Category Archives: Young Adult

Review: Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell

07 Tuesday Jul 2015

Posted by in book reviews, Cross-Over Literature, Genre, Young Adult

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , ,

Eleanor & Park is appealing to young adults and adults because of the writing, the pace of the story and the relatability of the characters-they are outsiders who find comfort and love in each other. While young adults undoubtedly seek different qualities in novels than adults, Rainbow Rowell finds ways to satisfy the needs of both in her Michael L. Printz Award selection. The author appeals to both audiences in composing a book that is fast-paced and easy to read with likable teenage characters who have problems navigating the challenges of life at school and at home. Does this sound familiar? Most notably, though, readers of all ages, are drawn to the feeling of not fitting, in experienced by both characters.

In order for an author to capture the hearts and minds of different age groups, she must appeal to both groups with her writing style and themes. Rowell keeps the book simple and steady enough for a younger reader yet complex and engaging enough for an older one. The author’s laid back prose and colorful descriptions of life as a teenager engage any reader: the awkwardness of puberty, bullying, not knowing how to kiss, difficulties with parents. She finds things all readers have in common to highlight about her characters; the complications they face in navigating life as teenagers is something we’ve all experienced and tend to remember. We also empathize with their plights as outsiders.

Eleanor and Park speak to readers not only because we have things in common, but their entire experience sends a message that outsiders can find a sense of belonging too. The author portrays Eleanor as the fat, weird kid. At school kids are cruel and bully her; they have no idea she has a life at home in which she’s lonely and abused. Through Eleanor’s exclusion, Rowell speaks to the place inside readers where, despite our place among the rest of humanity, we all feel alone. When Eleanor finds happiness and love in Park, we feel satisfied. Their story says something about all people who don’t belong, we think.

Whether we are in high school or middle aged, stories about other people in pain resonate. Even if Eleanor and Park are very different from you or me, we see similarities in them that make the book worth reading. When we see ourselves in characters, we learn from their experiences. A well-written story adds dimension to our own lives.  At the end of the novel, we find have learned any number of lessons about ourselves, others, love or life.

4 out of 5 Stars

Review: The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

14 Tuesday Jan 2014

Posted by in book reviews, Cross-Over Literature, Genre, Young Adult

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , ,

John Green’s young adult best-seller, The Fault in Our Stars, is an easy to read and heartfelt novel that reaches readers through a lightness of prose and personalities of characters, which allow readers to forget about the devastating seriousness of the subject matter. Thus, a story, which involves teenagers struggling with terminal cancer, develops into more of a light romance than the tragedy.

The characters of Augustus Waters and Hazel Lancaster, are unexpectedly portrayed as hopeful, happy, and inspiring. They possess a maturity and resilience as beyond their years as they face challenges, which earn them respect in the eyes of the reader. They contemplate some of life’s most challenging concepts: love, life, what is left behind in death, with a sort of fearlessness that the reader admires. Green connects the teen’s personalities and interests in society and culture with their struggles to make them relevant.

Gus and Hazel use literature, video games, and art as methods of escape and means of achieving greater understanding of what is happening to them and why. The reader sees the characters have a special regard for the arts, because unlike most people, they look for good and cherish every moment. The reader absorbs their enjoyment when they discuss their favorite author or play Max Payne, their favorite video game, together. They use the arts to experience joy, analyze their place in the universe,  and escape the lives they lead. Gus and Hazel inspire the reader to live fully, learn, and appreciate the things life has to offer. Green’s lesson to his reader: No matter the circumstance, people can choose to see beauty in the world.

The subject matter of the text suggests a depressing and unreadable story. Instead, the author shows that even when the worst outcomes are possible, people can thrive if they let in the love, happiness, and beauty life has to offer. If these two teenagers can make the best of their situation, so can we. Augustus and Hazel choose to remain positive, and together they are able to achieve lives that have meaning.

Star Rating: 3 out of 5 Stars

More Information”

The Fault in Our Stars (film)

Review: Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card

04 Friday Oct 2013

Posted by in Cross-Over Literature, Genre, Uncategorized, Young Adult

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

, , , , ,

Orson Scott Card creates a thought provoking protagonist and plot in Ender’s Game, which encourages the imagination of the reader, but contains plot twists meant to surprise that are too predictable in the end. The reader  learns that Ender, a child prodigy, is the world’s only hope in waging war for the Third Invasion against an alien civilization of buggers. The story excites and inspires the reader to consider what a future filled with child soldiers training to fight alien invaders with video game simulations under the unfeeling supervision of adults would be like. Yet, the wordy and repetitive descriptions ruin creative aspects of the story. Since the initial storyline is so inventive, the reader waits for unexpected events to occur as the story progresses, but they never do. Instead of speeding through a well-rounded text, this one took several reading sessions that did not flow smoothly together, but halted each time I stopped to consider the believability of the situation or quality of the writing.

