Before reading Sherman Alexie’s The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian I had very low hopes of the book being any good. Personally, I am not much of a reader, but I decided to give this book a try. Let me tell you, I enjoyed the book, from the comics to the actual story, it was so entertaining! As I flipped through the pages, absorbing more of the story, I found myself getting more into the book. Within a few hours, I was done with the book. As a teenager, I loved the humor carefully crafted by the author, it seemed like I was reading an actual book from a teenager.
Before doing research on the book, it made me surprised the story was fiction. The story can be entirely made up, but I imagined the story was a close spitting image of what some Native-Americans on reservations have to go through. However, after I’ve done my research Alexie said, “If I were to guess at the percentage, it would be about seventy-eight percent true” (Horn Book Magazine). The book was published September 12 in 2007. Over 10 years later, the humor is still funny and it is pretty relatable. The author, Sherman Alexie, grew up on the Spokane Indian Reservation and is best known for writing stories and films about his experiences as an Indigenous American. For this book specifically, he changed few details by making it more humorous to fit the category for young adult fiction.
The overall plot of the book is a young teen named Arnold Spirit Jr. who lives on an Indian reservation and feels the whole world is against him. Born with birth defects easily prone to seizures and suffering from a stutter, he was raised by alcoholic parents who had very little to nothing money income. Junior was constantly bullied and to escape from this, Junior was passionate about drawing cartoons. After a talk with an important figure at school, Junior realizes he has to get out of the reservation. Junior transferred to an all-white high school called Reardon High School. There and then he faces even more bullying and tragedies in his life, from being called a traitor by his own people to important people in his life dying. Despite all this, Junior continued to draw cartoons and used humor to get over all the hardships and eventually found himself no longer feeling like an outcast.
The most compelling part of the book was the characters. Overall, the characters were well developed. Every character has their own unique and distinct personality. I sometimes find myself confused or lost when a book has so many characters and very little information on them. However, Sherman Alexie was able to establish each character memorably. On another note, I wish more historical context of each character were provided, I really wanted to know more about the mysterious, drunk Eugene (when you read the book, you’ll know exactly what I mean).
Sherman Alexie seemed to have put a lot of thought into the making of this book. Reading the book, everything flowed perfectly. The introduction of himself and his family to the transition of how life is like on the reservation then to Reardon High including all the hardships he had to face, the transitions were so smooth. I never found myself lost while reading this book. The book was not predictable at all, it is for sure an intriguing and original piece.
While reading the book, there were few things that may seem controversial to other readers. There were few accounts where profanity and sexual references were used. The book also discusses alcohol, abuse, and bullying related to mental disabilities several times. However, I think all these controversial topics are important to learn about because it’s real life. In life, people use profanity, alcoholics exist, and those with mental disabilities do suffer from bullying. Topics like these make the book relatable in a way and the audience can have a good laugh from the dark humor.
The overall message of the book appears to be a message of how important it is to have hope. Even if it seems like you are doomed to fail, you should have a positive hope and outtake for everything and you’ll achieve to what once seemed to be the impossible. From reading this, I have learned some of the few hardships of many that Native-Americans who live on reservations may have. I was close-minded to all the stereotypical things about Native-Americans to realize things like the stories in the book mentioned can actually happen. A reader can take away the hardships of a Native-American teenager who wants to live two lives as Junior from the Rez and as Arnold from Reardon High School.
I would recommend teenagers in high school and young adults to read Sherman Alexie’s The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, the book would be most humorous and relatable to those in that age group. In addition, the book is a great tool to become open-minded of the issues that Natives who live in reservations must face. I would not recommend to younger children or even teenagers in middle school because of the few controversial topics, such as the profanity and sexual references that younger children may not understand. I can image parents being not so happy with their 10-year-old kid asking what an erection is. I highly recommend for everyone (young adults and up) to read this book! It was very entertaining and eye-opening.
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Popular Highlights in this book
If you let people into your life a little bit, they can be pretty damn amazing.Highlighted by 5,066 Kindle readers- I think the world is a series of broken dams and floods, and my cartoons are tiny little lifeboats.Highlighted by 4,015 Kindle readers
- “The world, even the smallest parts of it, is filled with things you don’t know.”Highlighted by 3,155 Kindle readers
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Reviews with images
A fantastic quick read.
This is a fun read. I laughed and I cried when I read it. I actually read the entire book in just one day. Arnold Spirit Jr, aka Junior, the main character narrates his life from the Spokane Indian Reservation. He takes the reader on a journey inside the life of a full blooded Indian, that feels half Indian half white. The story starts with the difficult life he has led so far, he has an alcoholic father, a depressed mother, a best friend who is a jerk, and he was born with excess fluid in his brain causing a variety of medical issues. The story follows him through deaths, alcoholism, basketballs games, girlfriends, best friends, poverty, bullying, and many other teen issues. He loves to draw cartoons, and the cartoons in the book often show more emotion than his words express and they let the reader deep inside Junior’s thoughts and feelings. It is humorous and sad. The book is real, controversial and even offensive at times.
