"Poor Fat Charlie."
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Jordan wrote: "Sure. Not till I finish Anansi and Historian, though. Good grief. :P " |
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This book made me cry. It made me cry because it's about every history of every person and every bit of damage people can cause one another and, for some reason, it matters to me and strikes in all those places that makes me want to make sure every single person is loved by someone.
Maybe Alexie has a gimmick going with these things, writing first person narratives about damaged kids who persevere through all the horrors of the past that their heritage might bring them and the constant disappointments of the future to emerge triumphant and hopeful and hurrah don't we feel better about ourselves. But maybe it's that Alexie wants to show the most human side of people, no matter what kinds of people, and how terrible we can make life for one another, and how through recognizing that about one another and about ourselves maybe it can make life a little more worth living.
Maybe I'm a sap. But this sort of thing, for whatever it's worth, should be considered and should be written about and we should let ourselves cry and be affected by it enough to want to make life better for each other. Sure, from a literary standpoint, maybe Alexie leaves characters one-dimensional or plays out the plot a bit heavy-handily, but is that even the point? I think people may complain because Alexie states things simply, makes characters a distilled version of themselves, but it's the feeling in the books that add depth, not the description. It's how he says things, with so few words, that can automatically be relative to ourselves and people we know and so he doesn't have to make a bit fuss over it. Because we know those people; we are those people. And the story lines are there for a reason, to take us on a journey with the character(s) and let us feel with them. Complexity isn't the point. In fact, complexity would just mess it all up. What we need is, simply, what we get.
Sherman Alexie, with this book and I think with Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, grabs us by the shirtsleeve and pulls us along and makes us feel and, in that feeling, we see what never needs to be put into words. It takes an amazing sort of writer to do that. But then it's always made me think, after reading one of Alexie's books, that he really isn't a writer. He's a story-teller. He may use words, but he really doesn't, does he? He uses the words as the vehicle to which to incite our deep-set emotions. If we let him; if we're not too jaded or feel too much like we're being manipulated and can't take it for what it is. And that, I think, is why either one loves or hates his books. Because if those feelings aren't already there, there really isn't any point to the story, anyway. It isn't going to be meaningful to us. But when someone who already has that set of emotions willingly exposed, Alexie has the power to pinpoint them, draw them out, make us aware. Aware that we all have those feelings and aware that we need to be aware of that.
We're each human.
We each want to be loved.
And, cheesy as that is, is it. ]]>
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Jordan
added a quote:
"But we danced, under wigs and between unfinished walls, through broken promises and around empty cupboards." — Sherman Alexie
"But we danced, under wigs and between unfinished walls, through broken promises and around empty cupboards." — Sherman Alexie
| Jordan wrote:"Oh I think I knew early on when we were first warned, but I still really loved the character. What I ...more" |
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| Jordan wrote:":D" |
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