The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie

The absolutely true diary of Arnold Spirit, Jr., struck a nerve in me from the get-go.

When Junior, as his family calls him, finds himself frustrated with the less-than-quality education he's receiving at his reservation school, he chucks his out-dated math textbook – it was once his mom's! – directly at the teacher's face. Now, Junior's not an anti-hero. Even though this outburst happens relatively early in plot, I knew such behavior was uncharacteristic. Junior is intelligent and likable, not at all like any of the students whom I would expect to wallop me upside the head with a Spanish book.

Still, he gets suspended and a home visit from Mr. P, the teacher whose nose he smashed in. Instead of reprimanding Junior further, Mr. P not only forgives the boy, but he makes his own apology, too. It is understandable, he explains, to react the way Junior did to his education. The students on the reservation are being done a disservice by the school, with its hand-me-down resources, and its teachers, who make no effort to educate. (I imagine that very few young adults would ask themselves the question I was asking myself at this point: Should my students be hitting me with their literature books?) Mr. P encourages Junior to find an education elsewhere, the education that he deserves.

Junior does just that. He transfers to Reardan, "the rich, white farm town that sits in the wheat fields exactly twenty-two miles away from the rez" (45), but not without many a second thought or endless torment from the members of his tribe. Torn between two worlds, Junior struggles to maintain his relationships with his best friend Rowdy, his family (including his alcoholic-yet-harmless dad, his bandanna-wearing grandmother, and his romance-novel-writing sister Mary Runs Away), his tribe, and his new friends (and maybe girlfriend?) at the "white school". The balancing act is tempered with the narrator's prolific drawings. Junior's artistic interpretations of his life are as layered and as entertaining as the narrative. Without a doubt, the illustrations by Ellen Forney are indispensable.

In The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, Sherman Alexie treats the themes of poverty, identity, loyalty, and death with dignity and incessant humor. I'm glad he made this diary public.