Criticism > Contemporary Literary Criticism > Alexie, Sherman (Vol. 96) - Alan R. Velie (review date Spring 1994)

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Alan R. Velie (review date Spring 1994)

SOURCE: "Native American," in World Literature Today, Vol. 68, No. 2, Spring, 1994, p. 407.

[In the review below, Velie describes The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven as "powerful and lyrical."]

Although it is highly uncommon for American writers to be successful at both poetry and fiction, it is the rule rather than the exception for American Indian novelists. Scott Momaday, James Welch, Gerald Vizenor, Louise Erdrich, Leslie Silko, and Linda Hogan have published both novels and collections of verse. The latest to join the list is Sherman Alexie. He initially achieved notice for his poetry collections I Would Steal Horses, Old Shirts & New Skins, and First Indian on the Moon, and gained a measure of prominence when his 1992 collection of prose and verse, The Business of Fancydancing, was selected by the New York Times as one of its Notable Books of...

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1. Introduction
2. Principal Works
3. Criticism
   1. Alex Kuo (essay date 1992)
   2. Publishers Weekly (review date 1 February 1993)
   3. The New Yorker (essay date 10 May 1993)
   4. Sybil S. Steinberg (review date 19 July 1993)
   5. Andrea-Bess Baxter (review date August 1993)
   6. Brian Schneider (review date Fall 1993)
   7. Reynolds Price (review date 17 October 1993)
   8. Anne Goodwin Sides (review date 17 October 1993)
   9. Publishers Weekly (review date 8 November 1993)
   10. Frank Allen (review date 15 November 1993)
   11. Joseph Bruchac (review date Winter 1994)
   12. Alan R. Velie (review date Spring 1994)
   13. James Beschta (review date May 1994)
   14. Carl L. Bankston III (review date May-June 1994)
   15. Andrea-Bess Baxter (review date November 1994)
   16. Leslie Marmon Silko (review date 12 June 1995)
   17. Frederick Busch (review date 16 July 1995)
   18. Abigail Davis (review date July-August 1995)
4. Further Reading
5. Copyright

1. Sherman Alexie