Alexie, Sherman - The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

[oyceter]

Junior has lived all his life on the Spokane Indian Reservation, but he decides to attend a non-reservation (read: all white) school in an attempt to find hope. His move ends up breaking apart his friendship with Rowdy, and soon, Junior has to fight for acceptance in both his new school and back at the reservation.

As an added bonus, he wants to be a cartoonist, so we get some truly hilarious cartoons (I love the romance novel cover lampoons). The book is illustrated by Ellen Forney.

Alexie does awesome voice in this book; Junior is sarcastic, funny, heartbreaking, and struggling to make sense of everything, usually at the same time. He doesn't overlook the desperate circumstances on the rez, but he also doesn't downplay just how much white complicity there is in that, from the white savior teachers to pretendians. I loved how complex Alexie made Junior's decision; how he does find more opportunities off the rez, but also how betrayed the rez feels, and how all this plays out in local basketball.

While the book is very funny, largely thanks to Junior's voice, it's also very depressing at times, just because of the circumstances in the rez, from the influence of alcohol to the way poverty and racism just keep grinding people down and down and down. Alexie is very good at navigating tragedy and humor all at once; what could be pathos is instead just Junior's harsh reality, but the book still avoids being a problem novel, largely by being very aware of the political complexity involved in Junior's life.

Definitely recommended; I'm looking for more of Alexie's books now.

Links:
- rachelmanija's review
- minnow1212's review
- gwyneira's review
- troisroyaumes's review

Comments

[maerhys.livejournal.com]

Alexie has never written anything bad although Flight was difficult to read for a number of reasons. My personal favorite is Indian Killer.

I bought this for my friend's daughter as a birthday gift, she turned 11 and is loving it. It seems to work well for all ages.

[oyceter]

Icon love!

Also, whoo! New author with a backlist!

[maerhys.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately, not as much backlist as we'd like. *lol*

[oyceter]

Doh! I'm hoping he stays in YA, too, but that is because I have a massive fondness for YA.

[maerhys.livejournal.com]

I think he will, he's focused on the need for good YA lit for Natives in just about every interview. *fingers crossed*

[oyceter]

Yaaay! That is really awesome that he's talking and thinking about it. I mean, I sort of figured he would from the book, or at least as much as one can deduce things about authors from books, but still exciting to see! I am going to have to read his interviews.

[smillaraaq.livejournal.com]

Look for his editorial work, too -- he had a semi-regular column in The Stranger for a while, and has done one-off pieces for various other papers and magazines. My favorite of the lot is probably this 1994 piece on Indian casinos: Love, Hunger, Money (http://www.hcn.org/servlets/hcn.Article?article_id=573)

[oyceter]

Awesome, thanks for the link.

[seajules]

I heard him do a poetry reading once, when I was living with my grandparents in my hometown for a few months in my early twenties. His poetry does that same thing, blending tragedy and humor and letting you feel the razor edges of both. Amazing stuff. So are his short stories. I can also recommend his novel, Reservation Blues.

[oyceter]

Ooo, awesome! Thanks for the rec.

[marzipan-pig.livejournal.com]

He's worked on movies too (THIS BUSINESS OF FANCY DANCING, maybe a version of RESERVATION BLUES?), he does a lot of readings up here, and I've seen him, like, crossing the street in the U District.

Hey, when I was on vacation I was at the library and saw a copy of DOES MY HEAD LOOK FAT IN THIS? and read through it (from one of your recs), thanks! :)

[oyceter]

I saw on his website! I put Business of Fancy Dancing and Smoke Signals in my Netflix queue.

Also, yay, people reading books I rec!

[maerhys.livejournal.com]

The Business of Fancydancing was written by Alexie based on his book of poems by the same name; it's one of my top five favorite films, it's *that* good.

Smoke Signals is wonderful too, Adam Beach is marvelous in it, so is Irene Bedard.

[smillaraaq.livejournal.com]

And don't forget Gary Farmer as Victor's dad, and Evan Adams absolutely stealing his scenes as Thomas. An actual NDN nerd character, how often do you see THAT?

Really, the casting for both films is love.

[maerhys.livejournal.com]

True, true. Gary Farmer was especially good.

[smillaraaq.livejournal.com]

I love that man to bits, he needs to get more screen work, damnit! Did you ever see Dead Man? And his cameo in Ghost Dog kills me.

[maerhys.livejournal.com]

Your ICON! OMG. DED

[smillaraaq.livejournal.com]

*evil giggling*

I may not be able to use that one very often -- my buddy who sent me the freebie copy of Savage Honor claims it's mentally scarring. ;)

[oyceter]

I'm so looking forward to it, though somewhat sad that the Netflix blurb indicates that there is not dancing in the movie? /total dance geek

[maerhys.livejournal.com]

Nope, no dancing for the most part, "the business of fancydancing" is more a metaphor for the business of being a contemporary NDN.