Card establishes suspense by telling the reader someone is watching Ender, but when the reader finally learns the answer, it is disappointing. In boldface print the novel begins with the observation of Ender and his family: “I’ve watched through his eyes, I’ve listened through his ears, and I tell you, he’s the one.“ The reader wonders by whom and why the watching is occurring. When Ender’s story starts from a different perspective, a divide is drawn between Ender and those watching him. As the chapters roll on, the reader knows it is the adults who watch Ender for clues about his personality and capabilities, but the question never ceases: why do adults need a child to save them? When the answer finally comes, it doesn’t seem like enough for the intensity and focus placed on the story leading up to it.

The author also focuses heavily on the training Ender and the other children endure at Battle School, repeating information and losing the interest of the reader. In typical science fiction style, pages and pages of the text are spent describing every single maneuver of troops, shot taken, and person frozen in battle. While this reader tried hard to concentrate on the overall significance of the battles, and what the characters learned from these scenes, my interest was not held due to nagging repetition. In the end, when the final explanation for the simulations was given, I was not appeased.

The seedlings of Card’s main ideas were so grand, that what might have been a fine ending in another book didn’t cut it in this one.  I expected more explanation for the reversal of societal roles and the conclusion to the epic Third Invasion. It should also be noted that there are many sequels to Ender’s Game that Card might have been setting up, which I have not read and am not familiar with. I accept that I ask a lot for a young adult work, and this might be the problem, rather than the text itself.

Final Rating: 3 out of 5 Stars

More Information:

Ender’s Game (2013) film

Review: The Hobbit, or There and Back Again by J.R.R. Tolkien

14 Monday Jan 2013

Posted by in book reviews, Children's, Cross-Over Literature, English Literature, Fantasy, Genre, International Fiction, Young Adult

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , , , ,

hobbit

The Hobbit, or There and Back Again, by J.R.R. Tolkien, written and released successfully in 1937, faces the difficult task of measuring up against one of the best-selling and well-loved novels ever written, it’s sequel, The Lord of the Rings. In Tolkien’s introductory attempt, a shallow depth of plot and hollow characters, due in part to it’s place in the children’s literature genre, keep the novel from achieving the substance and maturity of its successor. On the other hand, its strengths come from the seedlings of great character and story development and the sparks of imagination and creativity, which leave the adult reader ready for more. The Hobbit is a good fantasy tale, popularized and enjoyed due to its own merits, but also supplemented by The Lord of the Rings.

Tolkien creates a captivating fantasy ripe with fantastical characters, settings, and adventure, which has the ability to capture the attentions of readers of all age groups, while also preparing them for future, more advanced stories. The Hobbit introduces a world of wizards, hobbits, elves and dwarves; the reader is entertained and amused envisioning another world, Middle Earth, different creatures, and how they live and interact together. Although the story’s messages and universal themes about good versus evil are interpretable and relatable for readers of all ages, which makes it less eventful and mature than The Lord of the Rings, it isn’t necessarily simple or one-dimensional. Those approaching the text on the surface, enjoy an exciting fairytale; still, others who analyze and critique characters, plot, and setting find deeper meaning and pleasure. Tolkien’s text satisfies all in different ways, because each reader can take as much or as little from the story as he or she prefers.

The reader notices with delight, that The Hobbit begins an extended process of maturation among the characters and storylines, which continues throughout the series. Tolkien uses caution when divulging information about characters, only sharing  information in the present, which builds suspense and keeps each character in a state of constant development along with the story. The chapter, “Riddles in the Dark,” is telling of the novel as a whole, because the reader begins to understand Bilbo’s importance, and it contains the origins of the next novel. Presented as a slowly escalating series of moments, riddles, and answers, the scene is essential to the advancement of the story. Bilbo finds a ring in the mountains and hides it in his pocket. Tolkien writes, “It was the turning point of his career, though he did not know it yet.” (68)  The novel continues and ends without much more explanation for the ring, its power, or purpose. Still, a shift occurs, because before, Bilbo and the reader have no knowledge of Gollum or the ring, and after he and the reader start uncovering secrets and learning background information, which are important as the novel progresses.

