The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

by Sherman Alexie

I draw because words are too unpredictable. I draw because words are too limited.

My parents came from poor people who came from poor people who came from poor people, all the way back to the very first poor people. Adam and Eve covered their privates with fig leaves; the first Indians covered their privates with their tiny hands.

He likes to pretend he lives inside the comic books. I guess a fake life inside a cartoon is a lot better than his real life. So I draw cartoons to make him happy, to give him other worlds to live inside. I draw his dreams.

He smiled mysteriously. Adults are so good at smiling mysteriously. Do they go to college for that?

“There’s always time to change your life.” I almost gagged when I said that. I didn’t even believe that. There’s never enough time to change your life. You don’t get to change your life, period. Shit, maybe I was trying to write a romance novel.

During one week when I was little, Dad got stopped three times for DWI: Driving While Indian.

I suddenly understood that if every moment of a book should be taken seriously, then every moment of a life should be taken seriously as well.

I think she was bored of being the prettiest, smartest, and most popular girl in the world. She wanted to get a little crazy, you know? She wanted to get a little smudged. And I was the smudge.

She was in pain and I loved her, sort of loved her, I guess, so I kind of had to love her pain, too.

Yep, even the weird boys are afraid of their emotions.

Each funeral was a funeral for all of us. We lived and died together.

So I looked up the word “grief” in the dictionary. I wanted to find out everything I could about grief. I wanted to know why my family had been given so much to grieve about.

I keep writing and rewriting, drawing and redrawing, and rethinking and revising and reediting. It became my grieving ceremony.

I mean, you have to love somebody that much to also hate them that much, too.

“What do you mean?” I asked. I knew what she meant, but I wanted her to say something else. Anything else.