[maboheme.livejournal.com]

I love Alexie! I definitely rec Reservation Blues, and The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven.

[oyceter]

Thanks for the recs! I'll check those out.

[fmanalyst.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you're reading Sherman Alexie. He's a wonderful writer. I have someone to recommend to you as well -- Junot Diaz, esp. his book The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. It's third culture kid story about a Dominican-American fanboy (anime, comics, Tolkien, etc.) and his family.

[jadelennox]

What's the audience? Children, teens, or adults?

[fmanalyst.livejournal.com]

Definitely adult -- in language, sex and violence. I'm halfway through it and fascinated by the main characters -- how they see themselves as Dominicans but also how they see themselves as nerds. Diaz builds a massive extended metaphor for the Trujillo regime through references to Sauron's forces in the Lord of the Rings, for instance. The style is fascinating as well, mixing English, Spanish and nerd-speak (otaku, etc.).

[buymeaclue.livejournal.com]

Ditto this. I've only read the first chapters so far (then got distracted by library books with a due date; I own Oscar Wao), but it's an impressive (and fun) book.

[oyceter]

Thanks for the rec!

[lady-ganesh.livejournal.com]

He's great. I've read a little of Lone Ranger and Tonto, and promptly lost the book somewhere in my house.

I like Leslie Marmon Silko, too, though she's far more surreal.

[oyceter]

Ooo, thanks for the rec!

[lady-ganesh.livejournal.com]

I read Ceremony last summer on vacation and it was like getting lost in a very vivid dream.

[smillaraaq.livejournal.com]

Yay! I've been an obsessive Alexie fangirl ever since a friend shoved a copy of The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight In Heaven into my hands. If you like the blend of heartbreak-and-snark here, that's good because it's a constant element in his work.

I'd heartily recommend all his stuff, films prose and poetry alike, but if forced to pick only one thing I'd go for the poetry; my favorite collections there are First Indian On The Moon and The Summer of Black Widows. If you want samples, there's are quite a few individual poems scattered about online including past poetryspam postings on my LJ, I'd be quite happy to share my link collection.

If you ever get a chance to hear him speak live -- poetry slams, book readings, whatever -- GO. Run, don't walk. He's that good.

[oyceter]

Oooo, ok! I usually don't read poetry because I always feel like I don't "get" it (also, I tend to read through too quickly and have to force myself to slow down), but I will check those out.

[smillaraaq.livejournal.com]

Here's a few for starters...I may have a few more obscure links buried on the other computer:

four poems (http://www.slipstreampress.org/horses.html) from an early chapbook, I Would Steal Horses

links to assorted poems and an audio file (http://web.ics.purdue.edu/~njp/Alexie.html) of Sherman reading his short story "Dear John Wayne"

assorted poems at the Beloit Poetry Journal (http://www.bpj.org/index/A.html#Alexie%20Sherman) (I am particularly fond of Inside Dachau, Things (For An Indian) To Do In New York City, and Breaking Out The Shovel.

assorted poems and excerpts (http://www.bpj.org/index/A.html#Alexie%20Sherman) on a rather awkwardly organized page -- I particularly like Crow Testament (http://incolor.inetnebr.com/tgannon/NAlitT.html#ctest) and Avian Nights (http://incolor.inetnebr.com/tgannon/NAlitT.html#avian)

How To Write The Great American Indian Novel (http://zunguzungu.wordpress.com/2008/02/15/how-to-write-the-great-american-indian-novel/) -- this is one that I'd dearly love to copy out onto some newsprint, roll up, and smack Cassie Edwards on the nose with...

My Alexie tagged posts (http://smillaraaq.livejournal.com/tag/sherman+alexie)

An untagged post (http://smillaraaq.livejournal.com/32509.html#cutid1) quoting Invitation

Um, I did warn you about the obsessiveness, yes? Just checking... ;)

[oyceter]

Thanks!

[jadelennox]

I liked this book a lot, even though I didn't think it was perfect. Apparently his next book is going to be young adult, as well, which makes me really happy.

The basketball match was a really nice difficult situation to put Junior into. He dealt with an issue that usually I only see Walter Dean Myers really confront -- how can you try to help somebody improve their circumstances without rejecting their home and their culture, especially in the face of bigotry from both sides?

[oyceter]

Oh yay, more YA books from him!

I looooved the basketball match, and how it wasn't a simple sports movie moment.