Sherman Alexie is lauded as one of the major lyric writers of this time in America. I find that his work is humorous, vulnerable, and consistently explores characters who discover there’s more to life than what is in front of them (and by extension, us readers). He writes honestly about race and his Native American Identity, setting a lot of his stories in Washington State. He also writes about writers, kinship relationships, Seattle, tumors, and basketball, among many topics in his expansive list of themes and motifs. He’s a poet, novelist, filmmaker, and short story writer, and so this is a list of six of my favorite short stories one could find (and enjoy) in his collection Blasphemy:

1. “Salt”

A story about a teenager researching and writing obituaries.

“I wasn’t her friend, not really. I was only eighteen, a summer intern at the newspaper, moving from department to department as need and boredom required, and had only spent a few days working with Lois. But she’d left a note, a handwritten will and testament, with the editor in chief, and she’d named me as the person she wanted to writer her obituary.” (Blasphemy, 313)

2. “The Approximate Size Of My Favorite Tumor.”

A story about a man trying to regain his wife’s trust and affection as he dies of cancer.

“‘Well, I told her the doctor showed me my X-rays and my favorite tumor was just about the size of a baseball, shaped like one, too. Even had stich marks.’” (Blasphemy, 173)

3. “Do You Know Where I Am?”

An intricate story about a couple’s relationship (one sentence couldn’t sum up this poignant story).

“My mother didn’t call my father by name because she wanted the dead to stay dead; I wanted to learn magic and open a twenty-four-hour supermarket that sold resurrection and redemption.” (Blasphemy, 273)

4. “War Dances”

A story about the process of a man discovering a cancer diagnosis while other parts of his life fall apart.

“As he lay on the pavement, I leaned in closer to him. His legs were curled under his body. His head was a titled at a sad angle. Sad? Yes, sad. For who is lonelier than the cockroach without his tribe?” (Blasphemy, 43).

5. “Breaking and Entering”

A story about a house break-in and the aftermath.

“Trust me, nobody interesting or vital has ever knocked on a front door at three in the afternoon, so I ignored the knocking and kept at my good work. And, sure enough, my potential guest stopped the noise and went away.” (Blasphemy, 252)

6. “What You Pawn I Will Redeem”

A story about a homeless Native American and his pursuit to raise enough money to buy back his grandmother’s regalia from a pawn store.

“Rose of Sharon, Junior, and I carried our twenty-dollar bill and our five dollars in loose change over to the 7-Eleven and spent it to buy three bottles of imagination. We needed to figure out how to raise all that money in one day.” (Blasphemy, 443).