Indian Killer

by Sherman Alexie

A murderer is stalking and scalping white men in Seattle, his calling card a pair of feathers crossed on the victim's chest. While this so-called Indian Killer terrorises the city, its Native American population is thrown into turmoil. With each new murder, the city is gripped by fear, and as the killer searches for his latest victim, the novel builds to its unexpected and terrifying climax.

Genres: Fiction, Mystery, Native American, Thriller, Novels, Contemporary, Indigenous

432 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1996

About the author

Sherman Alexie is a Native American author, poet, and filmmaker known for his powerful portrayals of contemporary Indigenous life, often infused with wit, humor, and emotional depth. Drawing heavily on his experiences growing up on the Spokane Indian Reservation, Alexie's work addresses complex themes such as identity, poverty, addiction, and the legacy of colonialism, all filtered through a distinctly Native perspective.
His breakout book, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, is a semi-autobiographical young adult novel that won the 2007 National Book Award and remains widely acclaimed for its candid and humorous depiction of adolescence and cultural dislocation. Earlier, Alexie gained critical attention with The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven, a collection of interconnected short stories that was adapted into the Sundance-winning film Smoke Signals (1998), for which he wrote the screenplay. He also authored the novels Reservation Blues, Indian Killer, and Flight, as well as numerous poetry collections including The Business of Fancydancing and Face.
Born with hydrocephalus, Alexie faced health and social challenges from an early age but demonstrated early academic talent and a deep love for reading. He left the reservation for high school and later studied at Washington State University, where a poetry course shifted his path toward literature. His mentor, poet Alex Kuo, introduced him to Native American writers, profoundly shaping his voice.
In 2018, Alexie faced multiple allegations of sexual harassment, which led to widespread fallout, including rescinded honors and changes in how his work is promoted in educational and literary institutions. He acknowledged causing harm but denied specific accusations. Despite the controversy, his influence on contemporary Native American literature remains significant.
Throughout his career, Alexie has received many awards, including the PEN/Faulkner Award for War Dances and an American Book Award for Reservation Blues. He has also been a prominent advocate for Native youth and a founding member of Longhouse Media, promoting Indigenous storytelling through film.
Whether through poetry, prose, or film, Alexie’s work continues to challenge stereotypes and elevate Native American voices in American culture.

Reviews

[Bren fall in love with the sea. · Rating 3 out of 5]

“Son, things have never been like how you think they used to be.”
― Sherman Alexie, Indian Killer

Indian Killer is a highly disturbing but at the same time an amazingly written book. It is riveting.

I recently read this and felt a strong feeling of familiarity like I had read it before which I realized I had. Quite awhile ago.

I had this on my list for awhile. It is a very dark and bleak book and is not as you might think based on its title. It is a well written and complex story but because of how, not just dark, but genuinely disturbing it is, you should read it when you are in the right mood.

SPOILERS:

I realized I read it before when I predicted the exact ending and started remembering quotes. I had the same feeling, reading it a second time, which is to say that I wanted to jump through the book and change the ending. I guess that is the sign of a truly good book.


Dare I say I was drawn to John? I never thought he did it and reading and learning about him, his dreams, his alienation and watching his slow descent into madness was both gripping and horrifying all at once.

I have always found myself drawn to Native American culture. Even from a young age I did find myself just fascinated by the way they lived and by their love of freedom and their land. In Sherman Alexie's version of Seattle, we've not come far from where we once were regarding our attitudes toward this culture. I do not think, however, that he was referencing Seattle specifically. I mean yes that is where this novel takes place but I think it could have been anywhere as I think Seattle was a Metaphor for this country's treatment of Native American Culture as a whole.

So yes I would recommend it. It is unique and bitter and your soul might ache while reading it. But it is an amazing book that I think it would also be a great book for book clubs. There is much to talk about.

[The Shayne-Train · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow, I love those little gems that you read "just 'cause" and turn out to be amazing.

Now, I'll say up front, I very rarely read paper books. Since my introduction to e-reading, that's all I want. Why? Because I can take a break from my book and Crush some Candy or snipe at a digital wildebeest or do a Sudoku, and then go right back to my book, ALL ON THE SAME MIRACULOUS GADGET! What a sci-fi world we live in, right? (Plus, if i'm eating chicken wings for lunch while reading, i can just tap the screen with the tip of my nose, and the 'page' turns. No grease-stains for this reader!)

