SOURCE: "Native American," in World Literature Today, Vol. 68, No. 2, Spring, 1994, p. 407.

In the review below, Velie describes The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven as "powerful and lyrical."

Although it is highly uncommon for American writers to be successful at both poetry and fiction, it is the rule rather than the exception for American Indian novelists. Scott Momaday, James Welch, Gerald Vizenor, Louise Erdrich, Leslie Silko, and Linda Hogan have published both novels and collections of verse. The latest to join the list is Sherman Alexie. He initially achieved notice for his poetry collections I Would Steal Horses, Old Shirts & New Skins, and First Indian on the Moon, and gained a measure of prominence when his 1992 collection of prose and verse, The Business of Fancydancing, was selected by the New York Times as one of its Notable Books of the Year. His latest work, The Lone Ranger...