The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian
Author: Sherman Alexie
Drawings: Ellen Forney
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
ISBN-10: 0316013684
ISBN-13: 978-0316013680
Sherman Alexie’s first novel for young adults is the heart wrenching/heart warming story of Arnold, a 14-year old budding writer/cartoonist living on the Spokane Indian Reservation. Life isn’t so great for Arnold or Junior Spirit. His dad drinks way too much as do many of the people on the rez. His mother is a recovering alcoholic.
Arnold Spirit Junior is a bit of a mess, he was born with water on his brain that caused a series of health problems. He’s skinny, wears glasses, has ten extra teeth and gets picked on all the time by the other kids. With all this he still manages to be wry, funny, discerning (especially with adult’s problems) and completely endearing. He has one friend, the angry, abused boy Rowdy who is his defender, confidant and eventually his enemy.
Most of the people he knows are terribly poor. The reservation is so poor, in fact that on his first day of school in his new geometry class Arnold discovers he’s been given the same geometry book his mother had when she attended that school some 30 years before.
"It sucks to be poor, and it sucks to feel that you somehow deserve to be poor. You start believing that you're poor because you're stupid and ugly. And then you start believing that you're stupid and ugly because you're Indian. And because you're Indian you start believing you're destined to be poor. It's an ugly circle and there's nothing you can do about it."
Author: Sherman Alexie
Drawings: Ellen Forney
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
ISBN-10: 0316013684
ISBN-13: 978-0316013680
Sherman Alexie’s first novel for young adults is the heart wrenching/heart warming story of Arnold, a 14-year old budding writer/cartoonist living on the Spokane Indian Reservation. Life isn’t so great for Arnold or Junior Spirit. His dad drinks way too much as do many of the people on the rez. His mother is a recovering alcoholic.
Arnold Spirit Junior is a bit of a mess, he was born with water on his brain that caused a series of health problems. He’s skinny, wears glasses, has ten extra teeth and gets picked on all the time by the other kids. With all this he still manages to be wry, funny, discerning (especially with adult’s problems) and completely endearing. He has one friend, the angry, abused boy Rowdy who is his defender, confidant and eventually his enemy.
Most of the people he knows are terribly poor. The reservation is so poor, in fact that on his first day of school in his new geometry class Arnold discovers he’s been given the same geometry book his mother had when she attended that school some 30 years before.
"It sucks to be poor, and it sucks to feel that you somehow deserve to be poor. You start believing that you're poor because you're stupid and ugly. And then you start believing that you're stupid and ugly because you're Indian. And because you're Indian you start believing you're destined to be poor. It's an ugly circle and there's nothing you can do about it."
In his rage, Arnold tosses the book across the room and manages to hit the teacher, breaking his nose. That serves as a catalyst for what Arnold decides to do with his life.
"You can't give up. You won't give up. You threw that book in my face because somewhere inside you refuse to give up.”
"I didn't know what he was talking about. Or maybe I just didn't want to know.
"Jeez, it was a lot of pressure to put on a kid. I was carrying the burden of my race, you know? I was going to get a bad back from it.
" 'If you stay on this rez,' Mr. P said, 'they're going to kill you. I'm going to kill you. We're all going to kill you. You can't fight us forever.'
" 'I don't want to fight anybody.' I said.
" 'You've been fighting since you were born,' he said. 'You fought off that brain surgery. You fought off those seizures. You fought off all the drunks and drug addicts. You kept your hope. And now, you have to take your hope and go somewhere where other people have hope.'
"I was starting to understand. He was a math teacher. I had to add my hope to somebody else's hope. I had to multiply hope by hope.
" 'Where is hope?' I asked. 'Who has hope?'
" 'Son,' Mr. P said. 'You're going to find more and more hope the farther and farther you walk away from this sad, sad reservation.' "
Arnold decides to take Mr. P's advice leave the reservation school and go to the middle class all white school twenty-two miles away from his reservation. There, he meets the beauteous Penelope and discovers a whole new world. The decision causes a lot of jealousy and resentment on the rez for Arnold and he lives with a constant barrage of hatred from the children including his once friend Rowdy. They think he’s sold out, turned white and that’s something the kids on the rez can’t forgive. The rift with Rowdy is the worst of it and Arnold suffers incredible lonliness and hurt, yet sticks by his decision. He's a brave boy.
Arnold battles through it all and finds he can triumph. That even through the worst adversity like the death of a loved one, he still has his education, his new friends he’s made and that when push comes to shove his family some old friends on the rez are there for him. His optimism and hope shines through the pages and makes you smile.
Arnold’s engaging and entertaining diary tackles rough subjects like death, alcoholism, poverty, jealousy and racism with a deft hand. You can't but help falling in love with Arnold. The wonderful cartoons and drawings by Ellen Forney appear to be pasted onto the pages of his diary giving it depth and life. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian is a must have book and I can't speak highly enough of it.