So, that being said, the only time I ever read actual old-school paper-type books is when I go camping, which is once a year. This year, I was searching through my house for a paper book. I was getting discouraged, as I couldn't find any unread ones, and was about to resign myself to reading Galápagos for the seventeenth time, when I stumbled upon this book under a pile of random junk. I was very happy to find it, and promptly slapped it in a freezer bag and whisked it off to a canoe.

Now, I don't know if this is true or not, but I'd heard somewhere that this author does not allow his work to be converted to e-books. Before I read this book, I was kind of thinking that was a douche-y move, but I get it now. After you read it, you will too.

On to the book. That's what y'all came for, right? Well, this book was extremely enjoyable to read. The author's skill at his craft made what would seem like detriments from someone else into loveliness. Examples, you ask for? Ok, then: Firstly, the omniscient narrator jumps into multiple peoples heads within POV chapters, sometimes within the very same paragraphs. I usually hate that, and get all befuddled, but Mr. Alexie does it so gracefully and fluidly. Second-of-ly, short sentence fragments. Like this. Sometimes good. Not all the time. But sometimes. Usually bad. (Ok, I'll stop.) But, again, with this author it flows so beautifully.

There are no easy answers in this book. In fact, sometimes there are no answers at all. Answers aren't what matter. At the heart of the novel, there are two things that matter, one broad and one specific. The broad theme is Indians, the First Americans, and our treatment of them (then and now). The specific theme is a young man's slow, gentle decline into madness. Both themes are examined from every angle possible, and are at turns both disturbing and beautiful.

[Eryn · Rating 1 out of 5]

Sherman Alexie is a self-important, whiny alarmist, and a really bad writer.
This book is all about "Beware the Red Peril!" and has portrayed White/Indian race relations at their c. 1876 peak...
What an asshole.

By the way, I'm Native.

[Rachel (TheShadesofOrange) · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.0 Stars
This was such a powerful, racially charged thriller. The author does not pull any punches. Rather, this is an honest gritty narrative that blends themes of prejudice into a classic serial killer narrative. I highly recommend this own voices piece of crime fiction for anyone looking for a fresh story.

[Celeste Fairchild · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've heard Alexi disavow this book publicly, so I don't feel bad giving it a negative review despite adoring the author. It's an angry book, and in an unhelpful way -- it doesn't have sympathy for some of its own characters.

There's also the fact that it's a mystery without a solution. I'm all for genre-bending, but this was one of the least satisfying endings I've ever read.

It seems like an immature book, something he wrote before he'd worked out a lot of what makes him a great author.

Read his other stuff before you read this one. It's fun (or at least it starts out that way), but it's a whiff.

[MacK · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sherman Alexie's Indian Killer eschews the straight-up spectacle of a racially motivated serial killer mystery (with its potential for red herrings and dramatic climaxes) and instead savors the subtlety of innumerable racially conflicted characters who seem equally capable of murder--and leaves the whodunnit unanswered.

I have an undeniable fondness for Alexie (I'm already planning how to teach his The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian at the beginning of the next school year). One of the things I appreciate about his work is the raw but uncertain emotionality that comes with reflecting on race and identity. Throughout Indian Killer, there's a mixture of zeal and shame that pushes Native American characters to demonstrate their culture and yet assimilate to white society. Meanwhile a hodgepodge of lust and defensiveness leads many white characters to couple their interest in the other races around them with an attempt to maintain the privilege offered by whiteness. Alexie's world is not black and white (or red and white), but a complex amalgam of shades and senses that seems just right in our "Melting Pot" society.

I can certainly see how Indian Killer might cause discomfort in readers, the more the violence and animosity between cultures escalates, the easier it becomes for readers to say: "well, that's not me," or "can't we all just get along". But when Alexie refuses to provide the spectacle of racists receiving the comeuppance, or of children of every creed joining hands to sing, the subtle truth shines through: race matters, and as long as it does, excuses, scape goats and utopias will simply distract from actual reflection on and analysis of race.

