Abby's review

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

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<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/693208.The_Absolutely_True_Diary_of_a_Part_Time_Indian?utm_medium=api&amp;utm_source=blog_review" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img alt="The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian" border="0" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51VKedr4MIL._SL160_.jpg" /></a> <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/693208.The_Absolutely_True_Diary_of_a_Part_Time_Indian?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian</a> by <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4174.Sherman_Alexie">Sherman Alexie</a><br/><br/>
  <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/9556783?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review"><h3>My review</h3></a>
  rating: 2 of 5 stars<br/>I wanted to like this book more than I did. I loved Ellen Forney's illustrations, but I felt like the narrative only retrod ground that Sherman Alexie's been down many, many times before. Sure, he's really good at it, but I want something different now. Plus, I was not entirely convinced by the voice of the teen narrator. It felt to me like Alexie was just reworking  the voices of previous characters from Reservation Blues -- the nerdy, slightly outcast Spokane Indian who loves books & basketball, has an angry best friend, has many drunk & depressed relatives, etc -- and adding some teen slang & angst to the mix. 
<br/>
<br/>There are several deaths in this novel, and they happen so quickly & abruptly that they almost feel cartoonish in a way. Alexie only gives his readers one or two scenes with the characters who die, and in most of these scenes their personalities and words are filtered through the narrator's voice.  So it's difficult for the reader to really feel the impact of their loss in the narrator's life. We don't know these characters as full personalities, so we can't really grieve with the narrator or fully appreciate his grief. 
<br/>
<br/>Finally, there was the gratuitous use of a homophobic slur in an exchange between the main character & his best friend. Alexie even acknowledges that it's problematic to use these words, writing "Now that might just sound like a series of homophobic insults, but I think it was also a little bit friendly. ."  I found this acknowledgment silly, out of character, and even a little bit offensive. The characters are not queer, so it's not as though they were reclaiming the words to use with each other. Alexie knows it's not kosher to use those terms unless you belong to that group yourself, so he tries to get away with it by having the character show some awareness that it's not okay. But in the end, he's simply validating the use of hateful terms. Either make your character a homophobe (or at least someone who's naive about the meaning of those terms) or make him someone who understands how hurtful those words can be and refuses to use them. But don't write a two-page chapter that ends with the main straight character calling himself "a happy faggot." Just don't do it.  
  <br/><br/><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/638271?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">View all my reviews.</a>

Abby's review
rating:

status: Read in November, 2007

I wanted to like this book more than I did. I loved Ellen Forney's illustrations, but I felt like the narrative only retrod ground that Sherman Alexie's been down many, many times before. Sure, he's really good at it, but I want something different now. Plus, I was not entirely convinced by the voice of the teen narrator. It felt to me like Alexie was just reworking the voices of previous characters from Reservation Blues -- the nerdy, slightly outcast Spokane Indian who loves books & basketball, has an angry best friend, has many drunk & depressed relatives, etc -- and adding some teen slang & angst to the mix.

There are several deaths in this novel, and they happen so quickly & abruptly that they almost feel cartoonish in a way. Alexie only gives his readers one or two scenes with the characters who die, and in most of these scenes their personalities and words are filtered through the narrator's voice. So it's difficult for the reader to really feel the impact ...more I wanted to like this book more than I did. I loved Ellen Forney's illustrations, but I felt like the narrative only retrod ground that Sherman Alexie's been down many, many times before. Sure, he's really good at it, but I want something different now. Plus, I was not entirely convinced by the voice of the teen narrator. It felt to me like Alexie was just reworking the voices of previous characters from Reservation Blues -- the nerdy, slightly outcast Spokane Indian who loves books & basketball, has an angry best friend, has many drunk & depressed relatives, etc -- and adding some teen slang & angst to the mix.

There are several deaths in this novel, and they happen so quickly & abruptly that they almost feel cartoonish in a way. Alexie only gives his readers one or two scenes with the characters who die, and in most of these scenes their personalities and words are filtered through the narrator's voice. So it's difficult for the reader to really feel the impact of their loss in the narrator's life. We don't know these characters as full personalities, so we can't really grieve with the narrator or fully appreciate his grief.

Finally, there was the gratuitous use of a homophobic slur in an exchange between the main character & his best friend. Alexie even acknowledges that it's problematic to use these words, writing "Now that might just sound like a series of homophobic insults, but I think it was also a little bit friendly. ." I found this acknowledgment silly, out of character, and even a little bit offensive. The characters are not queer, so it's not as though they were reclaiming the words to use with each other. Alexie knows it's not kosher to use those terms unless you belong to that group yourself, so he tries to get away with it by having the character show some awareness that it's not okay. But in the end, he's simply validating the use of hateful terms. Either make your character a homophobe (or at least someone who's naive about the meaning of those terms) or make him someone who understands how hurtful those words can be and refuses to use them. But don't write a two-page chapter that ends with the main straight character calling himself "a happy faggot." Just don't do it. ...less

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message 1: by Meaghan

11/28/2007 05:00PM

A lot of platonic, straight, non-homophobic friends use that word as a playful insult to one another. It's just a fact of life. Maybe it shouldn't happen, but it's realistic that two fourteen-year-old boys would call each other.

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message 2: by Abby

11/28/2007 07:05PM

I think it's totally realistic that teens would use that word playfully. What I don't think is realistic is that a straight teen would use that word AND, in the same breath, recognize it is a homophobic insult, as Alexie has his narrator do. I think Alexie includes that aside in order to justify the words coming out of his character's mouth, and I think that's kind of lame.

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message 3: by Ellie

09/01/2008 06:25PM

Actually, We teens do that all the time-(I don't, but that's just cause I'm a goody-goody.) None of those kids are homophobic. Kids say words like that and then quickly say, 'Aw, that was mean...' to THEMSELVES. They regognize that they sound homophobic. I hear stuff like this at LEAST 5 times a day.

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message 4: by cubbie

11/03/2008 08:08PM

it was actually my first sherman alexie book and i was just so excited by it, and really excited that a ya novel was treading on some of the ground that it was treading on... what other ya books would you recommend?

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