The author builds a world of fantasy and adventure combined with characters who grow in dimension and complexity as the story evolves, so the reader wants to know what will happen in the next line, on the next page, in the next book. There is something compelling and relaxing about a book that a child adores and adult appreciates. There are moments of greatness in The Hobbit to be shared by readers of all kinds.

Final Rating 3 out 5 Stars

More Information:

Film:

The Hobbit

Review: The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

01 Thursday Nov 2012

Posted by in Australian Literature, book reviews, Cross-Over Literature, Genre, International Fiction, Young Adult

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , ,

The Book Thief captivates and amazes by looking at the experiences of young orphan, Liesel Meminger, during the tumultuous years of Hitler’s rule in Germany, through the lens of a dark and disturbing omnipresent narrator. Zusak’s development of Liesel’s personality, her choices and the events occurring around her, are fascinating and interesting; yet, his delivery of the story stands out most, making the novel, a remarkable and memorable read. The narrator observes the way books, words and thought influence human behavior and desires for learning and growth regardless of circumstance. During a time when secrets keep people safe, the narrator exposes private thoughts, actions, and moments, which reveal vulnerability and truth Liesel might not provide on her own. The reader is better able to view Liesel, “the book thief’s,” life and fate with deeper insight, meaning, and expectation due to the third person point of view offered by the mystery narrator.

In the first paragraph, as the author establishes anticipation, confusion, and connection with important characters and events, he makes the reader wonder who his all-knowing narrator is and what this means for the rest of the novel.  The reader takes in the information from the scene enthralled and uncertain as the narrator starts, “I saw the book thief three times.” (1) The narrator shares this important moment with the reader as though he or she, is there, a witness to the death of Liesel’s brother. Yet, the reader senses this is no typical third person perspective and starts gathering clues about the storyteller for the remainder of the novel. The reader tries to solve the riddle of how the narrator fits into the broader picture. When the narrator introduces Liesel’s first book theft, for example, the reader begins a process of connecting clues related to theme and symbolism, which the narrator leaves throughout the story. The reader is intrigued that each time narrator and protagonist meet she steals books. As the text proceeds, the reader goes on a journey through the memories and experiences of the protagonist, which are paralleled by her acquisition of new books. What is the connection between, story, characters, and narrator?

Times passes as reader waits for narrator to reveal the meaning and purpose each book serves in the story. The reader watches, increasingly attentive and anxious as the words in the books and personal experiences form the world of the book thief, which the narrator controls. The narrator supervises with the reader, giving and taking at will, as Liesel’s life events occur along with her books. Both narrator and reader notice that Liesel’s actions represent a divide between ruin of old ways of life and a fight to keep the past alive. The book burning in her village, for example, represents the loss of freedom and suppression of ideas. But, with the book she pulls from the rubble, she holds on to something that would otherwise be erased. As the war goes on and more people suffer and die, Liesel’s books save small bits of the past, and give comfort and happiness to those who read them. The positive changes start with the book she obtains at her brother’s grave. Her foster father, Hans, uses it to create a bond and to teach her how to read. Similarly, Liesel and Max, a Jewish man hiding in their basement, writes using words and pictures as a coping mechanism, they depict larger issues than their own suffering, and connect to a higher power. The narrator notices the family’s reading and sharing helps them endure, connect, and love, regardless of the pain and suffering occurring around them. The reader is afraid for the characters as the narrator notes their goodness and innocence, and still determines to take things away from them. Both the reader and characters must watch idle, as the narrator decides the future.

There is something rare about an author creating an entity that utterly consumes a story. The reader is interested and almost afraid of what he can or will do without being certain of how or why. When the reader finally does understand, the emotions and ideas elicited by the “voice,” it makes perfect sense. Please don’t be mistaken, the rest of the story is great too: plot, setting, characterization, theme are all excellent additions. Zusak’s novel is a success not just for it’s widely popular narrator, but way the the sum of all its parts fit so neatly together.

