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Blasphemy: New and Selected Stories Hardcover – October 2, 2012
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A bold and irreverent observer of life among Native Americans in the Pacific Northwest, the daring, versatile, funny, and outrageous Alexie showcases all his talents in his newest collection, Blasphemy, where he unites fifteen beloved classics with fifteen new stories in one sweeping anthology for devoted fans and first-time readers.
Included here are some of his most esteemed tales, including What You Pawn I Will Redeem," This is What it Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona,” The Toughest Indian in the World,” and War Dances.” Alexie’s new stories are fresh and quintessentialabout donkey basketball leagues, lethal wind turbines, the reservation, marriage, and all species of contemporary American warriors.
An indispensable collection of new and classic stories, Blasphemy reminds us, on every thrilling page, why Sherman Alexie is one of our greatest contemporary writers and a true master of the short story.
- Print length480 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherGrove Press
- Publication dateOctober 2, 2012
- Dimensions6.13 x 1 x 9.25 inches
- ISBN-109780802120397
- ISBN-13978-0802120397
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Editorial Reviews
Review
"Alexie once again reasserts himself as one the most compelling contemporary practitioners of the short story. In Blasphemy, the author demonstrates his talent on nearly every page. These are deceptively simple, swift-moving stories awash with characters in the thrall of various sins and existential quandaries. Alexie deftly administers near equal doses of pathos and humor, providing such smooth entertainment that some readers may glide over his empathetic treatment of such themes as racism, identity, family, loyalty, and ceremony. . . . Will appeal to fans of Junot Diaz, George Saunders, and readers new to Alexie will find this enriching collection to be the perfect introduction to a formidable literary voice. . . . [Alexie] illuminates the lives of his characters in unique, surprising and, ultimately, hopeful ways."Boston Globe
"Tough, warmhearted, rowdy, and moving . . . Alexie's achievement here is his depiction of the tangled complexities of racethat great open secret of American lifein an undidactic and utterly natural way."The Washington Post
"A timely reminder of Alexie's genius."The Guardian
"The truths [Alexie] mines are so insightful that even the most ardent critic must pause and consider his words. The depth of Alexie's stories is complemented by the self-awareness and unapologetic humor that suffuse almost every page. Again, Alexie draws out laughter, even as a reader struggles to understand the overwhelming sadness these tales can evoke. . . . The strength of Alexie's work is his unrepentant exploration of what it means to be 'other.' . . . Blasphemy is blasphemous only in disrespecting the boundaries that many would place on those who mine otherness."Washington Independent Review of Books
"[Alexie] has been celebrated for his acerbic, funny, politically charged stories. . . . Tenderness along with passiongovernable or otherwiseare elements as pervasive in his impressive body of work as his subversive humor, his grief and outrage over the exploitation and neglect of indigenous populations in the United States. . . . If literary fiction in its purest form is meant to be an accurate reflection of human experience and its inevitable ambiguities, Alexie skillfully offers us this in Blasphemy. . . . What Alexie makes poignantly clear in the stories he has written in his long and robust career is that we cannot choose whom we fall in love with, nor can we choose who, fundamentally, we are."San Francisco Chronicle
"[Blasphemy] haunts the reader with men whose choices lead to misfortune. One can also expect the humor and small redemptions that are present in Alexie's best work."Time Out New York (5 stars)
"Sweet, salty, and full of heart . . . In his stories [Alexie's] stories are wide open to love and death, fathers and sons, grief and loss, and the multiple dilemmas of marriage and race and waking up pathetically human. His stories speed along, most first-person narration, in a voice so captivating you don't want him (or her) to stop."Star-Tribune (Minneapolis)
"Shot through with emotional strain . . . A powerful thwap against mainstream knowledge of American Indians . . . Each story is a page-turner . . . a series of literary sprints, each one quickening your heart rate and leaving you pausing to catch your breath before you're on to the next."Huffington Post
"You'll finish this first-rate collection wanting more."People
"The supreme irony of all identity writing . . . is that the literary trick does not click unless everyone is in on it. . . . Sherman Alexie, with his shamanistic convicts, drunken fathers, homeless heroes, and gay boxers, understands this imp or inclusion to an almost supernatural fault. . . . Alexie's voice, for so long the go-to growl of the contemporary American Indian experience, seems to have gotten braver with age. . . . Alexie's authority here is an inclusive comic sorrow that befits the entire world."Dallas News
"A beautiful anthology . . . Each character is distinctly memorable. . . . [Alexie] leads his readers through a minefield or grave situations while turning back to wink and crack jokes along the way."Brooklyn Rail
"Blasphemy succeeds in placing new stories within the solid foundation of what are now Alexie classics. The result is a thoughtfully arranged overview of Alexie's most important themes and some of his most loved characters, complemented by dynamic new work."Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
"A masterful gift . . . It takes a special talent to tackle despair and isolation while maintaining an overarching optimism. . . . Alexie writes concisely and simply, which makes following the author's whimsy a breezy joy and constant surprise. The stories teeter between serious, philosophical musings and bitter sarcasm, which together give the stories a unique rhythm. . . . Blasphemy acts as Alexie's definitive statement about common human experiences."Daily Nebraskan
"Brilliant . . . A fearless two-decade examination of Sherman Alexie's Native America, and also a testament to his mastery of the short-story form."The Toronto Star
