The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
I've been meaning to read this book for years, and now I'm kicking
myself for not getting to it sooner. It might actually be a perfect
coming of age story that deals refuses to shy away from a wealth of
tough issues or lose it's hope or humor, while also having fun with the
more common tropes of First Love and The Big Game.
The story is sort of a diary of main character Arnold "Junior" Spirit, and it's peppered with his illustrations and cartoons. They're a great addition to the story, sometimes merely illustrating characters or ideas, other times containing bits of the narrative. It's a fun way to pull in Junior's passion and make the book feel a lot more personal and unique.
Junior spends the book struggling to reconcile past and future, his individuality with his community (or communities). He leaves the reservation to attend the better funded white school in town. As the first person to do this, he receives crap from all directions. The kids and teachers at school are racist. The people on the reservation feel betrayed. Junior struggles to balance or ignore all these expectations while finding his own place.
A lot of the issues faced by Native Americans are woven into the narrative, presented as simple facts. Junior deals with poverty. He goes to bed hungry sometimes. He can't go to school sometimes because there's no money for gas. His parents, along with most of the adults he knows, are alcoholics. Death is everywhere, popping up to claim people again and again. And for all the Junior wants to get out and live a better life, it starts to become clear that that will mean leaving behind the good things, too. The powwows and laughter and sense of community that he's grown up with.
This book was just amazing. It ought to be taught in high schools across the nation. Replace whiny, self-centered Holden Caulfield with realistic, artistic Arnold Spirit, and I think you'd do a lot of good for the teenagers of this country.
The story is sort of a diary of main character Arnold "Junior" Spirit, and it's peppered with his illustrations and cartoons. They're a great addition to the story, sometimes merely illustrating characters or ideas, other times containing bits of the narrative. It's a fun way to pull in Junior's passion and make the book feel a lot more personal and unique.
Junior spends the book struggling to reconcile past and future, his individuality with his community (or communities). He leaves the reservation to attend the better funded white school in town. As the first person to do this, he receives crap from all directions. The kids and teachers at school are racist. The people on the reservation feel betrayed. Junior struggles to balance or ignore all these expectations while finding his own place.
A lot of the issues faced by Native Americans are woven into the narrative, presented as simple facts. Junior deals with poverty. He goes to bed hungry sometimes. He can't go to school sometimes because there's no money for gas. His parents, along with most of the adults he knows, are alcoholics. Death is everywhere, popping up to claim people again and again. And for all the Junior wants to get out and live a better life, it starts to become clear that that will mean leaving behind the good things, too. The powwows and laughter and sense of community that he's grown up with.
This book was just amazing. It ought to be taught in high schools across the nation. Replace whiny, self-centered Holden Caulfield with realistic, artistic Arnold Spirit, and I think you'd do a lot of good for the teenagers of this country.
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