Rating: 
Summary: subtle, sarcastic, magical, funny and sad
Review: I had never read Sherman Alexie before, but I will be sure to read more in the future. He combines mythology, satire, lots of verbal riddles/puns, a little history and some laugh-out-loud lines in the voice of a first American that you can almost hear telling the story. I loved Thomas and understood the ironies of reservation life better through all of the characters. God could be an armadillo.
Rating:
Summary: Without Reservations, Read this book
Review: Alexis' observations and commentaries regarding disingenous, misguided federally funded attempts at Indian assimilation and the white man's paternalistic approach toward developmental assistance are right on target. The reluctance to endorse cultural acceptance while reinforcing the cult of victimization were so painfully analogous to the plight of other ethnic groups, on numerable occassions I had to sit the book aside and remind myself he was addressing issues supposedly endemic to the reservation. This book could have been centered on any of the de-facto bantustans that hve evolved for African Americans or Latinos.Alexis approaches his core characters - members of a fledgling rock and roll band named Coyote Springs - in a fluid, easy to read style that employs ironical but often biting humor. It captivates from cover to cover as you can't wait to discover the next set of trials and tribulations to confront Thomas (after all, he's the lead singer) and the other band members. Sherman Alexis should be required reading for everyone if for no other reason than to remind each of us the plethora of concerns presented by diverse groups are quite often universal. Displacement, Disenfranchisement, and dissatisfaction are not limited to any one racial group. RESERVATION BLUES should be a staple and not just during "Indigenous People's History Month" whenever the powers that be, the spirit of reparations and guilt, gets around to cursory recognition of yet another ethnic group that should long since have been acknowledged as a significant fiber to the blended fabric of this country.
Rating:
Summary: the Miner's Canary
Review: This reviewer will not succumb to the temptation to "soapbox" about the horror of smallpox laden blankets, misguided federal "Indian Policy," the terrors of the "termination era," and on and on. Sherman Alexie, a Spokane/Coeur d'Alene, has written far above my own poor power to add or detract. (I paraphrased that appropriate quote from Lincoln's Gettysburg Address.) Some of the characters are holdouts from his also excellent "The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven." There is no whitewash of Rez life here. It renders both the good and the bad, the happy and the sad. It summoned a vision of "The Devil Went Down To Georgia" being sung by the rock group Redbone. (Ya -hey! Check out the name of the record company and the officers!)
Rating: 
Summary: Impotence and aimlessness
Review: The characters Victor Joesph and Thomas Builds the Fire who first appeared in Alexie's "The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven" are prominent in this novel, which serves as a sequel to the short story in which they first appeared. While the novel's beginning, with the arrival of black blues player Robert Johnson's arrival at the Spokane reservation, initially suggests a possible variation the novel quickly returns to the theme present in other Alexie works, albeit with different essential messages about the condition of American Indians today. The story is written in the author's typical sardonic fashion, portraying ongoing hapless episodes confronting the protagonists, with the Indians reflecting on their experiences and fate in a self deprecating and defeatest fashion. However, Alexie offers a number of distinctive observations in this tale. Among them he notes how the suppression of American Indians is in part a function of how the predominant society has kept them divided. This is illustrated by descriptions of the petty tyranny of the tribal police and tribal council corrupted by their power on the reservation, narrow attitudes of territoriality taking predominance over group identity in distinctions between tribes, and how jealousy over the prospect of success helps thwart the advancement of tribal members and actually promotes alienation, failure, and self destruction. Alexie's mordant humor comes to play in depicting the ongoing theft by the predominant culture of what little remains to American Indians, with Caucasians exploiting Native American culture and those who are "part" native American or those masquerading presuming to be representative. In a particularly ironic episode Indians visiting Manhattan are dismissed as surely being Puerto Rican, not Native American. Touching, thought provoking and well written. It is woven with important messages about a people who are treated as if they are invisible.
