Sherman Alexie Speaks to Tavis Smiley. Hear What he has to Say
May 2nd, 2007 by Carole Levine
Sherman Alexie is the man who put a contemporary face to Native America, at least for the millions of folks out in never-never land who never thought of stringing the concept of “Indian” and “contemporary” in the same sentence before. When his book The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven was published in 1993, the elite establishment went gaga that such an articulate and irreverent writer actually came out of Indian Country. The swoon continued when Alexie’s characters came to life in Chris Eyre’s Smoke Signals five years later.
Well, there’s a lot more to Alexie than Thomas Builds-a-Fire. A lot. His poetry, anthologies, and to a lesser extent, his novels, have catapulted him to the short list of the best American writers today. His latest book, Flight, has just been released receiving mixed to hyperventilating reviews. The novel’s story of an alienated teen who resorts to killing people indiscriminately is more than ironic in the aftermath of Virginia Tech. But timely and, in true Alexie fashion, dead-on social commentary.
Last week he appeared on the PBS Tavis Smiley program. Lucky for us, the audio interview has been streamed online. Listen in as Alexie talks about Flight, his father’s alcoholism, America's predilection for violence, and a whole lot more…
