I don't think there's a whole lot of class literature at all. I think most of that has become racially based, and people don't think of it as being class literature.

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.