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I fused Graham Green, the Native American actor, with Graham Greene the author into one person.
Posts: 1346 | Registered: Jun 1999
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Yes, it's Sherman Alexie, who is an AMAZING author. He has written a couple novels, Reservation Blues being the one I'd most highly recommend, but mostly writes short stories. They read like poetry, and are fabulous. The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven is his most famous collection, and it is off of those stories that he based the screenplay for the movie Smoke Signals. I reccommend them all to anyone who likes cultural, prosey stuff.
Posts: 8504 | Registered: Aug 1999
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See my post on page 2 for a link to his award-winning story about an Indian man trying to scrape togther enough money to buy his grandmother's Indian regalia from a pawnshop.
It begins:
"One day you have a home and the next you don’t,"
Posts: 3423 | Registered: Aug 2001
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This is a big deal, Annie. He may not be widely, widely known, but he certainly has quite a following in the Bay Area.
Posts: 3423 | Registered: Aug 2001
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Cool, Zal. He lives in Seattle and is from Spokane, so I thought it might be a regional thing.
Here's a funny anecdote. My friend Amanda, who teaches English in Great Falls, was on a plane home from Salt Lake a couple weeks ago. She sat next to a middle-aged Native American man and talked with him throughout the short flight. She found out he was from the "Spokane area."
"You don't happen to be a Spokane indian, do you?" she asked him.
He looked at her knowingly. "No. Cœur D'Alene. why do you ask?"
She was a little embarrassed. "Well, it's just that my favorite author..."
He chuckled. "Sherman Alexie, right?"
She smiled sheepishly. "I assume you know of him. I bet you get asked that all the time."
"I don't just 'know of him,' actually," the man continued. "I went to Kindergarten with him. And high school. And I was his roommate in college."
"Wow. I'm going to his booksigning next month. I love his writing."
"We've lost touch recently, though. Haven't seen him in quite a few years," He mused. "I'll tell you what," he said to her, fishing out a pen and paper. "Here is my name. When you see him at the booksigning, tell him I say Hi."
Amanda was stunned. "OK," she agreed.
"Also," the man said, "tell him he owes me twenty bucks."
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So, Sherman Alexie was, in a word, fantastic. We went to the dinner and booksigning that preceded his lecture, and it was all great. The best part was Amanda and I talking to him whilst our books were being signed. (this is Amanda of the aforementioned anecdote)
"So," Amanda says to the incredibly stylish Sherman, "I bring greetings from an old friend."
"Really?" he laughs. We're, incidentally, one of only a handful of white girls in the room.
"Yep. Do you remember Otis Half Moon?"
Sherman bolts upright, startled. "Yes! Back when we palled around, he went by Wilford, though. Do you remember Half Moon?" he asks his friend at the end of the table.
"Oh, sure," the confirming witness chimes in.
"How on earth did you meet him?" Sherman asks Amanda.
"On a plane to Great Falls. He says to tell you he's in Santa Fe these days and sends his greetings. And that you owe him twenty bucks."
Sherman laughs sharply. "Ha! I owe him a lot more than twenty bucks! That was the second to the last time I ever got drunk.... hey.... he didn't tell you any dirt on me, did he?"
Amanda smirked. "Just a little."
"He didn't tell you about the time we ran naked around the apartment building pretending to be wild dogs, did he?"
"Nope. Didn't tell me that one."
"Good," he smiled. "I would hate for that one to get out."
His lecture afterwards was hilarious. It was about politics and sex, mostly, but done in such a way to alienate basically nobody. He's a smart guy. He explained how he helped arrange the anti-war protests in Seattle, and called himself a lefty left liberal, but admitted that he's a liberal who hates liberals, especially the ones who ride around naked on bikes or dress up like sea turtles when all that he wants to accomplish is to get these protests taken seriously. He made fun of ignorant fundamentalism and ignorant atheism. He talked about Oprah and rez life and evolution and the fact that Crazy Horse never had to use talcum powder for chafing on cross-country rides. I laughed so hard my head hurt. His conclusion was that the only solution to irrational violence and hate is irrational forgiveness, and it was one of the more rational conclusions I've ever heard presented.
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Very cool, Annie. I have to say that I'm a little envious. Sherman Alexie came to Fresno to Fresno State to speak awhile back and I wanted to go but couldn't. Maybe now that I live closer (much, much closer, but that's another story) I can go if he comes back.
I have to say that I haven't read a lot of his stuff, but I've seen him interviewed a couple of times on TV and I think he's intriguing. So, I will go find some of his stuff to read now.
Posts: 2454 | Registered: Jan 2003
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That is really really cool! I met Sherman Alexie at a hydrocephalus conference a few years ago here in Chicago - we were two of the oldest folks with the childhood version of the condition there (and there's about 10 years between us).
Aside from the chat time we had, the highlight of the conference was a poem he'd written the night before which made up his keynote (he's also the father of a kid with disabilities).
I was already a fan of his work. Unfortunately, I missed him at his last booksigning here in Chicago.
What a great way to spend an evening! I am truly envious.
Posts: 4344 | Registered: Mar 2003
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And wow, that sentence was murky, wasn't it. Two of us are one of a handful. Heh.
I think I shall leave it for the lovely harried tone it gives the piece.
And I'm not rushed to get that piece read over, either. I only just got back and am still catching up on everything else. And thanks Posts: 8504 | Registered: Aug 1999
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What are the chances of a national symposium on women, Islam and the veil being held in Missoula, Montana and one of my favorite FrenchArab authors being the keynote speaker? What are the chances of this happening the week after my favorite American short fiction author speaking in Bozeman when I was going to be there for the weekend anyway?
Weird. That's what the chances are.
Posts: 8504 | Registered: Aug 1999
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So Yamina couldn't make it; she had to undergo surgery. It was pretty tragic. However, we watched her film Inch'Allah Dimanche, which was fabulous. The other films of hers that I've seen are all documentaries; this one is a drama with documentary flavor, and I really enjoyed it. Check it out on Netflix if you can.
So tonight, to round out my mad spate of famous author stalking, I'll be going to a lecture by Slavoj Zizek. I'm not quite sure I'm smart enough for it, but maybe I can get some smartosmosis if I sit close enough to someone who is.
Posts: 8504 | Registered: Aug 1999
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It was pretty tragic. However, we watched her film Inch'Allah Dimanche, which was fabulous. The other films of hers that I've seen are all documentaries; this one is a drama with documentary flavor, and I really enjoyed it. Check it out on Netflix if you can.
