The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian by Sherman Alexie - review

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian
Sherman Alexie
fiction/YA
2009 Little/Brown


Cover - Best Cover Ever....'nuff said

I actually read a review of this book long, long ago.  I can't believe it took me three years (or more) to get this novel, but here we are, 2013 and I finally read it.  And it's good.  It's better than good, it's a hell of a read.

It's young adult - and as a mom, I totally would have let my kids read it, no matter the age.  But if you are a parent with issues about masturbation, or sex and violence in novels (first of all, there is sex and violence all over, even on prime time...) then be aware that there are many mentions of punching and fighting, alcoholism (not glorified at all, rather treated very honestly) and a few mentions of masturbation - mentions; no how to info. It's written in first person, with accompanying cartoons which totally add to the story, and is done in an almost memoir style.

The main character - Arnold Spirit, aka Junior - lives on a reservation and goes to the rez school, which is staffed with teachers who are overwhelmed or underwhelmed.  Take your pick.  So one day he suddenly gets that he needs to leave - and to leave he has to begin by getting an education off the reservation.  It takes an accidental act of violence against his teacher to drive this point home to him. 

Though he is very nervous about this, he insists and his parent agree to enroll him in nearby farm town high school, the high school that is 99 percent full of white students.  

On the reservation he has been dealing with neighbors and family who have a high rate of alcoholism, poverty, dysfunction, etc - and yet every one knows each other.  Starting out life with physical defects - born with hydrocephalism, and suffered from seizures most of his life, too many teeth, and poor eyesight - he's used to being the kid that's picked on.  In fact, he only has one friend, the most violent kid on the rez.  Call this preparation for dealing with his new school.

At his new school he has to deal with racism and being ignored and stared at concurrently.  He doesn't quite fit in with the new school, and now he's a 'traitor' on the rez, for leaving - even though he still lives on the reservation.

There's way more to the story - and it's all interesting.  The author, using Junior's voice, doesn't shy away from pointing out the racism, violence and plain stupidity of humans.  He does so, though, without exaggerating; keeping things brutally honest in a practical way.  The insights that his young character comes to are enlightening.  Both the author and his character use humor  to deal with situations.

I hope that books like these are being put on reading lists in high schools all over the place, one would hope that young people all over would take some important information away from a reading experience with this novel.  I'm definitely passing this novel on to my nieces.

Not only does he write good books - he's directed and written a movie, The Business of Fancy Dancing.  Take a peek at this trailer...

It's Monday, and I got lost...

This is a very long post; two parts - my adventure (or misadventure) and It's Monday Post.

One of my sons and I had a 'madcap' adventure yesterday.  My father was going to give me a car, since he bought a new-to-him car.  The only thing we had to worry about was a non functioning left turn signal.  So the plan was to get a ride to his place, which was about a 2 hour drive from where we live.

We did get there within 2 hours.

then we had lunch.

then we had to do paperwork (of course)

Then my dad insisted on putting gas in the car for us.

the gas station was down a freeway and a few turns away.

then we had to go to his apartment (the first house was actually his girlfriend's house) to get new directions to get back home because of course, now we had no idea how to get back to where we were...

Oh yeah - and the tail lights didn't work.  Neither did either turn signal in the back.  Or even the brake-lights.

oops.

So our plan was to leave and hopefully get home before dark.

wasn't happening.

I'm so used to driving around in my town, that I never think about the fact that I need glasses.

Apparently, so does my son.

we missed a vital turn off.

by the time we realized we had missed it, we were miles past.

decided to get off freeway, and instead of turning right around and finding the entrance to the freeway going the opposite way, son decides to turn left on some random road, and then we went UNDER a freeway, and couldn't find an entrance.  

finally, he decided to turn around, and by this time darkness had fallen!

oh - and on top of that, my son is a smoker, only in deference to me and my lungs, didn't bring his smokes with  him.  I would have let him smoke just to calm his nerves if he had them with him...

so we can't remember how far we came but found some highway that said east...only we should have been looking for a west ward route.  except we didn't know exactly where we were in relation to where we wanted to be....didn't even see a city sign.

after miles of driving we come to a bridge...and have to pay toll.  turns out we're somewhere near Martinez, which won't mean anything to anyone who doesn't know where I live.  The guy at the bridge assures us we'll find the turn off we need if we stay to the left of the highway - so after a few miles...we found it.

after miles and miles, we come across yet another bridge...and pay the toll there.

After more miles and miles....we finally see a freeway sign for a familiar sounding city - only we're not sure if we're going the right way - but we take it anyway.

lucky for us - it was in the right direction.  of course it takes going down into this town, then making a few turns to get to this mysterious highway that's going to take us to the city we were aiming for - because if we can get there, we can find our way home.

we finally end up on the right highway, and finally find the  hwy 101 that we needed to be on to get home - hallelujah.  

i was never so glad to see my city's name on a highway sign.

after four and a half hours of driving, we pulled onto our street.

apparently we had driven in a big-assed circle, went hundreds of miles out of our way.

improbably, we made it home with only one close call (almost rear ended, would have totally been our fault) and without one single traffic police pulling us over.

thank the gods!

 Glad to be home.  Unfortunately the experience left me in some pretty severe pain, and with the bitter cold we've been having, I was running extremely low on my meds...

But I had some other good luck...took a chance on calling in a refill on my med, it was a little early so they called the doc, and though he usually is pretty tight with these things, he actually okayed the release.

When the weather is extremely cold, anyone with chronic pain, arthritis or issues like that end up with more pain than usual, and the pain meds that most chronic pain users have are just enough to maintain a certain level of relief - there's no leeway for increased pain.  So I consider my self lucky this weekend.

I had to run a couple errands today, while in pain, but my granddaughter came with me, which makes it easier to deal with pain. 

Then when I got home, we just went in the house, and all the guys unloaded the car.

I went to lay down, took some pain pills, and my granddaughter climbed onto the bed with me, laying real close and we played with a couple of her 'my little ponies'.

playing barbies or with other toys with a five year old always consists of these first few sentences...

"hi, what's your name?"

"I'm Pinky Pie, who are you?"

"I'm Rarity, want to be my friend"

"Of course, let's play".... and so on

"I like your hair"

"I love your hair, is it going to stay purple forever?"

"come over to my house"

(my pony) "lets watch this movie..."

I tried to be very lazy, and have my pony lay down, but my g-daughter wouldn't let me get away with this.

haha

Monday Reading

It's Monday, What Are You Reading? is hosted by Miz Sheila of Book Journey...

I haven't actually finished a book this week - I spent a lot of time watching past seasons of Nurse Jackie, Shameless (U.S. version, I know there's a BBC version), Californication, and House of Lies in preparation of 

the NEW SEASON! (S)

I think there might be something wrong with me, because I very much enjoy shows about morally challenged people.  and all of these shows feature a lack of morals/ethics in wondrously strange and interesting ways.

what's even more disturbing  is when you realize...

you KNOW people like those being portrayed....

oops.

Currently Reading

I started reading Ghosts & Echoes by Lyn Benedict (aka Lane Robins) quite a while ago, but it wasn't doing it for me.  I just picked it up again, and this time around, I'm being interested in it.

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie, is a very different, very interesting novel.  It's Young Adult - with some honest commentary about masturbation and racial issues all mixed into the story of Junior and his quest to leave the rez.  

I'm a little more than halfway through both books.

Other books on the "plate" include the Dragonthology anthology and the Gunslingers and Ghost Stories anthology.

Great stories in both anthologies.

There is still some time to enter the giveaway from Untold Press for a $25 gift card for Amazon.