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Not Enough Indians
Meet the residents of Gammage, NY, a town on the verge of declaring bankruptcy, when inspiration strikes. Why not go native, and open a casino? With Not Enough Indians, actor, writer, producer, and former Saturday Night Live cast member Harry Shearer joins the ranks of such comedian/authors as Steve Martin and Michael Palin, with a brilliantly funny, whip-smart satire of greed, collusion, distrust and betrayal in the halls of Washington and the casinos of Native America.
212 pages, Hardcover
First published October 25, 2006
5 people are currently reading
57 people want to read
About the author
Harry Shearer
21 books11 followersHarry Julius Shearer is an American comedic actor, writer and radio host. Shearer, a voice actor on The Simpsons (1989 to present), provides the voices of Mr. Burns, Waylon Smithers, Ned Flanders, Reverend Timothy Lovejoy, Kent Brockman, Dr. Julius Hibbert, Dr. Marvin Monroe, Lenny Leonard, Principal Seymour Skinner, Otto Mann, Scratchy and Rainier Wolfcastle among others.
On June 19, 2008, it was announced that Shearer would receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in the radio category.
On June 19, 2008, it was announced that Shearer would receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in the radio category.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 39 reviews
December 12, 2019
I so wanted to like this book. Having enjoyed the wit and wisdom of Harry Shearer for years in everything from This Is Spinal Tap to Le Show, I was excited to find his first novel. That was the end of my excitement. This book feels like a particularly underdone Saturday Night Live sketch (which is really saying something). Taking an interesting premise of a small New York town that sets out to end its fiscal woes by petitioning for federal status as an Indian tribe so that a casino can be opened in town, Shearer proceeds to do very little with the idea. There are no characters to care about and no comic situations that ever amount to anything. If Shearer ever writes another novel, I hope he might try to add a narrative and comic bits that actually make me laugh.
July 30, 2007
Not Enough Indians, by Harry Shearer (of Simpsons & Christopher Guest movies fame), has an interesting premise: a bankrupt town decides to save itself by requesting federal recognition as an Indian –ahem- Native American – tribe and subsequently setting up a casino there. Now, I was first attracted to this book because Harry Shearer is a hoot in his various incarnations, especially movies like Spinal Tap and A Mighty Wind – so I thought he would render a pretty funny/clever novel (even if it was his first). Well…while the book had some funny (not roll-on-the-floor-funny, but chuckle-funny) moments, it was rather insipid overall. The characters were two-dimensional, even stereotypical. Before I read it, I had put it on the potential selections list for our book club, but after reading it, I realized it was so content-lite that it wouldn’t provoke much discussion at all. So, I retracted that particular suggestion.
Although not a horrible first effort, I was not really jazzed by Shearer’s first novel. I’d rate this book a B- or C+.
Although not a horrible first effort, I was not really jazzed by Shearer’s first novel. I’d rate this book a B- or C+.
July 25, 2007
Just like the book I read by Chris Elliot, I thought this would be funnier. It was still a decent enough read, but it didn't match the wit and humor I expected from this very funny and intelligent person.
December 19, 2018
Shearer surely thinks he's being outrageous here, but the book is really the epitome of political correctness. Just frankly, not that interesting...
August 27, 2019
Somewhere in my gut, this hovers more toward a 2.5, but I feel like giving the extra half-point.
Why? Well, reading this satire feels like watching a sketch, but more so. It's a short novel, an easy read, and it's written, well, overall it's written with what seems like obvious ease. It's just overloaded, even at so short a length.
In a sketch, or even a film, mediums I'm sure someone like Shearer is an old hand at, this book makes more sense. Writing is harder. Writing seems to make Shearer think this demands a number of throwaway quirks to add to the humor: Daria's schnitzels, Corey's dirty secrets, Dick's obvious hair troubles. These are things that could be shown, not told, much more easily visually... in text, many characters just become caricature... constantly describing Barbara as lesbian, Daria as pear shaped, Corey as greasy, would be less clunky if it was build in visually. Without the ability to act these descriptions, though, the characters come off hollow. Actual jokes, such as the many businesses started in the shells of now closed franchises, would be better as a quick visual than a long explanation. And possibly most importantly, the visual media would allow the viewer to know right away: none of these folks are anything but terrible.
This is, perhaps, part of the generous rounding-up on score: this is a tone-deaf novel because Shearer's characters are all tone deaf themselves. There is no particular hero here, and more often than not, the folks we get to meet are wildly problematic at best. There's also, however, no particularly obvious narrator chiding them. Shearer largely allows the characters to be terrible. But that also makes the entirety of the text one issue after another: white characters adopting not only native personas, but the most appropriative bits... there's no shortage of headdresses and fake ritual, which, because it's being described by an omniscient narrator, often comes across as Shearer thinking that Native American culture is exactly the shallow, inauthentic, cynical rendering the folks of Gammage pull off. And that's an unfair burden to shoulder the man with for pretty accurately portraying a bunch of northern rednecks, unscrupulous businessmen, and uninspired politicians, and the general contempt-or-ignorance that the question of "Indians" would bring about in those circles. Shearer has jokes fall like lead here, of course, and often due to the topic matter, but it feels only fair to note that it feels authentic... this is what this scenario would look like.
