i just recently finished reading The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian - sent to me in the mail from my wonderful and amazing friend alex. alex has lived on a reserve up close to the manitoba border for 3 years, teaching science and other subjects to her little ones. she coaches hockey, goes to beading classes, and has done such an amazing job of becoming absorbed in the community. her and i often speak of 
challenges relating to life on a reserve, and the overall tone of such an interesting community of people within the larger context of Canada.
she sent me this book in the mail, with a note that said, 'since i know you are interested in reservation life, i thought you'd enjoy all this book has to offer. it may not seem as funny because you don't have my experiences, but please believe that this book is extremely close to reality as i see it.'
and what better day to write about my reflections on the book, than on national aboriginal day in Canada.
this book is breathtaking. i took the book to be humourous at first - it truly manages to capture you from the beginning as a humour based novel... and yet, you find yourself more and more drawn by the aches you feel, as arnold (the main character) brushes over his tragedies. the way that alexie manages to create a space in which heartbreak and disaster are such a common occurrence, is stunning - he passes by each situation with the experience of someone who knows the necessity of survival, and what calls for true mourning.
throughout the year that the book covers, it explores death (“I’m 14 years old, and I’ve been to 42 funerals,” Arnold says. “That’s really the biggest difference between Indians and white people.”), love (“If you let people into your life a little bit, they can be pretty damn amazing.”), and social isolation (“Life is a constant struggle between being an individual and being a member of the community") and all the things that a teenager encounters - but shouldn't have to - specifically relating to growing up on a reserve. it follows arnold as he decides to leave the reserve, and move to a 'white' high school - where he needs to trek miles to receive an education that he isn't accepted into, he's turned away for wanting, and he's clearly overqualified for. you begin to understand and relate to arnold, and yet, his tragedies are ones we can't understand. and somehow, the writing appeals to all of us who recall what it is like to be a teenager - fundamentally, we all want to be loved, understood, and accepted. arnold encounters crushes, best friends who are outcasts as well - and who turn on him without understanding why - he deals with poverty and addiction, and love in a way that most children will never have. the book itself looks at the perspective of a child, and their priorities. and what goes on inside, even when the world seems to block that child out.
“Rowdy and I climbed and climbed and climbed. We made it to
the top. Well, almost to the top. Even rowdy was too scared to step on the
thinnest branches. So we made it within ten feet of the top. Not the summit.
But close enough to call it the summit. We clung tightly to the tree as it
swung in the breeze. It was scared, sure, terrified. But it was also fun, you
know? We were more than one hundred feet in the air. From our vantage point, we
could see for miles. We could see from one end of the reservation to the other.
we could see our entire world. And our entire world, at that moment, was green
and golden, and perfect.”
challenges relating to life on a reserve, and the overall tone of such an interesting community of people within the larger context of Canada.she sent me this book in the mail, with a note that said, 'since i know you are interested in reservation life, i thought you'd enjoy all this book has to offer. it may not seem as funny because you don't have my experiences, but please believe that this book is extremely close to reality as i see it.'
this book is breathtaking. i took the book to be humourous at first - it truly manages to capture you from the beginning as a humour based novel... and yet, you find yourself more and more drawn by the aches you feel, as arnold (the main character) brushes over his tragedies. the way that alexie manages to create a space in which heartbreak and disaster are such a common occurrence, is stunning - he passes by each situation with the experience of someone who knows the necessity of survival, and what calls for true mourning.
“My parents came from poor people who came from poor people who came from poor people,” Arnold explains, “all the way back to the very first poor people.”
sherman alexie grew up on the spokane reservation in washington state - and he quite obviously has a strong handle on the reality of reservation life. prior to the novel, he began with poetry, then expanded into short stories, novels, screenplays and stand-up comedy. the cartoons are illustrated by ellen forney, and she narrates what the words can't (if you can imagine) - the mind of a child being thrown into a very adult world. throughout the year that the book covers, it explores death (“I’m 14 years old, and I’ve been to 42 funerals,” Arnold says. “That’s really the biggest difference between Indians and white people.”), love (“If you let people into your life a little bit, they can be pretty damn amazing.”), and social isolation (“Life is a constant struggle between being an individual and being a member of the community") and all the things that a teenager encounters - but shouldn't have to - specifically relating to growing up on a reserve. it follows arnold as he decides to leave the reserve, and move to a 'white' high school - where he needs to trek miles to receive an education that he isn't accepted into, he's turned away for wanting, and he's clearly overqualified for. you begin to understand and relate to arnold, and yet, his tragedies are ones we can't understand. and somehow, the writing appeals to all of us who recall what it is like to be a teenager - fundamentally, we all want to be loved, understood, and accepted. arnold encounters crushes, best friends who are outcasts as well - and who turn on him without understanding why - he deals with poverty and addiction, and love in a way that most children will never have. the book itself looks at the perspective of a child, and their priorities. and what goes on inside, even when the world seems to block that child out.
the book is heartbreaking and hilarious. truly.
some of my favourite quotes from the book....
“at the hospital, my mother wept and wailed. She’s lost her
mother. When anybody, no matter how old they are, loses a parent, I think it
hurts the same as if you were only five years old, you know? I think all of us
are always five years old in the presence and absence of our parents”
_____________________
“so I looked up the word ‘grief’ in the dictionary. I wanted
to find out everything I could about grief. I wanted to know why my family has
been given so much to grieve about. And then I discovered the answer: ‘grief:
when you feel so helpless and stupid that you think nothing will ever be right
again, and your macaroni and cheese tastes like sawdust and you can’t even jerk
off because it seems like too much trouble’”
_____________________
“’you can do it’
‘I can do it’
Do you understand how amazing it is to hear that from an
adult? Do you know how amazing it is to hear that from anyone? It’s one of the
simplest sentences in the world, just four words, but they’re the four hugest
words in the world when they’re put together”
“yep, my daddy was an undependable drunk. But he’s never
missed any of my organized games, concerts, plays or picnics. He may not have
loved me perfectly, but he loved me as well as he could”
“I know that people were very sad. I know that [the death]
made everybody remember all the deaths in their life. I know that death is
never added to death; it multiples. But still, I couldn’t stay and watch all of
those people get drunk. I couldn't do it. If you’d given me a room full of sober
Indians, crying and laughing, and telling stories about [her], then I would
have gladly stayed and joined them in the ceremony. But everybody was drunk.
And everybody was unhappy. And they were drunk and unhappy in the same exact
way.”
_____________________
this book is fantastic. it may seem childish at first, but i was sobbing like a small child by the end. perfectly complex in all the right ways.
"The world, even the smallest parts of it, is filled with things you don't know."
images from: twitter // wikipedia // well read