I first discovered Sherman Alexie's poetry (which is excellent), then the movie Smoke Signals (which is also excellent), then his book of short stories that the movie is based on: The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven (which is--can you guess?--excellent). A circuitous route to discovering an author, but that's alright because Alexie's talent is broad and complex and there isn't a bad angle to approach from.
In this novel a teenage boy faces the very adult notion that despite the rightness or wrongness of a cause, violence is not the answer. An orphaned 15 year-old, "Zits" has been shuffled in and out of foster homes, been used and abused, and has developed an understandably negative attitude toward adults and authority. One final lashing out with a gun in a bank leads to an inexplicable travel through time and an opportunity to experience life through the eyes of others--an FBI agent about to kill Indian activists, a young Indian boy present at Little Big Horn, a pilot who finds out one of his flight students has committed an act of terrorism--all facing violent situations that tear lives apart. It's a fantastic plot, but it works. Alexie is so good at portraying pain and compassion without being sentimental. In fact, you might say he's excellent.
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