And so, in a Spinal Tap style mockumentary, we would see these people being terrible, uncomfortable people. We would see how comically pompous Dr. Gardner is, instead of being told how smart he thinks he is, instead of having him frequently be the only one who DOES seem smart (though no less awful). We would, presumably, see the sleaze on Tony Silotta and Joseph Catspaw. Catspaw's collection habit could be more subtly integrated. Earlene Hammond's NPR reporter/charity drive sensibility could be played against Lucy Striker's incessant filibustering. It's not frequent that I've felt a text would be improved in film, but this is one, because it would need to be so much tighter, because the jokes would land so much more obviously, so the wheat would more easily separate from the chaff. As it stands, the book feels polished but immediately dated, easily written but not particularly reviewed for content.
Why? Well, reading this satire feels like watching a sketch, but more so. It's a short novel, an easy read, and it's written, well, overall it's written with what seems like obvious ease. It's just overloaded, even at so short a length.
In a sketch, or even a film, mediums I'm sure someone like Shearer is an old hand at, this book makes more sense. Writing is harder. Writing seems to make Shearer think this demands a number of throwaway quirks to add to the humor: Daria's schnitzels, Corey's dirty secrets, Dick's obvious hair troubles. These are things that could be shown, not told, much more easily visually... in text, many characters just become caricature... constantly describing Barbara as lesbian, Daria as pear shaped, Corey as greasy, would be less clunky if it was build in visually. Without the ability to act these descriptions, though, the characters come off hollow. Actual jokes, such as the many businesses started in the shells of now closed franchises, would be better as a quick visual than a long explanation. And possibly most importantly, the visual media would allow the viewer to know right away: none of these folks are anything but terrible.
This is, perhaps, part of the generous rounding-up on score: this is a tone-deaf novel because Shearer's characters are all tone deaf themselves. There is no particular hero here, and more often than not, the folks we get to meet are wildly problematic at best. There's also, however, no particularly obvious narrator chiding them. Shearer largely allows the characters to be terrible. But that also makes the entirety of the text one issue after another: white characters adopting not only native personas, but the most appropriative bits... there's no shortage of headdresses and fake ritual, which, because it's being described by an omniscient narrator, often comes across as Shearer thinking that Native American culture is exactly the shallow, inauthentic, cynical rendering the folks of Gammage pull off. And that's an unfair burden to shoulder the man with for pretty accurately portraying a bunch of northern rednecks, unscrupulous businessmen, and uninspired politicians, and the general contempt-or-ignorance that the question of "Indians" would bring about in those circles. Shearer has jokes fall like lead here, of course, and often due to the topic matter, but it feels only fair to note that it feels authentic... this is what this scenario would look like.
And so, in a Spinal Tap style mockumentary, we would see these people being terrible, uncomfortable people. We would see how comically pompous Dr. Gardner is, instead of being told how smart he thinks he is, instead of having him frequently be the only one who DOES seem smart (though no less awful). We would, presumably, see the sleaze on Tony Silotta and Joseph Catspaw. Catspaw's collection habit could be more subtly integrated. Earlene Hammond's NPR reporter/charity drive sensibility could be played against Lucy Striker's incessant filibustering. It's not frequent that I've felt a text would be improved in film, but this is one, because it would need to be so much tighter, because the jokes would land so much more obviously, so the wheat would more easily separate from the chaff. As it stands, the book feels polished but immediately dated, easily written but not particularly reviewed for content.
November 26, 2017
#109 of 120 books pledged to read during 2017
January 7, 2019
I love Harry Shearer and can see this as a terrific script for a tv series that I would definitely watch; but, as a read, it didn't work for me.
June 23, 2019
Starting listening to the audio version, couldn't finish.
I used to think Shearer was funny, but now I'm thinking he was just surrounded by funny people who made him look good.
I used to think Shearer was funny, but now I'm thinking he was just surrounded by funny people who made him look good.
June 29, 2021
Difficult to follow in audio format with all the characters. There were some funny moments, but also some really crass and non-PC jokes that didn’t land and didn’t seem to add anything.
November 26, 2007
Harry Shearer is a gifted comedic actor, musician, and humorist. Unfortunately, he's not a good novelist.
The one-sentence plot summary of Not Enough Indians has great satiric potential: a bankrupt New York town has its citizens recognized as a native tribe to acquire a casino. All right, on with the funny.
But the funny never arrives. The characters are thin creations, like Shearer used Magnetic Personality Quirks to flesh them out. There's the guy with a Big Baby fetish who wears soiled diapers under his clothes, the guy who collects rare celebrity action figures, the crazy artist, and the obligatory lazy government worker. These and other annoyingly idiosyncratic characters vie for bite-size pieces of the humor pie and derail what little momentum the plot generates.
Skip the book and podcast Shearer's Le Show instead.
The one-sentence plot summary of Not Enough Indians has great satiric potential: a bankrupt New York town has its citizens recognized as a native tribe to acquire a casino. All right, on with the funny.
But the funny never arrives. The characters are thin creations, like Shearer used Magnetic Personality Quirks to flesh them out. There's the guy with a Big Baby fetish who wears soiled diapers under his clothes, the guy who collects rare celebrity action figures, the crazy artist, and the obligatory lazy government worker. These and other annoyingly idiosyncratic characters vie for bite-size pieces of the humor pie and derail what little momentum the plot generates.
Skip the book and podcast Shearer's Le Show instead.
October 1, 2008
I do not recommend this book, it is painfully stupid. That being said, I totally enjoyed listening to this audiobook. Harry Shearer is a brilliant satirist and his weekly radio program "Le Show" is fun to listen to if only because he doesn't like anyone!
This story has a great base... a bankrupt New York town has its citizens recognized as a native tribe to acquire a casino. Nobody is a native, though. The characters are so stereotypical and shallow! That being said, they all made me laugh. Harry Shearer is perfect as the reader... he is famous for doing many of the voices on the Simpson's cartoons. I think you have to be pretty quirky to like this book. That being said, I liked it.
This story has a great base... a bankrupt New York town has its citizens recognized as a native tribe to acquire a casino. Nobody is a native, though. The characters are so stereotypical and shallow! That being said, they all made me laugh. Harry Shearer is perfect as the reader... he is famous for doing many of the voices on the Simpson's cartoons. I think you have to be pretty quirky to like this book. That being said, I liked it.
June 24, 2008
The concept is what got me to pick this book up: a city on the verge of bankruptcy "discovers" its Native American heritage, gets recognized as a tribe by the government, attempts to start a casino, and wackiness ensues. Unfortunately, the characters have no depth. Each of the main characters is described in about two sentences at the start of the book, and that is all you ever get to know about them. Halfway through the book, I had trouble keeping straight which name went with which personality, but I honestly didn't care enough to go back and check. For me, this book didn't live up to its potential.
Read
February 4, 2011A relatively short, but bitingly satiric story full of absurd characters marks Shearer’s (The Simpsons, This Is Spinal Tap) debut as a novelist. The residents of the small upstate town of Gammage, New York are desperately looking for a way out of bankruptcy. They are reborn as the Filaquonsett tribe and open a humongous casino, with help from Las Vegas and Washington, and much to the disdain of the Wowosas (another spurious casino-owning tribe).
June 9, 2011
I love Harry Shearer, and the book started out promising. His dry humor appeals to me and I was ready for a hilarious, slightly-dark, dry book. Instead, I feel like it started out funny, never really rose to it's potential, and ultimately sputtered out at the end. It was short and a pretty quick read, but I was left feeling a little deflated at the end, muttering to myself, "That was it?"
November 18, 2014
Read by the author, I felt I was being read to by Mr. Skinner and Ned Flanders. Social satire highlighting casinos, Native American status, big box stores, implants, dying small towns, and every caricature imaginable. I enjoy satire, and I laughed out loud at parts of this book, but overall, it wasn't a compelling listen.
October 15, 2008
Harry Shearer tries to drop even more annoying uber-hip, po-culture references the that douche bag Tom Robbins. However, he still manages to put out a half-decent story with some funny satire. And I'm pretentious enough to feel good about myself for reading about "native american" culture.
June 28, 2016
I wanted so much to love this book and it kind of pains me to give it one star...but I couldn't even finish it. I love Harry Shearer and I could go on about his talents, just not his fiction writing talents.
Read
February 13, 2012Gammage NY is in severe fiscal trouble. Their solution, becoming recognized as a tribe and opening a casino, is a bit unorthodox at best. This satire kept me entertained on a trip across the Prairie State.
April 5, 2007
eeh, not worth it.
October 27, 2007
this book sounds good, I went to a reading by Harry Shearer himself, and he signed my copy.... cool....
January 4, 2008
I think Harry Shearer is terrific. However, I had a hard time getting into this piece of fiction. I don't lke his fiction style. It had great reveiws "brilliant and crisp page turner".... NOT!
January 25, 2008
Good little read (def. little). Funny, entertaining, but not totally there. He could've done SO much more. But it's a good first effort for Harry Shearer.
February 16, 2008
Just an average book on the politics of Indian Casinos and the whole Indian Affairs. What I thought would be a funny book turned into a dull read with little humor, except the NPR lady.
March 16, 2008
Wow...coudln't have been more disappointed in this one. THOUGHT it would b e funny since I think Harry Shearer is funny...but nope...it was LAME...SO much potential too...
April 6, 2008
A good read, but not as sharp as one would expect from Harry Shearer. Radio is definitely his medium.
August 27, 2008
Good quick little read. Funny especially if you're in the Gaming/gambling biz.
October 12, 2008
This book has some laughs in it. It's just that I expected a lot more from Harry Shearer.
January 28, 2009
Nothing particularly enlightening about this book. Mildly funny at parts and excellent pop-culture references. Struck me as a slightly less-entertaining Christopher Moore.
February 8, 2009
Nicely done, Harry. The satire hits home, but the off-the-cuff similes and metaphors make it a delight.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 39 reviews