I'm in 10th grade and I used to hate reading. Well ok, it wasn't that I hated reading, but I could NEVER find any good books that compelled me to read till the end. Until one day in the Library, I saw Part-Time Indian. I opened the book and saw pictures so I said "eh why not?" Not only was it the first novel I've read from start to finish, it was the best book I have ever read! I laughed at nearly every page and the ending really caught me off guard! After I finished that I went to another book by Alexie. I assumed that I would like another book by the same author, and I did! I found another book called Flight. Not as memorable as Part-Time Indian but still a fun read!
So I think I know what I want in a book that I'll actually read. A realistic story with realistic thinking characters(if that makes sense...) But I also loved the funny beats in Part-Time Indian and it's really what kept me from putting it down.
This book just arrived in the mail. I first read this book on high school and was immediately entrenched in every "world" that the main character transports to. This is my favorite book, and in my opinion, Alexie's finest work. Who else has read this book? Let's start a thread. What was your initial reaction? What were your favorite or least favorite parts? What sections made you laugh? What sections made you cry?
This is a masterful novel, I believe. And I especially like that you cant really categorize it into one specific genre. Sure, it's historical fiction, but it's also a young adult novel with some elements of magical realism.
Does anyone know what Sherman Alexie is doing these days?
After allegations of sexual misconduct surfaced last spring, he seems to have gone off the radar entirely. Given those allegations—and his self-reported mental and physical health challenges—it makes sense that he would step out of the public eye for a bit. But I can’t help but wonder how things played out. The statement he released in response to the allegations was strange to me. I also find it interesting that media coverage faded so quickly after the story was released.
Not trying to debate the merit of Alexie’s writing or the validity of sexual misconduct allegations against him— just genuinely curious about Alexie as an author and can’t seem to find any recent information on the internet, other than this blog post by Lisa Dremousis, who disclosed the story to NPR.
Thanks.
I don't get the part where Gordy says the following:
“Listen," he said one afternoon in the library. "You have to read a book three times before you know it. The first time you read it for the story. The plot. The movement from scene to scene that gives the book its momentum, its rhythm. It's like riding a raft down a river. You're just paying attention to the currents. Do you understand that?"
I get that the next part he said the second time you read a book is for its history.
But I don't think there was a mention of the third reason. Did I miss out on the part where it was mentioned? Or what do you think was the third reason?
I was going to use an Audible credit to buy "The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian" today as it's required for my class, and while there's a link on Amazon, when you actually click the link, it seems that the audiobook is no longer available.
I'm not going to ask why it's not available (it's kind of obvious for anyone who has read the fairly recent news about Alexie's behavior), but does anyone know where else I might be able to get a copy of the audiobook version?
I want to really dive back into the habit of reading, i used to love it so much. This was the first book I’ve read in months and I’m loving it so far. The way he writes about his childhood and the mother/son relationship he had growing up really puts certain things for me into words that I otherwise wouldn’t have been able to understand. Any recs?
Cockroach Diane says, it might have been a cockroach in the upstairs bathroom
though she cannot be positive because she was otherwise distracted and only saw it out of the corner of her eyes, the cockroach
or rather, the potential cockroach that scuttled along the baseboard in the bathroom and vanished before she could get a good look at it.
Have you ever seen a cockroach? I ask her and she says, Of course I have, I grew up in California though I'm not sure what that means
because I have always associated cockroaches with poverty, grinding and absolute, constant as gravity and though I've been poor
I've never been that poor, never woke to a wall filled with cockroaches spelling out my name, never stepped into a dark room and heard
the cockroaches baying at the moon. Diane saw the cockroach in the bathroom, one of four bathrooms in this large house. We are homeowners
and there is a cockroach or the idea of a cockroach in the bathroom, a cockroach scuttling along the hardwood floors.
Did you get a good look at it? I ask Diane and she says, No, but it was fast, cockroach-fast. Not beetle-fast, not
ant-fast, not even spider-fast but cockroach-fast, disappearing behind the magazine rack in the bathroom, slipping
into the crack between floor and baseboard. Impossible. Impossible. Impossible. Impossible. Impossible.
Impossible. The impossible cockroach is not alone, I think, cockroaches are never alone, never hermits, never the last one on the ship, never
the one who dies alone. Christopher Columbus was a cockroach and look what followed him. The cockroach, the cockroach
in the bathroom is watching us as Diane and I explore the smallest spaces between toilet and wall, beneath the sink
and the drawers that contain the pieces of our life together. The cockroach is watching as we discuss
our theories to explain this cockroach: the neighbors are remodeling the old house next door, forcing
cockroaches to migrate, perhaps fleeing from insecticide and the sudden absence of food. Maybe it wasn't a cockroach, I say
and Diane agrees. It could have been any other kind of insect, it could have been a hummingbird for that matter, it could have been
an angel sent to test our faith, it could have been God, God, God. That cockroach, that angel scuttles along the hardwood
and Diane sees it out of the corner of her eye, in her peripheral vision, and she believes it was a cockroach
but she cannot be sure, she only saw it for a brief moment. God, I ask Diane, how
... keep reading on reddit ➡
I am trying to get as many copies of this as possible. One of my friends is a middle school teacher that is going to be teaching this as part of her curriculum this year, and will probably end up paying for the books out of her own pocket. I'm planning on contributing, but if anyone has any spare copies of this, I would absolutely appreciate it.
Does anyone know what Sherman Alexie is doing these days?
After allegations of sexual misconduct surfaced last spring, he seems to have gone off the radar entirely. Given those allegations—and his self-reported mental and physical health challenges—it makes sense that he would step out of the public eye for a bit. But I can’t help but wonder how things played out. The statement he released in response to the allegations was strange to me. I also find it interesting that media coverage faded so quickly after the story was released.
Not trying to debate the merit of Alexie’s writing or the validity of sexual misconduct allegations against him— just genuinely curious about Alexie as an author and can’t seem to find any recent information on the internet, other than this blog post by Lisa Dremousis, who disclosed the story to NPR.
Thanks.
