4-29-08 The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie - Fiction

5 - I can easily see why this won a National Book Award. Alexie first caught my eye with the movie "Smoke Signals" and this is the first book of his I've read. The story of a 14 year old Indian (that's Native American) boy who gets the courage to leave the res and attend a white high school, Absolutely True Diary is a lesson in acceptance and courage told with a lot of humor. Junior Spirit is a wonderful character written with truth. He's a teenager dealing with hormones and fitting in but he also has to deal with loss, personal and community identity, and poverty. Alexie gives the reader an inside look at the culture of an Indian reservation and addresses a lot of the misinformed beliefs whites have about Indians and Indians have about whites. A book that should be read by young and old alike.