherman Alexie is one of the best writers of our time. This book was touching, vivid, intense -- as always, he delivers. What a great storyteller!
Rating:
Summary: Excellent!
Review: Sherman Alexie is one of the best writers of our time. This book was touching, vivid, intense -- as always, he delivers. What a great storyteller!
Rating:
Summary: Not Vintage Alexie
Review: Since I am a fan of Sherman Alexie's, and have read all of his previous works, I found this book disappointing. If you have read any of his other works you will note some redundancy, and perhaps be left with a sort of "deja vu" feeling. While one or two are noteworthy, the stories are milking the same Alexie themes, now getting tired. His displeasure with the "greyness of Seattle weather" has gotten old. He has exhaustively explored the impact of young men on strong women and a matrilineal culture. His incorporation of sexual innuendo and humor have grown puerile. And, he is beating the basketball theme into the ground. I think it is time for Alexie to take a hiatus to ponder and perhaps devote his considerable talent to explore some of his other experiences...or to take the time to have some. The themes in this book are like orange juice concentrate to which 4 cans of water have been added.
Rating:
Summary: Nine Tales; Little they ain't...
Review: Ten Little Indians showcases Sherman Alexie's ability to reveal the wonderful oddities hiding in ordinary human lives--a brilliant college student obsessed by an obscure poet tracks him down to find out how he became so "Indian"; a man's heart fibrillates, leading him to a vision of his father's death and to a new life as a superfit, middle-aged basketball phenom; a mama's boy is desperate to help a beautiful, confident woman who is unaware of the menstrual blood staining the back of her white skirt. These are strange, potent tales. You will rejoice as Alexie's characters find the extraordinary in lives seemingly destined to be tragic.
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