[Walk-Minh · Rating 4 out of 5]

This novel is a ghost story, a murder mystery, a psychological thriller, and a historical narrative reflecting the slow erosion of the native peoples of North America. It was uncomfortable to read, yet comforting to know that I’m not alone in my observations and my interpretations of the facts behind the systematic destruction, abuse, and dissolution of the first people over the past three to four centuries. And, to focus the issues and themes of cultural domination and destruction through the prism of interracial/transracial adoption speaks deeply to me, as a transracial adoptee myself.

I was pleased with Sherman Alexie’s prose and storytelling acumen. The characters had a life and an independence all their own, and most importantly (for me at least), their personalities, language and motivations appeared to be realistic and believable. This is the reason why the story captivated me and kept me turning the pages to find out what happens next.

Now, I understand that the main character, John Smith, and his role as the adoptee in this story can be quite problematic and troublesome to us adoptees because of his severely conflicted and broken nature. Much of society, judging from how the media treats us adoptees and describes us, chooses to paint us as unwanted dolls in need of saving and when eventually saved, unable to fully integrate into our adoptive families because of our early separation from the first parental unit. I could see how a novel like the Indian Killer could simply reinforce these stereotypical assumptions about those who are adopted, especially transracially, in a naive audience.

With that said, I found the John Smith character scarily relatable based around the circumstances of my own adoption, my own upbringing, and my own life experiences. Many times during the story I felt like I had entered John Smith’s head or he in mine. I related to his learned and brooding silence, the acts of prejudice and discrimination that reinforced such inner and outer silence in him, and his vivid and searching daydreams that offered an alternative to an even more depressing and violent reality.

Indian Killer can act like a vision, an affirmation, a warning, or a revelation, depending on who you are, where you’ve been and the times you’re living in. While reading this book, the actual murders were not of real importance to me, but rather the subconscious and explicit forces that motivated the killer to commit them in the first place.

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was my introduction to Sherman Alexie, and I still think it is his best work that I've read to date. The title itself made me question my thought processes, as I immediately envisioned a book replaying and displaying the historical themes of colonization and genocide against Native Americans in a modernized plot. This is, of course, what Alexie is doing, but the story centers around a couple of local murders attributed to an "Indian Killer" -- an Indian who kills, not someone who kills Indians.

The cultural echoing that dominates the book is not for those who have not yet confronted white guilt (they will just feel pissed off) or for those who listen to a lot of talk radio personalities (Rush Limbaugh is skewered pretty perfectly in one of the characters). Alexie really has no patience for this aspect of america, but the inventive way in which he portrays the aftershocks of colonization are poignant and so, so effective.

I also really love the way this man writes. It's fluid and imaginative, and his dialogue is brilliant. The stark social divides that are outlined in the book would probably feel preachy if they were handled by someone with less talent. As it is, I think anyone with sensitivity will come out of this novel gasping rather than complaining about being taught a lesson.

[Edwin Priest · Rating 5 out of 5]

Powerful and disturbing, this book will shake you up and push on your comfort zones. It is a dark and meaningful tale full of racial tensions, prejudices and insanity. A serial killer in Seattle sets off a cascade of reactions and violence in and against the Indian community in Seattle. The characters are deep and conflicted, a complex mix of the well-meaning, the angry and the alienated, and they all swirl together in a convoluted clash of tension and tumult. And ultimately in the end, Indian Killer is an unsolved who-dunnit that leaves you unsettled and disquieted. 5 stars

[Gwyn · Rating 2 out of 5]

As I was reading this book I was aware that I didn't really like it, but at the same time I was compelled to keep reading it. That's why I gave it two stars instead of only one (though frankly I feel that's a little generous), because there was just something that kept drawing me in. That all stopped, however, about two thirds of the way into the book, when it essentially became a contest between whites and Indians of who could do the most hideous thing to complete innocent strangers. At that point all of the other flaws of the book caught up with it and I put it down for good and with no small amount of disgust.

I've lived my entire life within about an hour of Seattle. Though I've never lived within the city, I went to school there and have spent quite a bit of time there. While I recognized the places in Seattle he mentioned, the version of Seattle he presented was so foreign it didn't come across as believable, but more as a hate soaked fantasy land. While there's a chance I could just be missing people spouting "I HATE INDIANS" in bars since I'm a) white and b) not prone to surrounding myself with complete idiots, Alexie's description sounded more like somewhere in the Deep South than anywhere I've been in the North West.

