No Reservation: "The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian"

In my contemporary literature course I was exposed to Sherman Alexie’s premiere book of poetry and prose, The Business of Fancy Dancing. His play with language and innovative but relentless outlook on Native American culture on the rez were astounding. He has written much since, which I have not read, but I committed to reading his recent young-adult novel, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. As I embarked on reading this book, I used the mantra “MTV” to help myself as I attempted to re-imagine myself in the prime of teenage life, which was not more than six years ago.

First thing: the illustrations. The “art” by Ellen Forney. It proliferates throughout the novel. At times a gimmick, but more often complementary to the story with humor or expansive shading of the characters or scenes in which they dwell. They are drawn from Arnold’s perspective, but we forget this as its use as a literary device is more obvious. Still, they fit seamlessly in the story. My favorites were the caricatures of people in his life: his parents, sister, coach, friends, and girlfriend. These literal portraits of characters are vivid and plant the individuals as unique in the reader’s mind. A lot of culture references are included, usually playing on pop icons or stereotypes, which adds to Arnold’s white-Indian identity conflict. A coping strategy, the drawings merge humor with sadness in a profound way at points. How else can Arnold deal with his abysmal surroundings and pangs of humor?

Alexie overplays the Indian card at points - treading on territory in ways he has trodden before. He addresses this in an excerpt from an interview I include below. Still, the straightforward plot does take strange turns at points and even when predictable, remains engaging. Arnold’s a smart kid who breaks away from “the tribe” and attends a well-funded, whitewashed high school outside the reservation. He falls in love with a white girl (one of Alexie’s obsessions in his writing) and has a fall-out with his best friend, only to find another one at his new school. His parents let him down, his sister runs away, he becomes a basketball star, and reconciles his relationship with his best friend, Rowdy. Alexie tackles the popular issues high school students run into, mostly in successful ways, with striking candidness.

The writing style is sparse, consistent with his approach in Fancydancing, but in a different way. The book was too dialogue-ridden and at times felt like an Indian version of Wonder Years. Alexie’s po-mo irony shines through during some pivotal moments. He is steeped in a sharp sense of reality though, and respectfully doesn’t protect Arnold from real-world tragedy when his sister senselessly dies in a fire. I could tell from the honesty that this “diary” was at least semi-autobiographical. While this raised the “level” of the book in my eyes, on the whole it could have been slightly more sophisticated for the intended audience. After finishing the last page: Highly enjoyable. It succeeds in what it strives to do. I connected with Arnold’s experiences and reminisced about my own. A little more unconventionality would have perfected it.

From Seattle Times interview:
Q: So do you still feel like the title, that you're a part-time Indian?
A: God, I don't know what I am now. I'm a writer. I'm this sort of amorphous, ever-shifting writer.

Q: How do you answer criticism that you're exposing kids to a lot of negatives in Native American culture, from poverty to alcoholism to bullying?
A: It's what happened and what continues to happen. My dad died three years ago from alcoholism. ...

They [his critics] have no idea how bad it is. Nothing I've written actually comes close to how bad it can be and how bad it is, the level of desperation. The people who don't want it written about or who think it's stereotypical, within the Indian world, are just dealing with a lot of shame. And outside the Indian world, it's just a lot of romantic bastards.

Q: You mock white people in the book who say they love Native Americans. Is there a respectful way for white people to admire the culture?
A: The best way to deal with it is just to leave it alone. You know, you don't need to go into a sweat lodge to respect us. You don't need to wear turquoise earrings to come to my readings. ... People who are way into the Native culture rarely look at the whole picture. We're just as messy and ugly as anybody else. So "admiring" worries me. That's pretty myopic — widen your lens, I guess I'd say.