Reservation Blues

The use of music as a means to institute change in a lost society is a thematic element central to both plot and character development in Sherman Alexie's novel, Reservation Blues. The characters face a variety of complex decisions while at a crossroad in their lives. Discerning the often-blurry line between need and greed is vital for the young men and women to achieve personal success. As Native Americans, they must reject the skewed value system that prevents their brothers from rising out of a life of degradation. They must overcome hardships that accompany their ethnicity and embrace native tradition in order to spread the word of truth to others in need of salvation. Music and storytelling are tools for the protagonist to raise awareness in a society drowning in the evils of materialism.As lead singer for the popular new age band, Coyote Springs, Thomas Builds-the-Fire must foster cohesion among the unlikely group of Indians. Each band member finds him or herself at a personal crossroad in the days leading up to the one shot at success dangling before them by two New York seedy recording executives that are appropriately named George Wright and Phil Sheridan. Ironically, their names are consistent with two deadly United States Army generals, George Wright and Phillip Henry Sheridan, who fought bloody battles against Indian tribes in the 1850's and 1860's. General Wright instructed his troops to descend unexpectedly upon the allied Spokane, Coeur d'Alene, and Palouse tribes in what was supposed to be a nonviolent meeting in 1857 on the Spokane Plain. General Sheridan became famous, in part, for his racist aphorism, "The only good Indian is a dead Indian."Builds-the-Fire represents future possibilities for Native Americans. He is a lonely soul, a misfit both on and off the reservation. Storytelling is his unconscious attempt at holding onto native tradition. He is oblivious to the fact that he is a wise leader in the making. He lives in an unfinished HUD home, but loves the reservation, the land, the Indians. He expresses no bitterness toward the Bureau of Indian Affairs after cutting the funding mid way through his home's construction. Living conditions are grueling on the reservation. Jobs are scarce. Government positions go to the white community. Thomas' home is low on the long list of priorities for unfinished things on the Spokane reservation.Word of Coyote Springs' talent spreads outside of the reservation and the band faces the real possibility of commercial success; but following the dream, Thomas wonders what the cost will be. Success will enable them obtain the riches known only to them via cable television; but, what if this is just another trick by the white man? The white man offers his friendship in order to move in for the kill, and then goes on his way laughing. He is becoming the leader that will build, or rekindle the fire for others. He will marry band member, Chess Warm Water, and produce more Indians to keep the word, the tradition, alive. Together they can make the world a better place.Understanding the protagonists' relationship to folklore and the blues genre enriches the thematic element in the novel. Historically, blues music associated with African American suffering caused by white men during the days of slavery. African American character and real life blues musician, Robert Johnson sold his soul for success many years earlier, now he finds comfort in simplicity with a harmonica. Builds-the-Fire finds his release in relating stories as a way to keep tradition alive. It enables him to share his message with others and if he chooses the right road, his talent will afford him the opportunity to make the world a better place.

I have been a major fan of Sherman Alexie's ever since reading his collection of short stories, The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heave. And I have thoroughly enjoyed everything of his that I have read, at least up until now. His novel Reservation Blues, however, though it does have its share of the unique characters and situations and elements of magical realism that set Alexie's work apart from the ordinary, I found in the end to be something of a disappointment. To be fair, Reservation Blues was his first novel, which could explain why it didn't measure up to the expectations one would have after reading his short stories. And his later novel, The Absolutely True Adventures of a Part-Time Indian, was quite enjoyable and garnered considerable recognition. But if you're not familiar with Alexie's other work, Reservation Blues is probably not the best place to start.Set in 1992, Reservation Blues is the story of Coyote Springs, "an all-Indian Catholic rock-and-roll band". It begins with the mysterious arrival of real-life blues singer Robert Johnson who mysteriously appears at the Spokane Indian Reservation fifty-four years after his murder bearing a magical guitar he got from selling his soul to the devil. This odd occurence results in three residents of the reservation deciding to form a band. The founding trio will be familiar to readers of Alexie's other work, having previously appeared in a number of his short stories: Thomas Builds-the-Fire, Victor Joseph and Junior Polatkin.Recommended for fans of Sherman Alexie's work, with the caveat that it's not his best work and probably not the best book to start with if they're not familiar with his other work.