Final Rating: 4 out of 5 Stars

More Information:

Film: The Book Thief (2013)

Review: The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

16 Tuesday Oct 2012

Posted by in book reviews, Children's, English Literature, Fantasy, Honors and Acclaim, International Fiction, Science Fiction, Young Adult

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , , , ,

The Graveyard Book, follows in the tradition of Neil Gaiman’s other works; it is both familiar and refreshing with just the right amounts of dark characters and storylines contrasted by lightness and humor. The award winning young adult fantasy, tells the story adapted from Kipling’s classic book of short stories, The Jungle Book: a boy, Nobody, Bod Owens, lives in a graveyard, orphaned and alone, after losing his family. While many parallels can be drawn from the old version to the new, Gaiman uses elements of magic and horror, suitable for kids and adults to creatively and innovatively build a new foundation from old characters, plots and themes. The reader’s curiosity is piqued by this odd reinterpretation, which preserves essential themes from the original and adds more ways to enchant and delight.

Gaiman uses supernatural beings who surround and care for Bod in the graveyard to make the story more entertaining and show the reader what it means to be accepted when you are different. Living in a cemetery with no memory of his old life, the boy finds a new family among its inhabitants: ghosts, werewolves, witches, and ghouls. Gaiman’s more serious message about Bod’s differences and the way he is taken in by beings very distinct from humans, are, at times, happily overshadowed by the reader’s fascination with the silly and extraordinary depictions of Bod’s new parents. Gaiman’s imagination stands out as he describes the beings watching over Bod and teaching him a variety of lessons about life, death, and the supernatural world. Gaiman relays Bod’s inclusion as a member of an otherworldly family with lively portrayals of their interactions together, such as the lessons he gets about how to use their special abilities, like fading and dream walking. The reader is excited to picture the world the author envisions; and, the special powers Bod’s supernatural friends share, which eventually help him to navigate the outside world.

By giving Bod a unique way of life and new family in the graveyard, Gaiman draws the reader’s attention to a sharp divide between his old, human life, and his new environment among the paranormal, while also maintaining the story’s themes of coming-of-age and belonging. The longer Bod stays away from the living world, forced to learn about it from a distance, the more he craves a place in it. The reader empathizes with Bod’s confusion: should he fulfill his curiosity and leave the graveyard or remain faithful to his family? The reader learns through Bod’s thoughts and desires that he needs more than his family can offer as he ages. Gaiman writes to express Bod’s thoughts and emotions, “In the graveyard, no one ever changed.“(p. 229) Both a blessing and a curse, this concept is helpful to a younger Bod who requires stability, but as he grows into young adulthood, he realizes that he needs humans in his life too. Despite the love he feels for his caretakers, the dead cannot provide the stimulation he desires

Bod’s journey is more thought provoking and multifaceted as the worlds of the living and supernatural collide. Gaiman uses older concepts to pave the way for his energetic new characters and storylines. Not many novels  can be simultaneously fluffy and weighted, based on the perspective the reader chooses. Gaiman makes watching a boy grow fun and magical for any reader by including a graveyard and a group of unearthly creatures. Do you like fantasy? Science fiction? What are you waiting for?

Final Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

 

 

Finding Answers in Looking for Alaska by John Green:Review

06 Friday Apr 2012

Posted by in book reviews, Genre, Honors and Acclaim, Michael L. Printz Award for Excellence in Young Adult Literature, Young Adult

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , ,

goodreads.com

John Green’s  first novel, Looking for Alaska, is an inspiring coming of age tale, which follows in the tradition of The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger and A Separate Peace by John Knowles.  Each word jumps off the page and into the hearts and minds of readers.  The struggles of long and lanky Miles Halter, his rebellious roommate Chip, and the beautiful and bright Alaska Young are divided into two categories: 1. normal teenage issues from peers to teachers and grades 2. life’s most difficult existential mysteries involving man’s search for meaning, love, and death.

Miles arrives at the private boarding school his father attended before him, Culver Creek, in search of “the Great Perhaps.”  An avid reader of biographies, Miles is drawn to people’s last words, and he is convinced last words supply a picture of another person’s life and struggles.  The most memorable line in Miles’ memory bank contains the last words of Francois Rabelais: “I go to seek the Great Perhaps (5).” Similar to other literary figures before him, Miles is compelled to search for the truth about life.  When he meets the girl he falls in love with, Alaska, she has piles of books scattered among the other possessions in her dorm room.   She calls them her “Life’s Library.”  Alaska’s favorite text, written by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, is also based on non-fiction, The General in His Labyrinth.  Alaska shares her belief that Simon Bolivar’s last words, “How will I ever get out of this labyrinth (19),” refer to inevitable human suffering.