Add to that I couldn't relate to, let alone like any of the characters. If there were any I had thought about liking, they were quick to do something horrible to change my mind. Aside from the obviously mentally ill main character (who may or may not be killing people, I guess we never find out), the character who confounded me the most was David a white collage kid who grew up just outside of a reservation. He decides to go to the Tulalip Casino so he can "see some indians" and is genuinely shocked on entering when he doesn't see "bare breasted Indian maidens". Just to be clear: THIS is the Tulalip Casino

They have ads almost every other commercial break about their concerts, restaurants, and luxurious amenities. I seriously don't know what planet you would have to be from/what mental impairment you would have to have to live anywhere in the NW and expect to go there (or frankly ANY of the tribal casinos) and expect to see Indian tits.

Bottom line: Do yourself a favor and pass on this one.

[Monica **can't read fast enough** · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dark read, but good. Review to come.

[Edward · Rating 4 out of 5]

The ambiguity of this novel’s title is reflected throughout the book. Is an Indian being killed, or is an Indian doing the killing? The circumstances surrounding this question are many and involved and largely take place on the streets of Seattle, although there is no escaping a troubled history of Indian-White relations in this country. Even though Alexie’s novel was written 25 years ago, it raises question of racism which are still present. . Distrust and suspicion on all sides are always just below the surface, and where the novel succeeds is to show how an act of violence causes these forces to suddenly erupt.

While the book has a lot of characters in it, none of them are fully developed but I think that’s purposeful on Alexie’s part. The novel demonstrates how nearly all of these characters are reflections of other peoples’ usually distorted attitudes. John, an alleged killer, an Indian adopted by a well-meaning affluent and educated white couple, terrorizes a city by brutally killing and scalping white strangers.

John is obviously deeply disturbed, suffering from a number of visions, one being of a Jesuit Spokane Indian priest who walked into the desert and disappeared. He seems to represent a insolvable gap between doing good by following Jesus and at the same time being an ally of a white “civilization” that would destroy native culture. John lands on the side of taking revenge for white historical atrocities against natives, some of which Alexie works into the narrative.

But John is only one character. He is distorted by a talk show host who oversimplifies the treatment of Indians, ranting about they are coddled and have become crazy drunks that you see on Seattle’s streets. They have failed to assimilate into mainstream culture, and it’s entirely their fault.

There is a young white man who is mugged and killed at a Indian casino near Seattle. His murder is blamed on Indians, and links are assumed between his murder and the scalpings even though in the end they turn out to be totally unrelated. More violence ensues from this as the enraged brother of the murder victim begins to beat helpless Indian drunks he finds on the s treets, as if they had anything to do with the death.

A subplot involves two whites, one a professor of Indian studies at a local university, and he other a novelist who has written a series of detective novels. His gimmick is a smart Indian solver of crimes, “Aristotle Little Hawk.” His latest effort is a book titled “Indian Killer” in which he’s having trouble creating an ending. He wants to get his book out first as he knows there will soon be other books out, trying to capitalize on these killings. All of this comments on how tragedies like these killings will be exploited and commercialized

There are two parallel Indian characters who resent these white “interpreters”, contending that only Indians can really understand what it is to be an Indian in America. One is a disgruntled young man, the other a young university student who is disgusted with the “expertise” of her Indian studies professor, a white man.

I find the novel to be a kaleidoscope of shifting and unstable attitudes. It ends with a hallucinatory “killer song” of dancing on graves continuing for hours with enigmatic owls descending from dark skies. It’s an ending that is open-ended, doesn’t answer any questions about the fate of this minority in America, and is underscored by the dilemma of the fictional novelist who doesn’t know how to end his book

[Hannah Luise · Rating 2 out of 5]

I might even go down one more star because the more I think about it the worse it actually gets. Edit: I did.

A more extended rant coming:
First, I would never have read this book if it weren't for our department's book club. I read quite a lot of thrillers and crime books back when I was 18 to 20 (actually not thaaaat long ago, I am only 23) and I am not too demanding when it comes to this genre (for instance, I enjoyed Fitzek's books a lot and found Chris Carters endless repetitions on the adventures of Hunter and Garcia enjoyable. Did you know Hunter has severe sleeping problems? Did you know?11??! I know because he mentions it every 50 pages in every book).

This book was out of my comfort zone and general interest in reading but as a student of literature this is often the case, so I can state that everything I read gets its fair chance and I am not biased by the "must" of reading it (plus book club is completely voluntary so... no obligation).

Reading this book is like a car crash. You have to look. You cannot look away. You have to read on because it is so bad that you want to know what's going to happen next. I was drawn into the book (as much as I have to admit) and at least finished over the span of three days (lost my precious weekend reading time on this). So, it was somehow of a short agony.

The book had me on its hook and I guess it was because of the way in which it was told. We get many characters' points of view, they are switching in places and moments that make it more interesting to continue the reading. But all characters were somehow unlikeable (so kudos if that's what you wanted to achieve, dear author).

Portraying the main character as mentally ill and deciding to write the book in a way the reader will assume that he - of course- is the Indian Killer is a decision. And not a good one (ever heard of stereotypes against the mentally ill. You support them with your writing). This is directly connected to the ending because I absolutely hate unsatisfying "endings" like this. Does this even count as an ending? What a weird decision to let your book end like this... like, I mean, it's his novel and he can do and write whatever he wants but this was not my cup of tea. At all.

If you want a thriller with an unsatisfying ending, unlikeable characters but a somehow nice way of telling this "car-crash" like story with a lot of social commentary and unnecessary mentioning of boobs every 100 pages or so: This is your book.

[Nancy Lewis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Everything is connected to everything else.

[Irene · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked up Indian Killer at the library because I'm on a Sherman Alexie kick and this was the only book of his available. Being a psychological thriller about murder, it's not exactly the type of book I normally read. I was a bit apprehensive as I started reading, afraid I'd get nightmares or something, but the book quickly drew me in.

Indian Killer explores themes of identity and isolation across whites and Native Americans. There's the Indian man, adopted by white parents, who longs to be a "real" Indian. There's the white man who, as an orphaned child, convinced himself he was a "real" Indian and never let go of the idea. There's the half-white, half-Indian man who self-identifies as an Indian, but whose white father tried to beat the "hostile Indian" out of him as a child. There's the Indian woman, raised on a reservation but now in college, who is fiercely proud of her heritage, yet feels separated from her people because she's become a well-educated urban Indian. There's the white man who romanticizes the idea of Indians and considers himself an expert on Indians. And finally, there's the white man who feels a sense of guilt over the injustices Indians have suffered at the white man's hand.

This book lacked the wit and lyricism of the other Sherman Alexie books I've read, but I guess the genre didn't exactly call for it, either. As in his other books, the dialogue is powerful. It's well-written, and delves into the minds of many more characters than I would have expected, though I'm not sure I understood everyone's motivation. It ties up some loose ends I didn't even think would be tied, yet leaves a gaping hole where I felt sure I would be given answers.

[Peggy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I usually steer clear of this genre of novel. A serial killer roams Seattle. Sympathetic characters die or are threatened. Loving parents suffer. The book is well plotted and there's an element of real mystery to the suspense--could reality be driven by a vengeful spirit born out of centuries of wrongs done to Native Americans? Alexie does a great job depicting how white folks believing themselves to be experts in North American Indians come across to Native Americans. Some characters--sandwich Marie, for example, were very compelling and I wanted more about them. But that was the novel--snippets of characters, snippets of plots, nothing fully developed except for fear and hate. Still, if you like this kind of theme, you'll love this novel.

[Adrian Stumpp · Rating 2 out of 5]

