Customer Reviews

The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven

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There are relatively few books about modern Native American life, that is, life on reservations. There are also relatively less well-written books on the subject. However, I feel that Sherman Alexie has compiled a well-balanced volume of stories into what he titled The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven. The book is about an assemblage of short stories about a Native American boy named Victor who lives on a reservation in Washington. The reader indirectly learns about the character of Victor through his actions, thoughts, and speech throughout the book. His father is an alcoholic who leaves the family when Victor is young. Victor eventually falls into the same pattern as his father, and his only outlet in life is basketball. All of Victor's hardships are made unique by the setting that he is, living in a white man's world with a feeling of obligation to his native traditions. The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven is a great piece of literature. Sherman Alexie wrote each individual story that makes up the book as though he had lived through it (and he very well might have). It is realistic fiction with great detail. The vividly described scenes are what make the book seem personal, and it gives the book a feeling of sentimentality. Alexie is a solid writer and wrote and laid out each story well. He created a compilation of many stories and placed them in an order that flows well from one to the next. He can state a point very clearly, and in The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight In Heaven he makes a lot of points. Through use of metaphor, and just by telling stories he writes about how fathers affect their children, how Native Americans are still being persecuted, Native American tradition, etc. I do not believe that there is an aspect of the book that I disliked, besides one or two stories I did not think were relevant. I wholly enjoyed reading The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven. It is a fun and well-written book that has a lot to say about life, and a lot to teach about Native Americans. I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys western literature.

Winner of two Sundance Film Festival awards, writer of the screenplay for Smoke Signals, along with a few other books and collections of poetry, Sherman Alexie authored The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven.
Victor, a nine-year-old Spokane Indian boy, awoke on New Year's Eve of 1976 to the sound of his parents having a party. Not only did he awake to a party, soon after he heard his uncles fighting. Not that this was a surprise to young Victor, but every time they fought it made him angry because he knew there was more pain than could ever be spoken. Remembering back to earlier days, Victor remembers that around this same time when he was five he saw his father look into his wallet and reach for money that wasn't there. Alexie uses such vivid details in explaining the pain Victor endured seeing his father cry, one of my favorites is how he describes Victor seeing his father's tears as "... millions of icy knives through the air, each specific and beautiful. Each dangerous and random." It is symbolism such as this that keeps the reader engaged and interested throughout the book. Alexie continues on using different characters such as Thomas-Builds-the-Fire who never gives up on his storytelling, and Jimmy Many Horses who is dying of cancer.
Although this is an engaging book and gives the reader a different perspective on what it's really like to live and grow up on a reservation, Alexie can be slow at times. He reminds me a little of one of those sob stories you hear on a bad small claims court case on TV. Maybe it sounds a little harsh, but you know when an argument is clearly over yet the defendant just keeps on going? There are a few times in this book where I just had to put it down and ignore it for a while because I couldn't handle Alexie's humor of basketball and drunken dancing. Overall, I would have to give Alexie props for this book because he does use some incredible sensory descriptions. Hopefully for his next novel though he can get past some of his shattered dreams and stick to a story.

The vignette is the last refuge of the scoundrel, or at most a struggling writer like Sherman Alexie. The stories in this book are filled with characters drinking and dreaming of their horse riding pasts, complaining about the Washington Redskins. What else is new? Can't Alexie get over these stereotypes and invent more interesting things for his readers? This is not a book, but a diary filled with random observations. The prose is very confusing and unimpressive, giving the readers a worse impression of Native Americans.

I'm a junkie for short story collections - I especially like this one. Alexie writes about the Native American culture in the modern world, presenting many perspectives, both negative and postive, and distinguishing stereotypes from truths. In the end, it's engaging and entertaining.

I would recommend the movie "Smoke Signals" in addition to this text (a film that depicts some of the stories and characters presented in this collection).

I was confused the first time I had read the book as to the connection of the stories but became clearer the second. This book a big eye opener to those of us who are uniformed of the Native American culture. I found myself wading in various feelings throughout and even began laughing out loud at times. I have suggested this book to several others.

A collection of short stories written by a local American Indian, Sherman Alexie that will bring you to a different world. Even though the stories are fiction, they are based on things he's seen and experienced. Some of the stories in this collection are a little boring, or too deep for some to catch. But most of them are worth reading more than once. For example: "A Drug Called Tradition", "Because My Father Always Said He Was they Only Indian Who Saw Jimi Hendrix Play 'The Star Spangled Banner' at Woodstock", "All I Wanted to Do Was Dance", "The Trial of Thomas Builds-the-Fire", and many others.

