Sherman Alexie’s Reservation Blues emerges the reader in the reservation life Native Americans on the Spokane Reservation. The novel is a fictional story of the rise to short-lived fame of a local Spokane Reservation band, Coyote Springs, composed of main characters Thomas, Victor, and Junior. Alexie dramatizes the inevitable failure of the band through a non-conventional literary structure. Much like the “Indian time” that the story references, the book is circular in that time has a nonlinear flow.
Throughout the book Alexie draws from his own Native American heritage to unapologetically explain a side of Native Americans that is normally unseen by modern Western readers. He explains events and actions through the use of dreams and flashbacks, along with characters that seem to appear from the past. Although he succeeds in giving the reader an understanding of modern day Native American culture, he fails to break from the stereotypes most Western readers have already formulated of Native Americans.
Use of alcohol abounds in Reservation Blues. Western readers have their preconceived notions reaffirmed by the text before they can be challenged. Alexie overemphasizes this derogatory issue all too often for people to consider it in a different light. People may find it difficult to relate to, and sympathize with characters like Victor. Victor’s high points are overshadowed by his incessant consumption of alcohol. Towards the very end of the novel, it looks as if he is about to overcome his addiction to alcohol. Despite mentally throwing unwanted silver flasks to the bottom of Turtle Lake, Victor defaults back to his old ways after stealing a six pack of beer.
Sherman Alexie proverbially bites off more than he can chew. He attempts to paint Native Americans in a different light and tries to offer a new way of looking at the challenges they face. Although Reservation Blues is an entertaining novel, readers are left with only an incrementally better way of looking at Native American culture and a lot more questions than answers.