This Is What It Means To Say Phoenix, Arizona

Reviewer of this story is Djurdja Bogicevic, 17, from Valjevo, Yugoslavia

This Is What It Means To Say Phoenix, Arizona can be read in The Best American Short Stories, Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston-New York - 1994.

The main characters of this story are Victor and Thomas Build-the-Fire, two Indians who live in a reservation. Vi- ctor's father dies in Phoenix and Victor wants to go there and pick up his ashes and some things which are left there, but he doesn't have any money. Then he meets his ex-friend from childhood, Thomas Builds-the-Fire who likes to tell stories very much, more than anyone wants to listen, and that is the reason why people avoid him, and nobody has talked to him for years. So he has begun to talk to trees, wind and animals. Even Victor isn't his friend any more because of a very stupid fistfight when he was very drunk and beat Thomas for no reason at all. But now he needs some money, and Thomas wants to give it to him, but only if Victor takes him to Phoenix. They go there, and come back to the reservation after a few days. At the end of the journey, they both know that they could never be friends any more, even after all they have passed for the last couple of days. The only thing Thomas asks Victor to do is to stop once and listen to his story. Reading this story, you could sometimes feel that some words, sentences and phrases are very empty, that the writer wanted to sound clever and weird. And it looks as if he wanted someone to say that there are some things from this story that sound like some kind of wisdom, and I don't think he managed. The overall style is nevertheless good, in my opinion. Generally, if you don't like any kind of Indian stories, don't start reading this one, although it doesn't have much connection with them, with their culture and customs.

Sherman Alexie is an Indian writer from Wellpinit, Washington, on the Spokane Indian Reservation. He is the author of five books, including: First Indian on the Moon and The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven.