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The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie, Little, Brown and Company, 2007, 230 pp, Realistic Fiction, ISBN: 0316013684
1. Author Sherman Alexie is 200% unafraid to tell it like it is:
"You have to leave this reservation."
"I'm going to Spokane with my dad later."
"No, I mean you have to leave the rez forever... You were right to throw that book at me. I deserve to get smashed in the face for what I've done to Indians. Every white person on this rez should get smashed in the face. But, let me tell you this. All the Indians should get smashed in the face too."
I was shocked. Mr. P was furious.
"The only thing you kids are being taught is how to give up. Your friend Rowdy, he's given up. That's why he likes to hurt people. He wants them to feel as bad as he does... All these kids have given up. All your friends. All the bullies. And your mothers and fathers have given up too...But not you, you can't give up. You won't give up. Your threw that book in my face because somewhere inside you refuse to give up."
2. No matter how bleak things become for Junior, he always keeps his sense of humor. I lost track of how many times I laughed out loud while reading this book. On top of the "ha ha" kind of funny stuff, the ability to laugh, regardless of circumstance, remained an important part of Junior's story:
" For about two minutes, we all sat quiet. Who knew what to say? And then my mother started laughing.
And that set us all off.
Two thousand Indians laughed at the same time.
We kept laughing.
It was the most glorious noise I'd ever heard.
And I realized that, sure, Indians were drunk and sad and displaced and crazy and mean, but, dang, we knew how to laugh."
3. It made me think about the messages I send to my students:
"Okay, so it's like each of these books is a mystery. Every book is a mystery. And if you read all of 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... But you should approach each book - you should approach life - with the real possibility that you might get a metaphorical boner at any point."
"A metaphorical boner!" I shouted. "What the heck is a metaphorical boner?"
Gordy laughed. "When I say boner, I really mean joy."
<2 Comments on The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, last added: 9/9/2010Display Comments Add a Comment
Yay, I'm glad you liked this book! It was the first Alexie book I read and I just loved it. It's one of the few that I bought after first checking it out from the library. It's like you said, so many good moments and characters and lessons. I had to have it for my home.
I love this post! it's so passionate, I also really want to read the book