This is What It Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona

by Sherman Alexie · 1993

+ Want to read

These linked stories follow people on a Spokane reservation in eastern Washington, where ordinary days are shaped by poverty, grief, drinking and the long memory of a community. Two young men, Victor and Thomas, drift in and out of the lives of relatives, friends and neighbours, and their paths cross both on the reservation and beyond it. Alexie moves between humour and heartbreak as he considers what it means to be Native in modern America, the pull of home and the wish to leave it. The collection introduces a world that is funny, raw and deeply personal.

Genre
literary fictionliterary fictionMore like thisLess of this
Themes
Native AmericanNative AmericanMore like thisLess of this
Setting
1990s1990sMore like thisLess of this
Audience
adult
Form
short storiesshort storiesMore like thisLess of this

Click a tag to see books like this one that share it. Point at it (on a phone, tap it) for less of it instead.

Read it? Sign in to help tag it.

BuyAmazonGoogle Books

BorrowOpen LibraryA library near you

MoreCompare prices

Liked This is What It Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona? Here’s where I’d start.

These suit anyone who liked This is What It Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona. Sign in and mark a few books for picks shaped around your own taste.

  1. A&P: Lust in the Aisles John Updike · 1961 Shares short stories, classics, fiction
  2. The Prophet's Hair Salman Rushdie · 1981 Shares short stories, fiction
  3. A Wilderness Station Alice Munro · 2015 Shares short stories, classics, contemporary
  4. How To Become A Writer Lorrie Moore · 2015 Shares short stories, classics
See more recommendations →

“People who read This is What It Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona tend to reach for these next.”

  1. Bullet in the Brain Tobias Wolff · 1995
  2. The Red Convertible: Selected and New Stories, 1978-2008 Louise Erdrich · 2009
  3. The Color of Absence: 12 Stories About Loss and Hope James Howe · 2001
  4. The Women Men Don't See James Tiptree Jr. · 1973

“If you want more of the same (literary fiction about native american), start with these.”

  1. Pure Slaughter Value: Stories Robert Bingham · 1997
  2. First and Last Truman Capote · 1995
  3. My Hard Bargain Walter Kirn · 1990
  4. The Complete Stories Alice Walker · 1994

“If it was the short stories that hooked you, try one of these.”

  1. Lappin and Lappinova Virginia Woolf · 1939
  2. The Jilting of Granny Weatherall Katherine Anne Porter · 1930
  3. Improper Stories Saki · 2010
  4. Hunters in the Snow Tobias Wolff · 1392

“These start from a similar idea, even if they go somewhere else with it.”

  1. Holding Our World Together: Ojibwe Women and the Survival of the Community Brenda J. Child · 2012
  2. The Heart Stone Sherry Kyle · 2013
  3. Native Americans and the reservation in American history Anita Louise McCormick · 1996
  4. Brave Girl Kate Baum · 2013

Report a problem