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Years passed, to my shame. As a writer I was probably afraid on some level to begin reading his work because I had heard of his amazing success at a young age, but more important, his amazing output.
I finally decided to get a book, and I chose to buy Old Shirts & New Skins. I absolutely love it. The poems and the stories wonderfully compliment each other and tell a story of identity and pride. I really enjoyed the biting humor. it rang so completely true, I sometimes could not contain myself.
Based upon what I have read in this book, I will definately keep reading and buying his books.
The poems tie together present miseries with the history of Indian wars. But of course it's not the version of Indian wars we got through the movies; rather it is the untold part, of suffering of native people defending their way of life.
I am new to Sherman Alexie and new to American Indian literature; I came upon him through his movie "Smoke Signals." It's very good reading!
His writing contains heavy themes, but is light and graceful and has a healing quality. "Shirts" and "Skins" are the team names in pickup baasketball games; "'skins" is how Indians call themselves. I dont know what a "shirt" is - a white guy, probably -- that would fit. There is humor, word play and joy here holding up a world of sadness.
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