The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian- 5*
Sherman Alexie
The video I linked to in the title above is a good one for an excellent description of the book and information about Sherman Alexie. Alexie was “cancelled” during the MeToo movement. He admitted that he hurt women. He lost awards and other things of acclaim in the literary world. When all that happened, I had just been to a book reading and signing event for Alexie’s memoir, You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me, which was a very good book. I feel sorry for the men who were canceled, and there are more all the time. It makes me sad, angry, and disappointed all at once. And I definitely have lost trust.
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian is a YA (Young Adult) book. A lot of books labeled YA are awesome! Never let that stop you from reading them. This is what they call a “semi-autobiographical” novel. The main character, Junior, shares many things with Alexie’s life. He was brought up on “the rez.” I follow Alexie’s Substack, and he talks a lot about being a “rez Indian.”
The book is written as if it’s a journal. It includes great drawings, mostly comics. I love them! The labeling is so good and funny.
This book has been banned many times. The main character, Junior, talks about things like masturbation and boners. The main character talks a lot about the differences of being an Indian (the term he uses) vs. a white person. That, and more, have led people to decide it should be banned.
It is a funny book, but also touching and sometimes sad. The movie “Smoke Signals,” based on another of his books, The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven, is the same. I haven’t read that book, but I am sure I would like it. Alexie is also a poet, and I love his poems, too.
Junior goes to a school outside the rez because a teacher tells him he needs to leave the rez for a better school. He realizes the teacher is right when he sees his mother’s name in his newly issued geometry book. Going to the white school exposes him to hatred from both sides. He’s also a geeky, gawky guy. That doesn’t help. It did help that he was a good shooter in basketball. Different people in his life support him, and the story is hopeful.
His friend Gordy talks to him about a great love of books:
“Okay, so it’s like each of these books is a mystery. Every book is a mystery. And if you read all the books ever written, it’s like you’ve read one giant mystery. And no matter how much you learn, you just keep on learning there is so much more you need to learn.”
“Yes, yes, yes, yes,” Gordy said. “Now doesn’t that give you a boner?”
“I am rock hard,” I said.
Gordy blushed.
“Well, I don’t mean boner in the sexual sense,” Gordy said. “I don’t think you should run through life with a real erect penis. But you should approach each book—you should approach life—with the real possibility that you might get a metaphorical boner at any point.” (page 97)
Alexie is writing a sequel to The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. I’m looking forward to reading it.