One Stick Song
by Sherman Alexie
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Book Summary Information
Author: Sherman AlexieEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2000-06-01
ISBN: 1882413768
Number of pages: 91
Publisher: Hanging Loose Press
Book Reviews of One Stick Song
Book Review: A Poet for the Rest of Us
Summary: 5 Stars
Sherman Alexie is a poet, he says. But not just him. The New York Times says he's a poet and so does the Harvard Review. I read his work and I think less about poetry and more about essential truth. There's not much form or structure except that which makes the words fit into interesting columns on the page - yet I read him and love the words, feel the emotion he's conveying. If that's what a poet is, then I agree. But it's not that his words are beautiful, or that he scours the thesaurus for the perfect metaphor, because he can't. Not him. He just can't. I envision him sitting down and writing about a subject - water, women, old trucks - and then looking at what he wrote and feeling relieved that it's out of his head and now other people will have to read it while he can forget it. He lets it go into the world, freeing himself of those constraints.
If that's poetry, then he's my favorite.
As he says, Indian writers sell less copies than Mixed Blood writers and they sell less than Non-Indian writers writing about Indians. Non-Indian writers say "Great Spirit," "Mother Earth," "Two-legged, Four-legged, and Winged." Mixed Blood writers say "Creator," "Mother Earth," "Two-legged, Four-legged, and Winged." Indian writers say "God," "Mother Earth," "Human Being, Dog, and Bird."
He's right. Sherman Alexie writes simply, directly. He's the combination of simplicity reminiscent of Hemingway and the frank truthfulness filled with biting irony reminiscent of Mark Twain. He's the direct vision into the lives of today's Indians - as they are, not as they might be perceived to be.
Great book.
- CV Rick
Summary of One Stick Song
Poetry. Native American Studies. "Whether slyly identifying irony as a white man's invention, or deftly moving from prose-like multilayered narratives to formal poetry and song structures, this fifth collection from poet, novelist, and screenwriter Alexie demonstrates many of his skills. Most prominent perhaps is his ability to handle multiple perspectives and complex psychological subject matter with a humor that feeds readability: 'Successful non-Indian writers are viewed as well-informed about Indian life. Successful mixed-blood writers are viewed as wonderful translators of Indian life. Successful Indian writers are viewed as traditional storytellers of Indian life.' Poems such as the title one, a haunting chant for lost family, and 'The Theology of Cockroaches,' do some vivid scene setting: '...never/woke to a wall filled with cockroaches/spelling out my name, never/stepped into a dark room and heard/the cockroaches baying at the moon.' At times Alexie allows his language, within the lineated poems almost exclusively, to slacken into cliché. The opening, multipart prose piece 'The Unauthorized Biography of Me' is arguably the strongest in the book, juxtaposing roughly chronological anecdotes with 'An Incomplete List of People I Wish Were Indian' and the formula 'Poetry = anger x imagination.' Other poems tell of 'Migration, 1902' and 'Sex in Motel Rooms'; describe 'How It Happens' and 'Second Grief'; and develop 'The Anatomy of Mushrooms.' Alexie's latest is as powerful and challenging as his previous excellent books, and should only add readers to his ever-widening audience"?Publishers Weekly.Poetry Books
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