THE ABSOLUTELY TRUE DIARY OF A PART-TIME INDIAN by Sherman Alexie ~ Culture 4

THE ABSOLUTELY TRUE DIARY OF A PART-TIME INDIAN by Sherman Alexie

Author: Sherman Alexie

Title:  The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

Illustrator: Ellen Forney

Publisher:  Little, Brown and Company

Publication Date: 2007

ISBN:  9780316013697

Plot Summary

Budding cartoonist Junior leaves his troubled school on the Spokane Indian Reservation to attend an all-white farm town school where the only other Indian is the school mascot.

Critical Analysis

As a school librarian at a PreK-12 private Christian school, there is no way I’m suggesting this book be put on a reading list – despite the many awards the book has received and the very real, funny, heartbreaking, and honest story of a contemporary Native American. Full disclosure: the author is very open about masturbation – not a topic of discussion I want to have with my students, their parents or administration.

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian pulls the reader behind the curtain to see the true life of a modern Native American living on the Spokane Indian Reservation. The first chapter alone has you laughing and yet feeling concern for the health care available to Native Americans. You’re left asking yourself, “Is it like this on all reservations?” Alexie then turns the reader’s attention to the level of poverty on reservations: “And sure, sometimes, my family misses a meal, and sleep is the only thing we have for dinner…” (p. 8), and “…it’s not like my mother and father were born into wealth. It’s not like they gambled away their family fortunes. My parents came from poor people who came from poor people who came from poor people, all the way back to the very first poor people” (p. 11). Then there is the alcoholism. Drinking and being drunk is depicted as being a part of everyday life for Native Americans. Junior, the main character, is affected by alcoholism in every aspect of his life: his parents drink, his sister dies as a result from drinking, his grandmother dies because of a drunk driver, and more. “…plenty of Indians have died because they were drunk. And plenty of drunken Indians have killed other drunken Indians. But my grandmother had never drunk alcohol in her life. Not one drop. That’s the rarest kind of Indian in the world. I know only, like, five Indians in our whole tribe who have never drunk alcohol. And my grandmother was one of them” (p. 158). My heart breaks for this fictional character.

Alexie identifies the specific Spokane Tribe when he writes about their modern-day powwow: “The Spokane Tribe holds their annual powwow celebration over the Labor Day weekend. This was the 127^th annual one, and there would be singing, war dancing, gambling, storytelling, laughter, fry bread, hamburgers, hot dogs, arts and crafts, and plenty of alcoholic brawling” (p. 17). If the reader does the math, they would figure out that the powwows having been held since 1880 – making the Native Americans a part of today’s time, not a thing of the past.

I want to encourage readers of this book to look for more contemporary Native American fiction and to learn more about the lives a modern Native American leads.

Reviews

• Booklist (2007): “Alexie’s humor and prose are easygoing and well suited to his young audience, and he doesn’t pull many punches as he levels his eye at stereotypes both warranted and inapt. A few of the plotlines fade to gray by the end, but this ultimately affirms the incredible power of best friends to hurt and heal in equal measure. Younger teens looking for the strength to lift themselves out of rough situations would do well to start here.”
• Children’s Literature (2007): “In this blunt yet poignant story of a teenager wanting to make the best of himself, Alexie uses his own experiences to give us a feel for an Indian boy crossing over into a white world. … Multiple alcohol related deaths in Junior’s family are particularly hard-hitting but make the point that alcohol is still a significant problem on many reservations. The sarcastic, self-deprecating humor should add to this book’s appeal.”

Awards

• 2007 National Book Award, Young People’s Literature winner
• 2008 American Indian Youth Literature Award, Young Adult winner
• 2008 YALSA Top Ten Best Books for Young Adults
• 2009 Odyssey Award winner

Connections

• Use the Teaching Guide available from Scholastic: https://www.scholastic.com/teachers/lesson-plans/teaching-content/absolutely-true-diary-part-time-indian-storia-teaching-guide/
• Learn more about author Sherman Alexie at his website: http://fallsapart.com/
• Promote other Sherman Alexie novels, such as
• The Toughest Indian in the World ISBN 978-0802138002
• War Dances ISBN 978-0802144898
• Reservation Blues ISBN 978-0802141903

Bibliography

Alexie, Sherman. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. New York, New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2007. ISBN 9780316013697

Cover, Mount Juliet, Tennessee. Personal photograph by Amy Wilson. October 15, 2017.