Although the young people spend much of their time rebelling against authority, especially the Dean of Students, whom they refer to as “The Eagle,” they are also intelligent and reflective.  What at first seems like teenage angst being let loose on alcohol and cigarettes, soon becomes a coping mechanism for the issues the characters have no capacity to understand or deal with.  Alaska and Chip are poor scholarship students who don’t fit in with the privileged “Weekday Warriors” who return home to mansions in Birmingham each weekend.  What’s more they have both lost a parental figure, Chip as a result of abuse and divorce and Alaska as a result of her mother’s brain aneurysm and death when she was eight.

Green divides the novel into two portions: Before and After.  As the countdown to an enigmatic incident approaches, the reader expects the Prank to be the end of the countdown, while secretly hoping for something more.  The Prank, which may get them expelled, and is certain to have an impact, is designed by Alaska and Chip.  It is a method of retaliation not only against the rich kids who torment them, but also against sadness and intolerance.  This plan becomes a distraction for the main event or climax of the novel.

Continue reading →

Review: Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

12 Sunday Feb 2012

Posted by in book reviews, Cross-Over Literature, Fantasy, Genre, Science Fiction, Young Adult

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

, , , , , ,

The attempt to combine images of photographs, letters, and drawings in telling the story of Jacob Portman and his search for the truth about his grandfather, Ransom Riggs creates an aesthetically pleasing and innovative novel.  Still the story itself is not exactly unprecedented in the world of the fantasy genre. What makes the novel readable does not have to do with the prose or plot line; rather, the reader is almost tricked into paging through the text in order to view the next peculiar image awaiting him or her.  Although the idea that Jacob’s grandfather, Abe, has left him clues to hidden secrets that only Jacob can decipher to find the answers he seeks about his grandfather’s mysterious existence, the answers to the riddles are too easily discovered for both the reader and the narrator.

In presenting the reader with photo’s Abe has supposedly taken from a magical island he lived on as an orphaned child, the author intends to develop intrigue on the part of the reader that Jacob, the storyteller, experiences.  As with any tale of peculiar or magical people, especially one which is supported by strange images, the reader wants to know more. Why does Abe own photos of a girl levitating and a young boy holding a boulder in the air with one arm? The reader and Jacob sense that the pictures may be altered or fabricated.  The visions Jacob soon begins having of similar images could be real, or as his parents and psychologist pose, they are figments of his imagination.  The question of what is ‘real” or ‘true’ versus things people merely want to believe despite the unlikelihood of the existence of the entities or ideas is a theme that is posed throughout the novel.

Even after the narrator discovers that his grandfather told him the truth, other characters question their reality.  After Jacob convinces his parents of the need for him to travel to the small island in Wales where his grandfather’s clues lead him, the reader questions Jacob’s experiences; because, the author plants a seed of doubt in regards to the possibility of children who never age and monsters.  Perhaps the most fascinating aspect of the novel can be attributed to the reader’s ability to choose sides:  is it real or illusionary? The images included with the text encourage the reader to participate in the questioning of events as Jacob must do himself.

The problem with the believability of the story does not lie in that fact that it includes ideas that most people consider impossible such as time travel, monsters, and magic.  Rather, the execution of the ideas is weak at times.  Even with impossible ideas, as a reader, I tend to find myself considering the intricacies of the ideas presented.  It may be acceptable; hypothetically, that the characters are able to use a loop in time to live forever.  But, what happened before the loop was created? More importantly, how did the characters escape the disaster that would have killed them all on the very first day the loop began if they had not begun to travel in time until the day of the disaster? Wouldn’t they have been killed before the loop could be erected? These ideas are not discussed, and the author only elaborates in bits and pieces. The narrator is also seemingly unaware of various occurrences in the novel that the reader is already able to infer.  For example, when Jacob finds the entry way to the time loop and is transported to September 3rd, 1940, he doesn’t realize what has happened, despite different people and surroundings on the island. Still, there is something redeeming in the inclusion of visual portions of the text that encourage the reader to continue Jacob’s journey with him.

