A Memoir

Thank you Maureen for a great evening enjoying your beautiful view! And thank you for honoring author Sherman Alexi’s Spokane Indian tribal heritage by serving smoked salmon pasta salad. Salmon is considered a deity, providing physical and spiritual sustenance to the “Salmon people” for thousands of years.

“You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me” is a book of poems surrounded by wandering random essays (thanks Chris Peek) “constructed in fabric squares like one of (his) mom’s quilts.” This very cultural memoir runs the gamut of teen angst, family dynamics and growing up on the reservation. It is Sherman’s grief journal as he attempts to resolve conflicted feelings about his relationship with his mother. Sherman easily let’s his father off the hook for being an irresponsible adult, but holds his mother to task for being the responsible parent and doing her best to provide for her family and keep them safe. I found it interesting, sad and discouraging to view tribal life through Indian eyes. “Because an Indian’s wealth is determined by what they lose and not by what they save.”