Rating:
Summary: Simply Amazing
Review: I read this novel in my high school philosophy class when we were talking about social injustices. This book really meant a lot to me because even though the novel itself deals with the Spokane Indian tribe, on a deeper level, it can relate to everybody -- since every person has their own heritage which they should be proud of. This book taught me that if you want to know where you're going in life, you have to know where you came from. Reservation Blues also deals with the impact of music on one's life. For the characters in the novel, music brings back memories (although sometimes painful). It's amazing how powerful music can really be. In addition to all of this, Alexie adds a humorous touch to the novel as a whole, making it even more enjoyable.
Rating:
Summary: A Major Talent Tells An Important Story
Review: Through the entertaining story of the rise and fall of a Spokane garage band, Sherman Alexie manages to pack the complexities and frustrations of contemporary Native American Indian life on and off the Reservation. Though his narrative is full of droll wit, his themes are profound. He speaks of the poverty, alcoholism and broken family structure that haunt reservations, of the meanness of HUD housing, surplus food and the local police. As for co-existence with whites: any white left after reading this who thinks white culture understands and treats Indians better these days is as dense as they come. The author explores how outside culture bids for the Indian soul. There is an identity crisis for sure, a rattling sense of purposelessness. Infusing the story with mythic components that extend beyond specific ethnic borders, the author expresses the anger without hate and searches for purpose and redemption. His sentence structure is deceptively straightforward. It drips with allusion and music. In a few strokes, each character becomes a fully developed individual. I hadn't read this talented writer's work before and am in awe of his voice. Some of the other reviewers have mentioned that a movie will be made of this. It will be a challenge to deliver what the book does. What happens to the band, Coyote Springs, at the hands of the New York record company in the book is not good and I wouldn't want Hollywood to do that to this fine work. On the other hand, Alexie is knowing, so I trust he has been careful in letting it go.
Rating: 
Summary: You Know, It Don't Come Easy
Review: "Reservation Blues" is bitter/sweet in all the term implies. Anger/Love, Pain/Healing, even the two faces of Comedy/Tragedy go hand in hand in this realistic and magical look at a young, Indian rock and roll band - Coyote Springs - and the people and spirits that appear in their orbit. Sherman Alexie has a deep understanding of the results of a people's total colonization; and a realistic understanding of the truth that redemption never comes easy and tragedy is a fact of life. Beyond the pleasure of reading a story well written is the pain of being given a clear-eyed look at the horror wrought by our United States' western expansion. Mr. Alexie gives you the feeling that even a war fought to extinction will never end because spirits will inhabit the land, but he also provides some hope that spirits may heal.
Rating:
Summary: Reservation's Blues
Review: Alexie's ability to paint the characters in his work is only surpassed by the caliber of their authenticity. Sherman is not a Native American William Faulkner as other authors of the genre (like N. Scott Momaday) and in Reservation Blues, that serves him well.
Rating: 
Summary: trite storyline
Review: This is Alexie's worst text. His storyline is an adaptation of Damn Yankees. The character names are pop culture at best, i.e. Chess and Checkers, Betty and Veronica and Wally and the Beav. I was waiting for Rocky and Bullwinkle and Alvin, Simon and Theodore to show up. The story takes forever to develope and is miles behind his masterpiece "Indian Killer".
Rating:
Summary: Looking forward to seeing the movie!
Review: This picks up some characters from Alexie's earlier works: Thomas Builds-the-Fire and Victor Joseph. They were the main characters in Alexie's movie "Smoke Signals" were also in his collection of stories "The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven." Now, they are the lead singer and guitar player in a would-be Indian rock and roll band. The story itself is fairly straightforward, but it is woven through with elements of mysticism, magic, and deals with the devil. I keep wondering how Alexie will translate this to the screen. Following simply the story line, there is plenty to show: humor, hope, despair, addiction, love, hate, racism, and of course the commercial music world. But then there are the characters and incidents which push the story into the "wooo-wooo" world. How did Victor suddenly gain the ability to play the guitar? Who is Big Mom and where does she get her powers? There are also a great many dream sequences, which I found getting old after a while. Alexie has written a number of poems/songs supposedly created by Thomas, and there is of course also the challenge of providing the music for the soundtrack. It will be interesting to see what makes it to the screen.Alexie's skill as a poet is evident all through this book, as is his wit.
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