For the most part, the photos the author describes as being proof of the existence of people the world has forgotten, are necessary, beautiful, and hauntingly deceptive.  At the same time, some the images seem to be thrown into the story where they don’t fit.  There is a photograph of a little boy pouting on the ground wearing a bunny costume.  The author adds this image to his story of Jacob’s father waiting for Abe to go trick-or-treating.  Although the story is included to explain that Abe was an absent father, there is no need to add an extra portion of a discussion between father and son in order to include a picture. Towards the end of the novel, more pictures that feel inauthentic  or unnecessary are added for effect. While most of the photos add a thrill, some of them take away from the reliability of the tale.

This book is beautiful right down to the chapter divisions made with paper resembling old wallpaper;  the melancholy images are memorable. The novel is meant to be a compellation of images and prose, so it may not be fair to separate the two.  Still, without the images, the story is unexceptional.  Whether the images redeem the rest of the piece is for the individual reader to determine. For me, the images were not enough to end my reading with a positive conclusion.

Final Rating: 2 out of 5 Stars

More Information:

Book Trailer for of Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children images

Like the Bird,This Child Must Attempt to Mimic and Empathize: Mockingbird by Kathryn Erskine: A Review

15 Sunday Jan 2012

Posted by in book reviews, Genre, Honors and Acclaim, National Book Award Winner, Young Adult

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

, , , , ,

Kathryn Erskine’s protagonist, Caitlin, describes a variety of qualities which could place her on the autistic spectrum:  Caitlin is sensitive to smell, will only wear clothes consisting of certain materials and colors, has trouble deciphering the intricacies of speech , requires the tracking of her progress with social skills such as MANNERS and interpreting facial expressions, is able to memorize most things very well, and she is a gifted artist. Erskine includes an excess of traits, perhaps, in order to make the point that Caitlin has Asperger’s, and to illustrate exactly what the disorder entails. The author’s exaggeration of the number of traits one individual with the disorder would most likely possess is successful if intended indicate several ways a person with Asperger’s is different . Still the result is an often times inaccurate magnification of traits exhibited by a person on Autism Spectrum.  By placing every single trait under a microscope  for dissection, the author runs the risk of reader misperception that all people or children with Asperger’s think and act similarly. Still, Erskine does an impeccable job not making the story about Caitlin’s differences by creating a constantly changing and ripening plot, in which Caitlin’s Asperger’s is only a part.

Caitlin Smith is very dependent on her school counselor Mrs. Brook; she sees her every day for lessons in socials skills, behavior regulation, and perhaps most importantly, she is a mediator between Caitlin and her Dad.  The family lost the most special person in their lives to a school shooting, Caitlin’s older brother Devon.  To make matters even worse, Caitlin’s mother died of cancer two years before.  So, when Caitlin asks Mrs. Brook where exactly she can find closure, as if she can pick it up somewhere, her counselor knows what the young girl does not, that Caitlin must first be able to distinguish the tangible from the intangible in order to grasp the concept and process her brother’s passing.  But, once Caitlin decides she needs to find closure, due to repetitive instincts which are driven by stressors triggered by her disorder, she cannot stop thinking about the word and what it means to her. Continue reading →

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

30 Wednesday Nov 2011

Posted by in book reviews, Genre, Honors and Acclaim, Multiculturalism, National Book Award Winner, Young Adult

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

, , , , ,

From the title of Sherman Alexie’s novel,  one might assume the book would be as indicated, the true diary of a Native American.  Yet, the first few sentences set up the reader for the author’s tone and intentions  throughout the novel , and by the second sentence Alexie admits that what he said before was, “not exactly true (1).”  In admitting the falsity of his first statement, Alexie is also implying that the things he will say later may not be truthful; he prepares his reader to think about the reality of everything he says throughout the story. In this manner he addresses stereotypes, which he claims everyone knows are true, even though he has already admitted he lies as a narrator. Thus, a young reader begins to think about what Alexie is really communicating through his narrator, Arnold Spirit Jr.

The way Alexie chooses to use a title in which he includes the words absolutely, true, and diary only to fill the pages of the novel with a story of sarcasm and exaggeration in order to make a point about things people believe about others is brilliant. There are times in the text when notions about Native American culture which might have been brought up to make a point about ignorance are lost on readers, because they don’t know enough to realize they are being naïve. However, the hyperbolic repetition Alexie uses throughout the text when discussing the alcoholism of Junior’s family, friends, and community cannot be mistaken. After this “problem” is mentioned so many times, a reader must finally think that even on a reservation, it is not possible that every single person drinks. The same modes of thinking hold true for white people. Continue reading →