A few weeks ago I decided I wanted to read books in which I didn't share a similar background with the characters or authors. I've read a lot of books about Muslims, and about South Asians, and a few about the Middle East, and I wanted to expand and get to know characters who really aren't like me in most ways. And so a lot of the books I've read so far this year have been from all over the place. :-)
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A few weeks ago on facebook, a friend posted up a cartoon drawing from The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian.
I was quite intrigued and looked into it and the author, Sherman Alexie. I had never heard of him but it turns out that he's pretty popular.
The first book I read by Alexie was Flight, which has a teenage protagonist but isn't a YA book. There's a fair amount of swearing and violence, and the character, Zits (as he calls himself) is a really troubled kid, and goes on a metaphysical journey through space and time, landing in different people's bodies (like that show Quantam Leap from ages ago) just as something big is about to happen. A lot of it is insightful commentary on the war between settlers and American Indians, and through this time-traveling Zits realizes he needs to make some major changes in his life.
I liked the book overall but there were some things that disturbed me. Unfortunately, Alexie doesn't have any female characters who are fleshed out and they all get objectified. There are also major characters who are white saviours. Alexie also has a Muslim character who says he's not a terrorist, then turns out to be one. I tried to see the nuance in this but I just feel that Alexie fed into Muslim stereotypes, which baffles me since he's attempting in some way to break down stereotypes of American Indians. It's unfortunate that Alexie has this Muslim terrorist character because when (some) people read Flight, horrible notions of Muslims will be reinforced.
However despite these faults I was fairly blown away by the book in a good way. A book hasn't made me cry in a long time, and this book did, when I read this: "I know that children will always be targets".
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The next Alexie book I read is the one that has the cartoon above,
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. This is a YA book, unlike Flight. I liked Part-Time Indian, but not as much as I liked Flight, even though Part-Time Indian appears to be Alexie's most popular book. Perhaps that's because its about a high-schooler going through high school and that's something I can't really connect with now, I'm not sure. The writing was fairly strong, and I liked the cartoons as well, but I wasn't as into the story as I was when I read Flight. In this book Alexie did do a better job with the female characters for they were more three-dimensional, yet there were again white saviour characters. I'm not saying white characters in a story about American Indians have to be absolutely terrible (and what do I know anyway), but in both novels the main characters, who are American Indian, find their way by getting guidance and help from white characters. I'll have to do a bit more research and read some more reviews to see if other readers feel the same way about his work, and I'd especially like to know what American Indian readers think.
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So, those are some of my thoughts on the Sherman Alexie books I've read so far. Though I'm not a huge fan of what I read, I'm glad that I did read some of his work. I think I'd quite like to read some American Indian poets as well, who I think were mentioned in Flight.
---
A few weeks ago on facebook, a friend posted up a cartoon drawing from The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian.
I was quite intrigued and looked into it and the author, Sherman Alexie. I had never heard of him but it turns out that he's pretty popular.
The first book I read by Alexie was Flight, which has a teenage protagonist but isn't a YA book. There's a fair amount of swearing and violence, and the character, Zits (as he calls himself) is a really troubled kid, and goes on a metaphysical journey through space and time, landing in different people's bodies (like that show Quantam Leap from ages ago) just as something big is about to happen. A lot of it is insightful commentary on the war between settlers and American Indians, and through this time-traveling Zits realizes he needs to make some major changes in his life.
I liked the book overall but there were some things that disturbed me. Unfortunately, Alexie doesn't have any female characters who are fleshed out and they all get objectified. There are also major characters who are white saviours. Alexie also has a Muslim character who says he's not a terrorist, then turns out to be one. I tried to see the nuance in this but I just feel that Alexie fed into Muslim stereotypes, which baffles me since he's attempting in some way to break down stereotypes of American Indians. It's unfortunate that Alexie has this Muslim terrorist character because when (some) people read Flight, horrible notions of Muslims will be reinforced.
However despite these faults I was fairly blown away by the book in a good way. A book hasn't made me cry in a long time, and this book did, when I read this: "I know that children will always be targets".
---
The next Alexie book I read is the one that has the cartoon above,
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. This is a YA book, unlike Flight. I liked Part-Time Indian, but not as much as I liked Flight, even though Part-Time Indian appears to be Alexie's most popular book. Perhaps that's because its about a high-schooler going through high school and that's something I can't really connect with now, I'm not sure. The writing was fairly strong, and I liked the cartoons as well, but I wasn't as into the story as I was when I read Flight. In this book Alexie did do a better job with the female characters for they were more three-dimensional, yet there were again white saviour characters. I'm not saying white characters in a story about American Indians have to be absolutely terrible (and what do I know anyway), but in both novels the main characters, who are American Indian, find their way by getting guidance and help from white characters. I'll have to do a bit more research and read some more reviews to see if other readers feel the same way about his work, and I'd especially like to know what American Indian readers think.
---
So, those are some of my thoughts on the Sherman Alexie books I've read so far. Though I'm not a huge fan of what I read, I'm glad that I did read some of his work. I think I'd quite like to read some American Indian poets as well, who I think were mentioned in Flight.
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