Sherman Alexie interviewed by Powell's

Sherman Alexie has become one of my favorite authors. It's not often that a great artist also turns out to be a pretty nice person as well. Mr. Alexie has always come across as a humble and thoughtful individual. So it pains me to think of missing his reading here in NYC on Monday. I just don't want to enter a Barnes & Noble. I believe that I vote with my dollars and I will not vote for a chain that has drowned out the independent bookstores. It's hard enough that I have to deal with the large publishers. It's just where I draw the line. (The one time I broke my rule and went to a reading at a Barnes & Noble was to see Neil Gaiman. I had a horrible time. I was seated next to these two freaky girls who where constantly turning their eyelids inside out and kicking my chair.) So instead I'll just read this interview that Powell's did with the author. It's not a bad trade off.

Exclusive interview on Powells.com by Dave Weich:
"Revising Sherman Alexie" —

Dave: Your book tour took you to Virginia on the day of the shootings.

Sherman Alexie: That day. It was an awful coincidence, being on tour for a book that features a disassociated kid grabbing pistols and walking into a public place. I felt it was my responsibility that night not to say a word about my book, so I didn't. I told a lot of other stories. I'm a performer, so I have a lot of material. I did the old bits. They didn't know it was the old bits. Nobody talked about the book.

Flight is heavily influenced by Slaughterhouse-Five. It has an epigraph from Kurt Vonnegut. Vonnegut died the week before that. A couple awful coincidences.