Alexie, Sherman. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. New York: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, 2007.
Annotation:
Junior is a Native American who has been living on the Spokane Reservation all his life, and Rowdy has been his best friend since he can remember. But their friendship transforms into resentment when Junior decides that he must leave the reservation and transfer to an all-white high school in order to escape the cycle of poverty and death. But as Junior finds his place in “white” America, he begins to endure the resentment of the tribal community, and must make a decision if the pursuit of a better life is worth the price of losing his heritage.
Nomination:
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian is a fantastic example of literature directed at the young adult reader. There are many reasons why this novel is impressive, however, the primary reason is its ability to embody such a wide variety of fears that a young adult will face during the turbulent years toward adulthood. Junior must deal with the pain of leaving the comfort (and I use this term loosely) of the world he knows in order to leap headlong into a world that may reject him at any moment. And his pain comes from many different angles. He has to endure the pain of abandoning his best friend who now resents him for leaving. He must deal with the pain of turning his back on the tribal community who rally themselves together in order to display a united front against him. And he must work through the pain of guilt caused by the death of his sister who was inspired by Junior’s wanting of a better life and left the reservation, only to meet an unfortunate demise. Junior is also fearful that his poverty will sabotage the inroads that he has made with his new classmates.
However, there are certain aspects of the book that may not have lived up to expectations. First off, the writing style really did not offer anything out of the ordinary. In fact, the structure of the story seemed to follow a fairly generic plotline that very rarely deviated from the script. The fact that the story was told in such a fun and thoughtful manner makes this criticism all the more difficult, but as you were reading, you felt that you had heard this story before, and you pretty much knew what direction the story was going in. But the one thing that you cannot fault the story for is lack of heart. Even though it might have been the same old story, different characters, you still wanted to root for Junior. The goofy skinny kid who suffered minor brain damage due to excessive cerebral spinal fluid in his skull when he was born, resulting in poor eyesight, seizures, stuttering and a lisp. Every time Junior felt impending doom, you were also feeling his distress. And when Junior succeeded, you felt your own emotion lift in excitement. If there was one thing that The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian has plenty of, is heart. And that is reason enough for my nomination.
Genre Category: Multicultural Novel/Realistic Novel
