Sherman Alexie, the author of many excellent books including Reservation Blues and Ten Little Indians, is reading at Powell’s tonight. I’m generally a fan of his work, but I was not impressed with his newest novel, Flight, a quick read about a precocious, fucked up half-Native American teenager who finds himself mysteriously traveling through time to learn some valuable lessons about his heritage ( SPOILER: violence? is a cycle. also, it’s not the answer). Other reviews of Flight have been mixed; the tendecy seems to be to give the man the benefit of the doubt based on the quality of his past output. Either way, though, I’ve heard Alexie is an amazing speaker—he’s dabbled in stand-up comedy and done his time on the poetry circuit as well, and I’d expect this to be a better-than-average reading.

I’d say get to Powell’s early, if you plan on going: I don’t know how big a draw Alexie is these days, but people sure do like him, and the Chabon reading last week demonstrated how totally inadequate the room Powell’s holds their readings is when an author of any popularity shows up (the intimacy of the space is great, if you can get a seat; not so great when you’re stuck in the back behind some bookshelves with no sightline whatsoever).

Powell’s, 1005 W Burnside, 7:30 pm