The mixture of politics and art is always a dicey subject for me. I tend to be against it, since nearly all art composed in the name of a political cause is terrible. A recent exception to this is Sherman Alexie's Indian Killer, though I feel it is not nearly as good as it would have been had political voice not been the driving motivation behind it. Indeed, Indian Killer is chilling, and for all of the reasons Alexie does not want it to be. Alexie takes the leitmotif of the murder mystery for his novel, though in truth it is only superficially a murder mystery; at its heart the novel is postmodern political zealoutry. However, in nearly every sense it approximates genius in my mind. Even the title, Indian Killer, is an ellusive play on words, for one wonders the entire length of the novel if it refers to a killer of Indians, or an Indian who is a killer. The plot follows in pseudo-potboiler fashion a chain of Native American murders in Seattle. The victims are scalped, skinned, and mutilated. Xenophobia ensues and our heroes, two Native American's, take up the gauntlet to prove that the murderer is not one of them, but is only creating an MO to lead authorities astray while at the same time creating a racist craze. The true target is mystery novelist Tony Hillerman, whom Alexie goes so far as to parody in his book. Hillerman is known for his Native American mystery's and, implies Alexie's work, actually works against the cause of those he claims to champion by distracting the public's attention from the true cause of the Native American's plight. Hillerman closes our attention in on a single bad guy who is finally caught and punished. Alexie shows us that the true evil is much larger: it is all of society. Alexie indicts not a single psychopath, but all of American society, in the murder of Indians. My biggest complaint is Alexie's prose themselves. They seeth with hatred on every page. His characters are developed and rounded only to the extent that they are abused and angry. Otherwise, they are cardboard cutouts. Likewise his style is easily digested, clipped, engaging, and quickly paced per the potboilers he so obnoxiously imitates. The style approaches passionate use of language only in the most politically rabid passages. Elsewhere, he seems unmoved by the loves and lives of his own characters. Only his hatred and indictment move him to a stirring use of the English language. This, frankly, disgusts me, and the unevenness of style and low regard for literary aesthetics was enough to send this reader into paroxysms of regrettable proportions. Alexie takes a good idea, marries it to a bad one, and hates the hell out of anyone who will read it.

[Mark Stevens · Rating 3 out of 5]

There’s an admirable premise at work in “Indian Killer,” in which Sherman Alexie uses the plot of a serial killer on the loose to run through just about every attitude and thought about racism in the United States—in particular racism aimed at American Indians.

Written in 1996, “Indian Killer” is hardly a taut murder mystery and it’s a bit loosely jointed, at least for my tastes, to be considered a literary classic.

The story’s central character is John Smith, an Indian who was adopted at birth by white parents. Alexie lets readers brood throughout much of the book about whether Smith might or might not be the “Indian Killer” who is terrorizing Seattle. But then there is an angry female university student, Marie, and the angry radio talk show host and finally we get to know an ex-cop turned novelist, Jack Wilson. There are a host of other sub-characters along the way.

The major theme is identity and the role that an individual’s upbringing forms your attitude and character. Breeds, hybrids, tribes, races, family, and so on. "Indian Killer” doesn’t bury or hide much—all the characters spell out their analysis of various racial attitudes in excruciating detail. There’s a lot of shouting and finger-pointing.

The tension in the city is described in detail, but I never felt any true suspense. The ending is “unique,” too. I found it very unsatisfying. I’d recommend this only for readers who want to devour of all of Alexie’s work or read contemporary fiction about the American Indian experience.

[Stefanie Kern · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sherman Alexie’s novels were the topic of my final paper at the university so yes, there might be some bias here but I deeply care about this angry, driven piece of literature and about Alexie’s literature in general.
The story revolves around some gruesome ritual murders with supposed Native American background, and paints a multilayered picture of the relationships between whites and Native Americans. Interestingly, the question of „whodunnit“ is gradually pushed into the background in favour of the question „why“ the situation is as it is.
I doubt that „Indian Killer“ is a very „pleasing“ novel in the sense that it leaves the reader with a „jolly-good“- feeling. It is about Native Americans but it is void of Native American clichés unless cliché is used to criticize cliché (not trying to give you a headache here...) It is neither hopeful nor trying to mend the relationship between Native Americans and the white society of the U.S.. Indian Killer is a portrait and an analysis of the status quo and it stings. It is the outcry of a young author’s „unappeasable anger“ - and I’m quoting TIME magazine here, which inteded to criticise Alexie for being angry albeit missing the point that the novel was intened to explain why anger is a justified emotion for Native Americans to be felt.
The ambiguity of the title itself (Indian Killer as either a killer from a native background or someone killing „Indians“) basically sums up the devastating picture of white- Native relations as they probably are/ were and more importantly, as Alexie felt them to be at the time.

[Jesse L · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another fantastic Sherman Alexie book - can he do no wrong? CAN HE?