Written by Sherman Alexie, this fable about the hometown challenges of his own home town, makes a fine, sensitive novel.This is the struggle of an Indian band - and it's this double entendre that is at the heart of his tale. Three Spokane Indians and two Flathead sisters form a musical group, which, in its character and pathologies, are a metaphor for Indians everywhere.The band comprises two sisters, two lifelong friends, and a misfit. The sisters, Checkers and Chess Warm Water, members of the Flathead tribe, wrestle with the corruption of family. The friends, Victor and Junior, are brutalized by alcohol, crushed dreams, and aimlessness. Thomas Builds-the-Fire, a creative and sensitive man, suffers the terrifying indifference of his people. Driven by their individual ambitions, each makes their own deal with the devil in exchange for the promise of a better life.Among a host of horrors Alexie parades before our characters, the greatest tragedy is their rejection by their own tribe, a consequence of their struggle to rise above the provincial dissolution of the reservation.Yet some of Alexie's characters survive. For them, redemption comes from their capacity as individuals and as a band to thread a course between hopeless surrender and the ravaging predations of white culture. The heroism of Alexie's protagonists lies in their quiet self-awareness and the courage to be the individuals they are: neither white doppelgangers nor Indian cliches.Side plots and supplementary characters shoot like the limbs of an unpruned tree: while their fruit is often lovely, the tree suffers from diffusion. But the writing makes it all worthwhile: Alexie is funny and pleasurable to read. The rewards of dialog and scene construction are, by themselves, worth the price of admission.

Alexis has a gift. His book is even a tiny bit thought provoking with theology, new age philosophy, and at other times warmly witty. Parts of it are tragic. It was entertaining.

パートタイムインディアンが大好きなので、他の作品も試してみたが暗い。そして視点がころころ変わり、夢にいったり、現実が出てきたり、ビッグママと呼ばれる超能力者が死者（悪魔に魂を売ったロバートジョンソン）と喋ったり、かなりぶっとんでて。マジックリアリズムとか村上春樹の世界に近い。なにがなんだかセカンドラングリッジとして英語使用者として辛いものがある。純文学が好きな人向け。

Alexie is an American Indian and when he writes of reservations and the poverty and the alcoholism that plague them, he is writing from his own experiences. This is a novel about those at the very bottom of the American social order, the dispossessed indigenous people who have a per capita income lower than any other racial group in the country. He doesn't tell you this in so many words, but he makes the social position of the Native Americans very, very plain. He has an astonishing knack for explaining not only how but also why things have gone so drastically awry for them.This novel is a slightly whacky tale about the varied adventures of a blues band from the Spokane Indian Reservation. It should, given its backdrop, be depressing, but it's not: it's very funny. I found myself laughing out loud at the antics of the characters and then, one line later, being painfully clouted right in the emotional solar plexus. The characters, as American Indians really do, live in two worlds at once: the modern one and, jarring with it in sometimes quite mind-bending ways, that of their own historical and cultural background. Alexie, quite without preaching, mildly and even wittily shows the reader why so many Indians turn to the bottle, run back to the rez after trying out the modern world and misuse power when it does come into their hands. It's heartbreaking.This delivered the sort of emotional twanging very few books deliver. I'd have liked a bit more in the way of description and scene-setting, and (I don't often feel this way about a book) I would have liked it to be a little bit longer, to fill things out a trifle more. These are fairly minor quibbles: better a bit too short than rather too long.There'll be another Alexie in my next Amazon order. I'm hooked.

I already knew that I had a soft spot for Sherman Alexie’s work, having already read three of his novels (‘Ten Little Indians’, ‘The Lone-Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven’ and ‘The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian) but, for me, this is hands-down the best of the four. It was the most wonderful surprise to be so blown away by the exceptional quality of this work.From his other novels, I already knew that Alexie has a habit of reaching for the abstract and intangible but ‘Reservation Blues’ takes this a step further: it is full-blown magic realism and, in my view, magic realism of the highest calibre - on par with the poignancy of South American writers like Marquez and Coelho and the dynamic edginess of the kind of gems Haruki Murakami was churning out during the 80s and mid-90s,At its core ‘Reservation Blues’ is essentially a rock-band-road-trip story charting the ups and downs, the dreams and terrors, of its five Native American members. But at the core of this core, it is also a story about centuries of persecution, forced relocation, cultural annihilation, spiritual deprivation and social injustice. Where another writer might have tackled these issues using poetic or politicised rhetoric, Alexie instead uses magic realism to convey his messages with metaphor. He does not beat the reader over the head or patronise us – he simply trusts the story to do its own telling.This is one of those preciously rare novels that had me laughing out loud in some places and in tears in others. It is, at once, a rollicking good read and a beautiful invitation to honour that which is sacred in our lives.

Adore this book! Wonderful read, great writing, it's one that's stayed with me over the years - I've never forgotten how much I enjoyed this story and it's one I'll read again. I've gifted it to several friends also and they've really enjoyed it.

Sherman Alexi is one of the best writers living today. He has the ability to capture the Native American experience in an often self deprecating, insightful and poetic manner. Reservation Blues is a thoroughly modern story of music, dreams and the journey taken by newly formed blues band Coyote Springs. It combines the poetry of On the Road with the comtemporary vision found in Custer Died for Your Sins. Another great book by a modern master.