SOURCE: A review of First Indian on the Moon, in The Bloomsbury Review, Vol. 14, No. 3, May-June, 1994, p. 15.

In the following review of First Indian on the Moon, Bankston notes that while Alexie's recent verse resembles his previous efforts, his work has not become "hackneyed."

We know what to expect from poet and short-story writer Sherman Alexie. In his first three volumes of poetry and in his recent collection of stories, he focused intently on modern Native American life in the Northwest, employing the same characters to explore the themes of the bleakness of reservation life, of alcohol as the only readily available release from this bleakness, of powerlessness as the pervasive reality of contemporary tribal existence. In verse and prose, he has expressed this uncompromising vision with a spare, minimalist style, paring his words down to the bone. Comic moments appear suddenly and unexpectedly on this harsh landscape...