I will rarely say this about a piece of literature, but The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie is an absolute work of genius. Alexie has created an unlikely main character: a sympathetic, sarcastic victim. More than that, he created a situation in which he could openly, and often humorously, discuss such taboo subjects as masturbation, alcoholism and generational poverty. Alexie achieved the impossible story: an anti-hero talking about things you're not supposed to talk about in an obscenely funny way.
I feel like I have to address the source of my considerations in this particular entry: I recently got the absolute worst literary review of my life.
No.
That's a lie.
I got the worst peer review of my life. My last professorial review, the professor cursed several times and threatened to shoot me. I blame geriatric crankiness. However, in the case of my peer review, a young lady told me she could not finish my story because of the issues I dealt with and the way I dealt with them, ending with: "I just really hope that you can figure out a better way you express his hate and disgust for others without resorting to the vulgar, crass, and easy cuss-words. Good Luck with revision.”
Okay. I'm not saying this review was necessarily wrong.
Crap.
I lied again.
The review was wrong. It was so amazingly wrong, I am actually considering framing it as inspiration for my future work. There was a purpose behind every inflammatory thing my character said. However, this review does expose how I tried and failed to do what Alexie did with Part-Time Indian. I wanted to create a character who lacked self-awareness and was sometimes completely backward in his perception of his surroundings which he described in an extremely sarcastic way, but I still wanted him to be likable. In many ways, I wanted him to be an adult version of Junior. With such a review, I can be assured I did not pull this off nearly as effectively as Alexie.
Here's the thing about what Alexie did: he managed to create an incredibly innocent character dealing with complex issues, and this character developed precisely enough to remain believable. I think the cartoons contributed to this immeasurably. The most striking example of this is in the very beginning. Junior outlines, in the words of a young man, generational poverty, a complex issue pervading every single nation of the world. He describes this issue so simply: “It sucks to be poor, and it sucks to feel that you somehow deserve to be poor. You start believing that you're poor because you're stupid and ugly. And then you start believing that you're stupid and ugly because you're Indian. And because you're Indian you start believing you're destined to be poor. It's an ugly circle and there's nothing you can do about it. Poverty doesn't give you strength or teach you lessons about perseverance. No, poverty only teaches you how to be poor” (13).
My sister is a compassionate ministries pastor. My brother-in-law is a community development professor. I've been inundated with knowledge of poverty. I've worked with the homeless, I've worked with charities, I've rallied on behalf of the disenfranchised, but never in any of my conversations have I ever heard the problem described so perfectly. And what else does Alexie do? He has this moment illustrated with cartoons. Funny ones.
I wish I could say how and why this works. Yeah, on the surface, I get that he's simultaneously off-setting and deepening the sadness of the story with these illustrations. As a reader, we're both taken out of the sadness and thrust into it with the reminder that this is a kid talking. I see that. But, wow, the finesse with how he pulls this off is absolutely gorgeous. I think Alexie is probably a grand example of a natural writer: he just has a “feel” for when these illustrations would add or detract from the story. He walks a beautifully fine line. The one time I questioned his use of the illustrations was when his sister died. I was concerned that the drawing of his sister on the cover of the romance novel “burning love” was a little excessive and out of character. Even then, though, I didn't question it so strongly that I was taken out of the story altogether.
A brilliant move by the illustrator of this novel was the different style of drawing. When Junior was giving particular consideration to an issue, the sketch would be more refined, more exact, like his drawing of Gordy on page 117, or his drawing of him and Rowdy on page 218. His more cartoonish illustrations remind me of manic-depression. Some of the illustrations are just useful, funny sketches. They're not necessarily off-setting any darkness or anything like that. These are the typical pictures. Then, he'll draw something funny about an absolutely dismal situation, like when he's losing it over his sister's death on page 204. These are the manic drawings, the depression so deep that the sufferer has nothing left to lose with wildness, with irreverence.
Overall, I cannot say enough good things about this novel. The writing is pitch-perfect, the drawings are excellent and the subject matter is flawless. I have no intentions to teach, but if I did, this book would absolutely be on the curriculum.
Alexie, Sherman. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. 1st ed. New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2009. Print.
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