The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian

I really enjoy Sherman Alexie. I read Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven for my American Lit class some time ago, and I instantly liked his style. I have read little else by Native American authors, but I feel as though Alexie's style is unique, yet calculated. I find myself enjoying his tone as it shifts back and forth from cynical and deviant to terse and elegiac. Alexie captures every confused and muddled emotion that has become so associated with Native American history, and his ability to articulate each and every ounce of heartache, loss, satisfaction, or comedy rivals many other authors.

Absolutely True Diary did not disappoint in these areas, despite my initial wariness. I thought going into this book that, since it starred a wise-cracking teenager that it would read as if it were geared specifically towards young adults in a way that took away from what I have grown to appreciate so much in Alexie's writing. Instead, the book dives in headfirst to every last Native American issue, and it doesn't just scratch the surface. Arnold Jr. spells out the adversity he faces in every day life, all along speaking with the tongue-in-cheek sense of self-deprecating humor and dropping signature truth bombs that Alexie has long ago mastered.

The age group of this book's intended audience might float around in the late teens, but anyone, of any age, can get satisfaction from it. I think that this is a great accomplishment. It is also, on some levels, educational. I say this, but I know that it is only educational to the extent that it brings the reader to a certain state of awareness of the Native American situation. Particulars of reservation life are explained, but they are all from Arnold Jr.'s point of view. While the perspective is enlightening, it should be understood that it is only enlightening insofar as it can make readers aware of what is really a much more serious and long-standing problem in America.

There are a few complaints that I have about this book, but they are minor. I think the one that stands out to me the most is the fact that Alexie clearly either read The Catcher in the Rye immediately before penning this book, or he thought that his high-school aged audience would have been able to connect with Arnold better if they had been assigned the book in school. Either way, Arnold uses phrases that, word-for-word, Holden Caulfield uses in Catcher, and I think that it is pretty much an inexcusable oversight on the part of Alexie and his editor.