In Sherman Alexie’s Reservation Blues, a famous musician leaves his guitar on the Spokane Indian Reservation. The protagonist finds this guitar and is inspired to start a band with some fellow Indians in an effort to escape the poverty they live in. Along the way they must fight against centuries of conflict surrounding their Native American heritage, conflict which some have not forgotten.
The author, Sherman Alexie, is a Spokane Indian, born and raised on the same reservation where his novel takes place. He is acutely aware of the hardships faced by Native Americans and urges them to empower themselves in order to change the conditions they live in. This belief can be seen clearly in Reservation Blues, in which he argues that, when faced with hardship, individuals can either seek salvation or fall victim to self-destruction.
The majority of the characters in this novel are Indians, from either the Spokane Tribe or the nearby Flatheads. Because of this, all of these characters face the hardships known to Native Americans of today. Through these characters, Alexie explores the different paths of salvation and destruction that they could choose. By exploring the arc of each character in the story, the reader can come to understand the experiences of Native Americans.

We think Reservation Blues was a very good book, if sometimes hard to follow. Alexie effectively represents the hardships experienced by the Spokane Indians as well as those of Native Americans in general, a representation validated by his personal experience in this area. He also utilizes a unique writing style of presenting past events intertwined with the present. This can sometimes make the flow of time difficult to follow, but also presents constant excitement even when the present is in a lull. Overall the book keeps the reader entertained from start to finish, with plenty of twists added for good measure.