…but when I do, it’s still about Indians. Sometimes, anyway, though the two most recent were. Sort of.
If you haven’t read any of Sherman Alexie‘s work, get on it (or, better yet, listen to an audio version that he reads, because then you get the amazing rez accent and sing-song delivery, which is wonderful). I just finished a collection of his short stories, Ten Little Indians. I often find short stories frustrating, and rarely read them, so I’m not sure if he just does a good job (my favorites were the first and last in the book), or if I’m more receptive to them as a reader now for some reason than I was a couple of years ago when I last tried to tackle such a collection. At any rate, his characters are Spokane Indians, most of them living in the Seattle area, and the stories are great. I probably wouldn’t have even started it, but I got it on sale, and I knew from reading The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian that I liked Alexie (he also wrote the script for Smoke Signals, which is a pretty solid film with one brilliant and hilarious character/actor). If you need more incentive, his books are banned in some schools, and so you should read them just to be contrarian.
Another recommended recent read: Christopher Moore’s Sacre Bleu. That link will even give you a couple of preview chapters, and you don’t have to be into vampires for this one (by the way, can you tell I binged this summer?), which is centered on a special shade of blue, painting, and the French Impressionists. He seems to have gotten much more serious with his last few books, though they’re still smart and a total blast. And he mentioned Indians somewhere in there, I’m pretty sure. I know there were Picts.
