In Sherman Alexie’s Reservation Blues, an Indian blues band is formed when a stranger brings a magical guitar to the reservation. They are joined by two Flathead women and they travel to Seattle and New York as they try to spread their music. This story follows their journey as they attempt to gain wealth and fame as well as try to escape their home. Sherman Alexie is the Granta Award winning author of Native American culture and a member of the Spokane Indian tribe. The majority of the book takes place in modern day Wellpinit, the reservation of the Spokane Indians. Alexie argues the challenges that Indians face when they attempt to preserve their native culture. Being an Indian, Alexie brings a unique perspective to the struggles that Native Americans face and new awareness to their challenges. Sherman Alexie forces the reader to examine the tragedies that Native Americans face.

Alcoholism is a major theme throughout the book. The way Alexie describes alcohol’s role in an Indian’s life is saddening. According to Alexie, alcohol is a major part of every Indian male’s life. All of the older men are drunk and homeless. Many of the characters fathers end up as alcoholics and Thomas Builds-the-fire’s father is passed out on the ground many times. There is never a time in the book that Thomas’s father is sober.

Suicide is also another matter of life to the Indians on the reservation. Crushed by failure to achieve fame at an audition, Junior takes his life as he can no longer feel anything. Even the songs that the band sings include references to suicide as well as murder.

Misconceptions and half-breed Indians appear in the book as well. Junior ends up having a baby with a white women while he attends college. The woman rejects him as the father and ends up getting an abortion. Other characters also talk about the difficulties that half-breeds face in both white and Indian communities. Many of the tribal cops are half-breeds and they are the most hateful to the Indians. Half-breeds aren’t fully accepted into the Indian communities and in white society, they are bullied and abused. In white society Indian culture is misunderstood because of misconceptions. The Catholic priest on the reservation believes that the Indian’s hunt buffalo and live in tipis. The battle of the bands producer thought that Indians only played drums. Many white people in New York seemed surprised that Indians still exist.

Through the book the tragedies that crowd the lives of Native American’s become tangible. Alexie provides the reader with a vivid image of suffering and hardships that occur on the reservation. This book is a memorable depiction of the tragedies surrounding modern day Native Americans. A must read for anybody interested in examining native culture in a modern day context.