War Dances

Reviews / Votes

"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 now--this 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... War Dances is vintage Alexie ... [and] should be savored... Fans will not be disappointed."--The Grand Rapids Press