The Absolute True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

Well, snow is melting here in Mankato and my olfactory bulbs are saying "Spring is in the air, Alden." In the spirit of nature, I have decided to go inside and hop onto the computer to blog.

My mother's influence over my life has not waned as of my leaving the nest. Though she can no longer dictate over the minutia, she has turned to suggesting many things to occupy my time with when not studying. And suggest she has, from ideas of how to do my homework to strategies of how to socialize with the ladies.

One recent suggestion was to read the novel The Absolute True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. My mother works at a high school with many Native American (yeah, I'm PC, not a mac) students and felt that it gave her a good perspective of their day-to-day ordeals. She naturally wanted to enlighten me also, so she hounded me to read it too (actually she just suggested it once or twice; in the spirit of melodrama, I have decided to embellish most of the facts of this story a tad). Now that I have completed the novel, here is my review:

Sherman Alexie has written a heart warming tale of learning to grow past circumstances to get a better life. The main character Arnold has had a lot of troubles in life: a birth defect, household issues, and an ever-present sense of death and decay. He lives on a Native American reservation in Washington, an area filled with desperation and despair. His community is not one that encourages success of any kind, instead persuading its people to remain in the practise of wallowing in the defeat of their culture. A talented kid like Arnold, who is both artistic and intelligent, finds out that he cannot remain on the reservation without abandoning the hopes and dreams he had been cultivating as a child.

While written for young teenagers, the story portrays the large themes of abandonment, exploration, and grief. Though some of the dialogue is juvenile (using the term 'boners' to describe processes in the learning experience), that is to be expected due to both the target audience and the age of the narrator.

The story provides a wealth of characters that subvert the usual stereotypes that they are at first accused of exemplifying by the narrator. The plot grows naturally from what is expected of the setting, and a few surprises are thrown in to boot. On the whole, Sherman Alexie's award winning novel is a recommend read by this blogger, earning an "Alden's Choice Award".