"A poet and fiction writer for adults of all ages, National Book Award winner Alexie is a virtuoso of the short story. His first two blazing collections, The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven and The Toughest Indian in the World, established him as an essential American voice. Now, many books later, best-selling Alexie has created a substantial, big-hearted, and potent collection that combines an equal number of new and selected stories to profound effect. In these comfort-zone-destroying tales, including the masterpiece, 'War Dances,' his characters grapple with racism, damaging stereotypes, poverty, alcoholism, diabetes, and the tragic loss of languages and customs. Questions of authenticity and identity abound. . . . Alexie writes with arresting perception in praise of marriage, in mockery of hypocrisy, and with concern for endangered truths and imperiled nature. He is mischievously and mordantly funny, scathingly forthright, deeply and universally compassionate, and wholly magnetizing. This is a must-have collection."Booklist (starred review)
"[A] sterling collection of short stories by Alexie, a master of the form. . . . . The newer pieces are full of surprises. . . . . These pieces show Alexie at his best: as an interpreter and observer, always funny if sometimes angry, and someone, as a cop says of one of his characters, who doesn’t 'fit the profile of the neighborhood.'"Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"Alexie hammers away at ever-simmering issues, like racism, addiction, and infidelity, using a no-holds-barred approach and seamlessly shattering the boundary between character and reader. But while these glimpses into a harried and conflicted humanity prod our consciousness, there’s plenty of bawdiness and Alexie’s signature wicked humor throughout to balance out the weight."Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"An unsettling and very American panorama."Vogue (Fall's Standout Fiction)
"Like the best storytellers, Alexie can toss off heartbreakingly expressive and profound sentiments with a humor and nonchalance that cleverly conceal their gravity. It's these deceptively poignant moments that drive Alexie's work and provide an earthly backdrop to the cosmic swap meets of our souls. . . . [He] translates the beauty of his forbears' straightforward philosophy into a jarring and transcendent literary experience. . . . Told with his hallmark wit and candor [Blasphemy] captures the splendors of [Alexie's] considerable talent."Portland Monthly
"Highlights Alexie's unique ability to create deeply moving and thought-provoking stories that can make you laugh out loud and simultaneously break your heart . . . Alexie's stories do not shy away from depicting the poverty, addiction, and violence that affects many Native American communities, but he explores these darker aspects of life with biting humor and a lot of compassion, letting the joy shine through as well. . . . Explores the universal themes of relationships and identity along with the thornier issues of American life, like race and class, with remarkable heart and humor."Kasia Hopkins, The News-Gazette (Illinois)
About the Author
Product details
- ASIN : 0802120393
- Publisher : Grove Press; First Edition (October 2, 2012)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 480 pages
- ISBN-10 : 9780802120397
- ISBN-13 : 978-0802120397
- Item Weight : 1.71 pounds
- Dimensions : 6.13 x 1 x 9.25 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #538,258 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #10,808 in Short Stories (Books)
- #30,749 in American Literature (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
About the author
Sherman Alexie is the author of, most recently, Blasphemy, stories, from Grove Press, and Face, poetry, from Hanging Loose Press. He is the winner of the 2010 PEN/Faulkner Award, the 2007 National Book Award for Young People’s Literature, the 2001 PEN/Malamud Award for Excellence in the Short Story, and a Special Citation for the 1994 PEN/Hemingway Award for Best First Fiction. Smoke Signals, the film he wrote and coproduced, won both the Audience Award and the Filmmakers Trophy at the 1998 Sundance Film Festival. Alexie lives with his family in Seattle.
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Top reviews from the United States
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The writing is taut but not terse. It invites the reader to imerse in the experiences of the unfoldings written in the laconic imagery of poets. Enjoy!
Each of the stories is a feast for discussion among those who have read this book. Indeed, I yearned for someone else's take on the essence of each tale in this collection.
Some of his stories made me laugh very hard, others left my teeth on edge -- which is okay because in order to get messages across in a country where the straight and honest history of Europeans' unjust, sometimes criminal and frequently horrifying treatment of indigenous Americans still is not taught in enough public schools it is necessary to be direct. He does than with his own unmistakable flair for contrasting details. (And one does realize that the Natives also did horrifying things to white people as they were being persecuted. In wars nobody comes out ready for sainthood.
I don't think the pain is ever going to end for America's native peoples until there has come into existence -- and been so for a number generations -- way more transparency in what has long been and, to a lesser extent, still is taught in schools, and more effort by the government to address the wrongs. For starters perhaps try apologizing the way the Canadian government is doing with the First People.
In this particular collection of stories Sherman Alexie shows both the up and down sides of contemporary Native living. There are some drunks, some sad, some crazy, one or so dull (that's just part of the story), but they are his kind of drunks, people whose stories touch you. There are also successful professional Indians living in cities for the most part, but usually with a connection to the reservation that can be extremely strong. As somebody who cares about good education being available to all people, everywhere, I liked reading about people in these strories who had that, and put it to work. How they did ... well, that's the point of the stories, and I enjoyed it all.
To me an achievement of his writing is that whoever you are, you will gain unforgettable insights into the realities of being Native American here and now, while both laughing and gritting your teeth and possibly crying, too. As with Alice Walker writing about black Americans, when I see a Sherman Alexie book I haven't read yet, picking it up feels .... just a little .... like putting my hand on something that might shake me up. Do I dare to open this door? Oh, yes, well worth it.
This collection is primo Alexie. Who else would deliver such a range of characters and plots and keep the drum beat thoughout?
Top reviews from other countries
A must read for all fans and for everyone who wants to understand the situation of contemporary natives in the USA.