Anytime I encounter Sherman Alexie and his work, I want more of it. That is how I feel after finishing The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. When I first picked up the book, I thought it was going to be, in fact, the true diary of Alexie's young life on the Spokane Reservation ("the rez"). In fact, the story follows Arnold Spirit, Jr., a 14-year-old misfit who determines that, to have a better life with some actual hope, he must leave his reservation school and attend the all-white small-town school more than twenty miles away. The novel covers the first year that Arnold attends high school, with everything from the big basketball game against his former classmates on the rez (who all hate him for betraying the tribe by attending the white school) to the many deaths that surround the rez, nearly all of which are the result of alcohol abuse.
This is probably one of the most authentic novels I have read thus far for this course. Yes, there are boners and mention of masturbation. There are drunks and plenty of violence. There's sports! And there is no lack of the sharp, incisive humor that Alexie executes without breaking a sweat, made even richer by Ellen Forney's clever artwork which peppers the novel. Arnold struggles with his identity in a way that is familiar to all puberty-stricken youths, but his is a unique perspective on the usual trope. He falls in love with a white girl, loses his best friend, and rarely has food in the house. His father disappears on drinking binges, and his sister hides in the basement of their home for three years, reading romance novels. Much to my mood-altering annoyance, I have had little choice but to revisit the emotions of adolescence while we read through the novels for this course, but Alexie's book reminded me of the humor in the awkward, the poignancy of harsh reality, and the hope that springs forth from such a dire phase of life.
"I used to think the world was broken down by tribes. By black and white. By Indian and white. But I know that isn't true. The world is only broken into two tribes: The people who are assholes and the people who are not."
What a great observation to share!
The more I read and hear about this book, the more I want to read it. I think it will be the next book I go to after I finish The Declaration. I think it's important for us to have an arsenal of relatable and real-life-lesson-teachable books that we can give students without it seeming preachy or forced or false. This may be a primo example of an ideal candidate for that collection.
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