Saturday, January 09, 2010

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

Published in 2007. 230 pages.
Art by Ellen Fornery.
2007 National Book Award for Young People's Literature.


My ten-year-old son amuses me when he shares what we call his "fifth-grade boy humor." I don't find it particularly funny - but it makes me smile to see him laugh. In a few years, I'm sure he'll laugh at the "freshman boy humor" of The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian as well.

As with my son's humor, I didn't always laugh at the "freshman boy humor" parts of Sherman Alexie's semi-autobiographical young adult novel. But since I loved Arnold "Junior" Spirit, it made me smile as I cried through the heart-breaking parts - the racism, the poverty, the alcoholism - and cheered for his successes.

One of my favorite lines is as follows:

If you let people into your life a little bit, they can be pretty damn amazing. [page 129]

Other book bloggers' reviews of The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian: If you have read and reviewed this book, I would love to link your review here. Please leave me a comment or email me your link!

2009.81

1 comment:

  1. Great quote. I understand when people are worried about reading this thinking it is too dark and yet due to Junior's great attitude, the story shines.

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