1995: Reservation Blues
Author/Editor: Sherman Alexie
We picked Reservation Blues of course for it’s sharp story and prose, but also because it’s Alexie’s first novel and because of Alexie’s ties to the Northwest. Among many other honors, this book won a Murray Morgan Prize—an award given by the Tacoma Public Library in order to recognize work that is of “high literary quality and wide interest and embodies the principles of narrative excellence and high standards of research …”
Reservation Blues follows some of the chargers who debuted in The Lone Ranger & Tonto Fistfight in Heaven. Having happened on to Robert Johnson’s guitar, Thomas Builds-the-Fire forms a band with Victor Joseph and Junior Polatkin. Initially meeting with success, ultimately the band comes apart at the seams and each must return home and find a life path as best they can.