"You can't give up. You won't give up. You threw that book in my face because somewhere inside you refuse to give up.”
"I didn't know what he was talking about. Or maybe I just didn't want to know.
"Jeez, it was a lot of pressure to put on a kid. I was carrying the burden of my race, you know? I was going to get a bad back from it.
" 'If you stay on this rez,' Mr. P said, 'they're going to kill you. I'm going to kill you. We're all going to kill you. You can't fight us forever.'
" 'I don't want to fight anybody.' I said.
" 'You've been fighting since you were born,' he said. 'You fought off that brain surgery. You fought off those seizures. You fought off all the drunks and drug addicts. You kept your hope. And now, you have to take your hope and go somewhere where other people have hope.'
"I was starting to understand. He was a math teacher. I had to add my hope to somebody else's hope. I had to multiply hope by hope.
" 'Where is hope?' I asked. 'Who has hope?'
" 'Son,' Mr. P said. 'You're going to find more and more hope the farther and farther you walk away from this sad, sad reservation.' "
Arnold decides to take Mr. P's advice leave the reservation school and go to the middle class all white school twenty-two miles away from his reservation. There, he meets the beauteous Penelope and discovers a whole new world. The decision causes a lot of jealousy and resentment on the rez for Arnold and he lives with a constant barrage of hatred from the children including his once friend Rowdy. They think he’s sold out, turned white and that’s something the kids on the rez can’t forgive. The rift with Rowdy is the worst of it and Arnold suffers incredible lonliness and hurt, yet sticks by his decision. He's a brave boy.
Arnold battles through it all and finds he can triumph. That even through the worst adversity like the death of a loved one, he still has his education, his new friends he’s made and that when push comes to shove his family some old friends on the rez are there for him. His optimism and hope shines through the pages and makes you smile.
Arnold’s engaging and entertaining diary tackles rough subjects like death, alcoholism, poverty, jealousy and racism with a deft hand. You can't but help falling in love with Arnold. The wonderful cartoons and drawings by Ellen Forney appear to be pasted onto the pages of his diary giving it depth and life. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian is a must have book and I can't speak highly enough of it.
Book Description from the publisher:
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.
7 Comments on The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, last added: 7/3/2007
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i really enjoyed indian killer and most of 10 little indians, so i'll definitely check out alexie's kidlit work.
I just read Flight, and Gina, you capture why someone should take the time to enter the world of Alexie's characters. He is a mater storyteller and does an unbelievable job of telling the difficult tale with a sense of humor and with protagonists who survive.
I just read Flight, and Gina, in this review of Alexie's YA novel you capture why someone should take the time to enter the world of Alexie's characters. He is a master storyteller and does an unbelievable job of telling difficult tales with a sense of humor and with protagonists who survive.
This book won't be published until mid September - nearly three months from now. I think it is unfair to review it until the time it is available to the public.
It also makes it difficult for the rest of us reviewers latino and otherwise to get advance copies of books if someone on La Bloga is undermining the process by reviewing the book before it is published.
Please don't violate this rule of reviewing, you make us all look bad.
El Reseñador
El Reseñador: Sorry to contradict you but there is no such "rule." Many pre-publication reviews come out in respected magazines (i.e., Kirkus, Publishers Weekly, etc.). It has been my experience that publishers are more than happy to send out ARCs to both print and online reviewers; often they will use pre-publication reviews as blurbs on the back of the final version of the books and/or in the press materials.
I'd second Olivas's comment to El Reseñador. Additionally, to my knowledge, publishers have never denied us review copies because others had already reviewed a work.
My experience is that publishers want all the reviews they can get, i.e., it's "free" advertising, in a sense.
Lastly, it makes sense to them "reviewing the book before it is published." That way, La Bloga readers can rush down to buy copies the first weeks it is available, the crucial period for new book sales.
RudyG
Blogueros, yes, mine is a different opinion. I while I respect your comentarios they don't hold much water.
For example, try and review the forthcoming Harry Potter even two weeks in advance on this website and see what happens. User friendly Scholastic and Ms Rowling will sue you out of existence.
Reviewing books in advance of pub dates may not be an often enforced rule but newspapers and most weeklies will not publish reviews of books that far in advance.
Publishers Weekly is a trade journal and is not available to the general public so yes they do publish advance reviews for the industry.
Why didn't you review Alexie's latest novel Flight instead?
He is touring the country and doing interviews for that book. I think it respects the writer to support his/her books as they are available.
Publishers have already sent out review copies of the new Alice Sebold, Denis Johnson and Junot Diaz which aren't being published until the fall.
On the fine print of the advance copies, it asks reviewers to wait until the finished product is available before publishing their reviews. I think it is only fair to respect that.
However, using your "unrule of thumb", I look forward to a review of the Diaz book on La Bloga - maybe later this month? - since according to your comments, it makes "sense" to do so.
El Reseñador