This was one of the most directly brutal books of his I have read. Due to the intense theme of racially motivated murder and violence Alexie successfully explores much of the hatred, prejudice, ignorance, anger, frustration, and more felt in America. He manages to explain and sympathize with the violent actions of his mentally ill protagonist but not justify them - something crucial to understanding race in America. The ending of the book perfectly explains the difference in prejudices: violence against white men comes from pain. That pain is an important part of understanding all systemic/societal/cultural forms of prejudice. Violence against Indians comes from hatred and ignorance. But both forms have much in common: frustration, anger, loss, etc. The characters are acting out in a framework of racism that has given them limited choices.

Absolutely recommended, like all Alexie books. He continues to be one of my favorite authors.

[Tentatively, Convenience · Rating 4 out of 5]

This starts off w/ a melodramatic bang worthy of Michael Crichton &/or Dean Koontz.. It's a thriller.. but it's a thriller w/ something that Crichton & Koontz will never have: a subtext of sensitizing the reader to American 'Indians'.. & there's no simple resolution. There're plenty of characters, the most sympathetic for me being probably the activist Marie Polatkin, the one who articulates the most accurately (IMO). The complex issue of relations between 'Whites' & "Indians' in the 'United States' is dealt w/ in an appropriately multifaceted way.. maybe some of the characters seem a bit cartoonish but, hey!, if I'd written it they wd've been worse! In other words, Alexie clearly tries to deal a fair hand & does a great job of it. Alas, once again, the human condition is FUCKED.. & I have to agree w/ the majority of Alexie's presentation of it. I'll be reading more by him.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

Maybe it is partly because this was the first novel I read in six months, but I basically devoured this book and really enjoyed it all the way through. Great pace, great characters, good suspense, funny in parts. I really appreciated that Alexie made almost everyone at least a little sympathetic - even the characters that I really expected to dislike. Even the terrible people usually had a least one moment of humanity, so the reader could glimpse something good in them.
Also, I love books that zigzag between characters this fast, with chapters only four or five pages long sometimes, because I end up unable to put them down. I keep just one more chapter-ing myself right on through to the end of the book.
I want to tackle some of Alexie's short stories now. I've only ever read one or two, I think.

[Valerie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book for the ATY reading challenge Week 47: A book where the main character (or author) is of a different ethnic origin, religion, or sexual identity than your own.

This is a hard-hitting book. Sherman Alexie does not pull any punches. The scenes are graphically real. And you know, as the reader, that people are being treated this way today. Were treated this way yesterday. Will be treated this way tomorrow. Sad, but true. In the end, it is a who-done-it without a who. Reading through the book and trying to identify the Indian Killer, you will think you know, but in the end...Who knows. Yes, urban Indians live this life, whether they are street people or not. Urban minorities live this life. And where are the urban majorities? They are the ones turning their heads trying not to see or hear. A compelling eye-opener! I hope you read it.

[Artnoose McMoose · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the second Sherman Alexie book I have read. It's about a serial killer in Seattle whose victims are white males. It also follows several different characters, all of whom could be the serial killer. Meanwhile, racial tensions in Seattle mount and racially motivated violence spirals upward.

Alexie's two main questions seem to be: 1. What makes someone a "real" Indian? and 2. What to do with all these white people? Some of the Native folks in his books know their ancestral languages and some don't. Some live on the rez and some in cities. Some drink alcohol and others Diet Pepsi. Within the interweaving threads of all of these subplots, the question is always being asked as to whether any of these lives could be considered any more "authentic" than the others.

[Christy · Rating 1 out of 5]

His other books weren't available at the library, so I went for this one. It was an interesting comment on racial tensions, but seemed overstated, was extremely grotesque and had one of the worst, most unsatisfying endings I've ever read. The characters were more like charicatures and, even though it was listed as a mystery, the mystery is never solved. I'll have to read one of his other books to redeem my opinion of him.

[Linda · Rating 1 out of 5]

Cliched writing, especially the dialogue, flat characters, obvious stereotypes, an over the top plot. When an author is making a point I prefer that he not use a sledge hammer. I didn't even really dislike this book...I simply didn't care about it. I'm reading House Made of Dawn by N. Scott Momaday which deals with the same issue in a much more accomplished and nuanced way.

