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Title: Reddest Apple in the World
Review: Sherman Alexie burst onto the fiction scene with a seminole (no pun intended) anthology in The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven. That is the ONLY decent work of prose to his credit. Reservation Blues... couldn't finish it, because half wya through there was still no meat to the plot or characters. Indian Killer? Give me a break. Now this. The Toughest Indian is nothing but syrupy contemporary prose written for critics to praise, not for readers to enjoy. "Saint Junior," for example, meanders through various story lines before going...nowhere (in 38 pages!). The title story was ALMOST my favorite, but the sudden twist of a homosexual encounter did not fit the story -- and certainly not the writer. Gay fiction is done best when it is honest, but this is calculated for effect. Folks, buy his first anthology, and you'll own a piece of American literary heritage. Buy this and you'll own the equivalent of the Spice Girls.
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