Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven

Having just finished Green Grass, Running Water by Thomas King, I was looking for another funny novel that also just might happen to teach me a thing or two about native american life. I was told that The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven was a hilarious novel from another Native American author, Sherman Alexie. With a title like that, how could the rest of the novel not be fun?

While the novel is not hilarious, it is very intersting and there are some parts that are funny, but in a sad, poignant kind of funny. The novel is not a novel in the literal sense; it is really a book of short stories. The stories are somewhat autobiographical and somewhat fiction. But really, what autobiography isn't part fiction? He openly questions the reliability of memory; Alexie not only knows that memories change, but he changes them right in the story: right in the same paragraph! He perfectly illustrates how history is different for everyone: History is just a "story" that someone believes.

Alexie's language alternates between the harshness of today's language and pure poetry. His metaphors are unbelievably creative, for example, "Memory like an abandoned car, rusting and forgotten though it sits in plain view for decades." Each story gives a slice of life on an Indian reservation near Spokane, Washington. The stories explore the differences between being white and being Indian in modern times. It also explores the question: what does it mean to be Indian? Of course, these short stories cannot fully answer that question; what novel can? It is an identity that is still being explored, discovered and grappled with, or as Alexie writes, "At the halfway point of any drunken night, there is a moment when an Indian realizes he cannot turn back toward tradition and that he has no map to guide him toward the future."

The stories do not focus on alcoholism although it is always in the background. Alcoholism is such an everyday part of everyday on the reservation, that it almost becomes another character in Alexie's stories; it permeates each and every slice of life that Alexie gives his readers. Yes, there is despair. Yes, there is a sense of hopelessness and the doom of inevitable failure of the tribal members trying to exist in white society. But there is also life and passion, intelligence and wit. There is humor throughout; even if it is a fatalistic humor.

My version of the novel had an amusing introduction to the short stories: written by Sherman Alexie himself. I highly recommend reading it before you dive right into the rest of the stories. Happy Reading!