The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven is for the true American Indian. This book is several short stories that have both fantasy and real life events. These memories are sometimes dark but many times good. Through out this book Victor tells of his memories with his family and friends. Until the day of a horrific accident! In his family that will change his life forever. This book has many everyday problems and life problems of people that you can relate your-self to if not now, maybe In the future. This book has many modern traditions of both today and the past Indian cultures. The movie Smoke signals is based on this book I didn't think it was near as good as the book even know the movie got many awards. I felt that the movie was very boring.This book is a vivd account of the life on an Indian reservation in modern day. Instead of focusing on one character, Alexie shared stories of several different people which gives a more complete description. There is Victor, who is brought up around alcoholism, Thomas Builds-the-Fire, who is constantly telling stories, and Jimmy Many Horses, who jokes about his cancer.

For those of you who read the works of leading, contemporary writers, this book should be in your hands and in your library. The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven is an excellent collection of short short stories that delivers high-velocity entertainment and quickly rips away the space between reader and writer. You will be completely immersed in the realistic and sometimes fantastical literary world of Sherman Alexie.
As a mesmerizing storyteller with feathery wings, Sherman Alexie's keen, double-edged intellect will at times soar with the reader to extraordinary heights of literary fantasy while exploring the realistic and often difficult world of the Indians on the rez. Reading this collection of stories is more than entertainment. It is an experience.

Sherman Alexie's "Lone Ranger" is a vivd accound of the life on an Indian reservation in modern day. Instead of focusing on one character, Alexie shared stories of several different people which gives a more complete description. There is Victor, who is brought up around alcoholism, Thomas Builds-the-Fire, who is constantly telling stories, and Jimmy Many Horses, who jokes about his cancer. The characters are very unforgettable as their experiences are told in a most entertaining way. Since each chapter is a different story it is hard to tell which character is being described. It goes from VIctor in one chapter to Jimmy Many Horses in the next. That can definitely be confusing. But what it shows best is life through the eyes of true Spokane Indians and their struggle with depression, alcoholism, and seclusion. Alexie shows the contrasts between modern Indians and the Indians of the past and how the traditions were lost. It gives views of whites through Indian eyes and how they have dealt with inferiority. Though it has many strengths, it also has weaknessess. Other than the confusion between characters, there is also a confusion on time. In one chapter it's 1976 and in the next it's 1992 and sometimes it isn't explained very well. But Alexie definitey gets his point across in showing the world the hard times faced by Indians growing up in modren day USA. It's a very entertainig book that is easy to read and very seldom put down. I definitely believe it could be the Bible for modern day Native Americans in this country.

The Book The Lone Ranger and Tanto Fistfight in Heaven by Sherman Alexie was very well written and enjoyable. It is a collection of inter connecting short stories that share similar themes and characters as well. It revolves around a few main characters including Victor the main character, and Thomas Builds-The-Fire an obsessive story teller. The characters are very well developed, in each story he builds on each character until you really feel as if you know them. The flaws to this are sometimes there are contradicting traits in different stories, but that is understandable with a collection of short stories. He seems to develop the settings enough but not to great detail, which is sometimes effective and at other times leaves you waiting for more. For short stories his plot development was excellent, as well as the way in which he compiled his stories, theses two elements combined kept me engrained in the book and were very effective in portraying theme. His overall writing style is very blunt, honest, and real, he also uses some elements of realistic satire to keep you interested and shocked simultaneously. I also saw hints of budding surrealism in some stories, but not enough to create an overall surrealistic effect; I think his usage of it is appropriate but as well developed as it could be. I enjoyed his style of writing because it gave me the raw and bitter truth behind life on an Indian reservation. He spoke so realistically and honestly, like he had been there first hand, which makes this book very good and effective with its portrayal. The themes are very apparent, and do not involve much reading between the lines, but are there and do leave an impact on you. The themes of differences and discrimination are very effective as well as the theme of the difference between modern and past Indians. Overall I really enjoyed his work, despite his minor flaws in development of character, and setting. I definitely recommend this book to anyone interested in Native American life, or someone willing to read an entertaining and powerful book.