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

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian | Sherman Alexie | Wonderful Novel for Young Adults (And Older Ones, Too)

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The Absolutely Tru...

	The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian Sherman Alexie Little, Brown Young Readers, 2007 - 240 pages average customer review:based on 79 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

In his first book for young adults, bestselling author Sherman Alexie tells the story of Junior, a budding cartoonist growing up on the Spokane Indian Reservation. Determined to take his future into his own hands, Junior leaves his troubled school on the rez to attend an all-white farm town high school where the only other Indian is the school mascot. Heartbreaking, funny, and beautifully written, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, which is based on the author's own experiences, coupled with poignant drawings by acclaimed artist Ellen Forney, that reflect the character's art, chronicles the contemporary adolescence of one Native American boy as he attempts to break away from the life he was destined to live.

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Fantastic

Sherman Alexie is the best as witting things that are heartbreakingly-funny-and-true, or maybe its funny because it is true. Its a wonderful young adult book that I'm sure in on its way to being banned in maybe high school libraries for being too graphic and probably too true. I think a lot of young adults will relate to the story and if they don't directly maybe they'll spend some time thinking how everyone is doing the best they can with what they have. This s a particularly good story for anyone dealing with or who has dealt with an alcoholic family or parent.

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Wonderful Novel for Young Adults (And Older Ones, Too)

With "The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian," Sherman Alexie proves himself to be as gifted an author of young adult fiction as he is an author of fiction for older adults. This is a touching and funny novel that teenagers and adults alike will cherish. Junior, a 14-year-old budding comic artist growing up on the Spokane reservation, narrates a year in his life as he ventures off the rez to attend a mostly white high school where the only other Indian is the school mascot. Though treated at first like an outsider, he stands up for himself and becomes a star basketball player, which earns him the affection of his classmates and a place in the "popular" crowd.

Meanwhile, he is torn between his love for his tribe and the awareness that his future depends upon escaping the reservation. Junior humorously describes his awkward, geeky childhood. Born with "water on the brain," Junior's childhood was full of periodic seizures. Add to this his skinniness, big hands and feet, thick glasses (the only kind available on the rez), a stutter AND a lisp, all of which branded him as a target for relentless bullying. Only Rowdy, his best friend and protector, seemed to understand him. Once he makes the unprecedented decision to attend Reardon, though, even Rowdy abandons him and labels him a traitor to his people.

Despite the ongoing tragedy he endures--most of it resulting from the poverty and alcoholism that plague the reservation--Junior discovers a deep well of inner strength that helps him persevere. Junior's (and Alexie's) sensitivity and humor shine through even the most heartbreaking passages. His self-deprecating cartoons (drawn by Ellen Forney) are also hilarious.

Many elements of the novel are autobiographical; Alexie himself was born with "water on the brain" and was not expected to survive the operation he had at six months. Like Junior, he left the reservation high school after discovering his mother's name written in a textbook (which was obviously horribly outdated) and attended Reardon, where he excelled at basketball. With "The Absolutely True Diary," he branches out from his previous poetry and adult fiction with wonderful results.

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A Good Read!

This book is well written, with interesting believable characters. If a child wonders what it would be like to be "different" in a community, this book would give him a good introduction. The protagonist in this book is confronting insecurities in himself and in his Navtive American community. For young people who wonder what it is like to live with differences, this book would be a good introduction. The author has a good grasp of what it is like to be different. I would recommend this book.

Another glance at the American coming-of-age story

Sherman Alexie's first young adult book will seem very familiar to many young and especially older readers. Those of us who are familiar with J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye, Stephen King's "The Body" (made into the film Stand By Me), and also Sherman Alexie's own The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven, will hear voices from all of those works converge in the protagonist of The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, Arnold Spirit. Arnold Spirit is a contemporary and Native American poltergeist of Holden Caulfield, and the overall tone and worldview of this book is quite different from The Catcher in the Rye.

Stylistically, the book has a hackneyed feel. It really does seem like something Salinger may have written. The main difference is that, in the end, The Catcher in the Rye is not hopeful. Salinger writes a dark comedy/satire and leaves the reader with a darker sense of humor and a sharper sense of cynicism. Alexie is far more interested in making tragedy a part of life. Another reviewer here found the amount of dead bodies surrounding one Indian boy's life to be unrealistic and unbelievable. I wish that were true. I wish Native American communities weren't decimated by alcoholism and poverty, but it's simply and completely true.

But wait, this isn't a completely sad book; it's actually filled with hope. It dares the reader to consider a boy's coming of age from a non-white perspective. It makes the reader ponder how men are built in the United States: What does it mean to become a man for a Native American boy, for a black boy, for an Asian boy, for a Latino boy? I admit that I don't know those stories, but now perhaps I am beginning to understand at least one of them - what it might be like for a Native American boy growing up in crushing poverty, tucked away on a reservation.

Often, this kind of writing is called "multicultural," but I find that moniker to be somewhat dismissive and arrogant. This is an American story, written for and about the current generation of iPod-wielding American teenagers. I understand that the thematic similarity to past writers might irk some readers, but The Catcher in the Rye is due to be updated. Bars are becoming smokeless, teenagers rarely wear hats and ties on weekdays, and when is the last time you saw a real, live working pay phone? The props and settings of The Catcher in the Rye are outdated and almost alien.

Alexie updates the props of the coming-of-age story, so that his readers don't become uncomfortable and disoriented. But Alexie also changes the focus of the coming-of-age story. Boys don't have to grow up to be their fathers. Freudian pressures don't affect everyone necessarily. Sometimes, a boy will strike out on his own, and even though it's dangerous and bad things will happen to him, there will also be funny and joyful things.

The ordeal of contemporary teen life fits well with Alexie's voice and writing style. The writing has edge and whimsy, playfulness and moments of sustained clarity. While I still think The Catcher in the Rye is readable today, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian is a good alternative to a recurring narrative.

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