I used to think the world was broken down by tribes,' I said. 'By Black and White. By Indian and White. But I know this isn't true. The world is only broken into two tribes: the people who are assholes and the people who are not.

The pressure of succeeding in college became too much for Alexie and he began drinking heavily to cope. He excelled at school and became a star player on the basketball team which was coincidentally called the Reardan High Indians. While in the short story collection they were in their teens Reservation Blues show the boys in their thirties.

Sherman Joseph Alexie Jr. (born October 7 1966) is a poet writer filmmaker and comedian.