[Amy M · Rating 1 out of 5]

used to be a fan of Alexie, especially his poetry & lone ranger & tonto fist fight in heaven, until i woke up and realized his narcissism and skewed views are just over the f'g top and engendered this disaster of a novel.

[Ksenia Anske · Rating 4 out of 5]

A gritty tale on racism, purposeful, to smash your face, to wake you up. Hilarious and true, magical and bitter, smart, cunningly written; you read it in one gulp and wonder where the time went. This book has teeth. It's feral. It will munch you away.

[Heather Silvio · Rating 1 out of 5]

I loved Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian, and knew this would be different. But it was way too dark and negative for me. All of the characters are essentially miserable in their own way and I just didn't enjoy reading that.

[Malcolm · Rating 4 out of 5]

A killer stalks Seattle, leaving what seems to all intents and purposes to be Native American markers at each kill site – which sets up this impressive example of Sherman Alexis oeuvre as a crime novel or thriller, and it is, but not in the classic generic sense. Rather than explore the search for the killer, Alexie builds a two layered plot. In the first a radio ‘shock jock’ (as the Australians amongst others call populist, right wing, social reactionary talk radio hosts) lays the base for an anti-Native moral panic, which rather than didactically condemn Alexie traces through its impact on Seattle’s Native population, on the fear of those living on the streets and those who do not, on the thuggish beatings meted out by vigilante mobs and on distress caused by being more socially marginalised than is usually the case.

He then complicates this narrative through the case of the blandly named John Smith, Native and adopted by a well-to-do Seattle couple – but all John knows is that he is Native and that his birth mother was 14. He builds an elaborate set of worlds and back stories around his background, the circumstances of his birth, of his adoption by Olivia and Daniel and disappearance in the desert of the Spokane Jesuit priest Father Daniel. John, a building worker and through his friendship with student and social activist Marie, provides us with a link between Seattle’s non-Native world and the precarious lives of most of the book’s indigenous characters….. On top of all this, John exhibits many of the symptoms of schizophrenia, which for the most part he manages well through a retreat into order.

From this seemingly disparate array of characters, Alexie has constructed a powerful and compelling tale of contemporary Native life, of the perils of city life exacerbated by a combination of isolation from indigenous ways of being (and in some cases the eradication of indigenousness by state action that declares tribes to be no-longer-extant) and of a settler city (named for one of their most romanticised historical figures – Seattle performs a powerful ironic function) that fails to see them as anything other a threat, while seeing a stereotypical sameness and concurrently romanticised world. There is nothing simple about settler views and treatment of Native America (except their genocidal past and present actions); as is so often the case our grand sociological analyses tell a story that is only made real in the smallness of individual cases, in this instance a fictionalised but realist story of a few, of characters we come to know whose depth and roundedness is rare in fiction by non-Native writers.

Alexie offers no simple solutions and presents a disturbing climax that compromises the integrity of all settler actors whilst failing to utterly condemn them (except perhaps the shock jock) in or for their presumptiveness. As with other work by Alexie we are drawn almost unwittingly into a Native view of the world where laughter and ironic elf-deprecation becomes a defence against perpetual dislocation and fear and proto-Native settlers are shown to be hopelessly naïve or duplicitously and deludedly exploitative. For many of us this is an empathy with an Other we’re not used to seeing in these ways, but I am left (as a reader and critic) to wonder about Native readers reading work of this kind – but that is probably a research project for another life. Yet in not condemning the effects of the presumptions of settler society in the ‘Indian Killer’ case Alexie also offers a way through the problems he is grappling with – and it is that of all good fiction: an empathetic understanding of the Other, what- or whomever that might be for the particular story being told.

Yet that last paragraph makes the novel seem more explicitly political and politicised, more of a sociological and criminological tract than it really is. It is a damn fine story with rich, multi-layered and complex characters making sense of a situation that is teetering on the brink of loss of control and social order, and sometimes falling over than limit. That is to say, it is damn fine novel with engaging, sympathetic characters who while we may not necessarily like them (few are all that likeable) we can recognise them, see in them both archetypes and individuals who drive a story and allow a way into engagement. On top of that, there are enough twists and narrative disruptions to keep us as readers wondering just where we’re going next, but not so many that Alexie’s narrative becomes excessively tricksy. It is good to be reminded just why I like Alexie’s work so much: it’s well worth a read.