The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

By Sherman Alexie

Sherman Alexie tells the story of Junior, a budding cartoonist growing up on the Spokane Indian Reservation. Determined to take his future into his own hands, Junior leaves his troubled school on the rez to attend an all-white farm town high school where the only other Indian is the school mascot.

Heartbreaking, funny, and beautifully written, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, which is based on the author's own experiences, coupled with poignant drawings by Ellen Forney that reflect the character's art, chronicles the contemporary adolescence of one Native American boy as he attempts to break away from the life he was destined to live.

As the young folks say, this one made me feel all the feels, but I was disappointed to find out, when trying to look up how much of this "based on the author's life" book was true or fiction, that Sherman Alexie apparently has a sexual harassment problem.  Also, that he didn't draw the illustrations in the book! I feel very let down by both of those.  So I am left struggling with how much to like it.

It's certainly a very moving book, a portrait of a young man who doesn't deserve all the shit hurtling his way, over and over and over.  We know, by virtue of the fact that we're reading this as a book by Sherman Alexie, that he does in fact make it off the reservation and find success (albeit ultimately brought low by his dick).  That doesn't really make all the things that happen to him any better, but at least you get some hope for the future.

Alexie's style is well suited to the story - matter of fact and poignant without being maudlin.  He straddles the line well, and it's both a fast read as well as genuinely moving.  Alexie manages to lay out a lot of the reasons the reservations are failing the people, without being preachy or pointing fingers. Not that fingers shouldn't be pointed, because the history of American Indian policy in the United States is a total shitshow, but it helps keep the story running smoothly.

Is this book on its own, a good and worthy book?  Yes, for sure.  But how much do we separate out the art from the artist?  How much leniency do we grant for a childhood of hardship?  How do we support a person who uses his fame and fortune in bad ways? And perhaps, only "middling" bad, on a minor scale.  I mean, I only checked it out of the library, so it's not like I'm funding genocide.  But it did color my impressions, and it really disappointed me.  And it's well-nigh impossible to be absolutely saintly in this - it seems like you would never be able to live a life in the modern era that doesn't benefit some asshole somewhere.  I suppose that's the credo to The Good Place - in this life and times, how can we always do good?  And what is the better good - boycotting a gross person, or reading a work of art and enlightenment and potentially learning something yourself in the process?

All we can hope for is the same energy and drive to continue to better ourselves that Junior has. 

43: An "Own Voices" Book