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annundrielI said I had another book to pimp and last night I finished it, so it's pimpin' time.
The library that I work for is sponsoring a One Book Program and everyone in the community is reading Sherman Alexie's The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. I wasn't planning on reading it, but Shannon recommended it and two of the quotes on the back are from people whose work I enjoy, so I figured I'd give it a shot.
Basically, I loved it. It made me laugh and cry (oh, did I cry) and there were many points where I had to stop and re-read because I hit a sentence that just made me go, "oh."
I'd never read anything by Alexie before. Now I'm thinking I might have to do some further reading. One of the things I enjoyed about the book was that I could actually picture what he was talking about. When he talks about Reardan and Wellpinit and Spokane, I know where he is. There was even a mention of the petrified wood forests near George, Washington. That was field-trip material when I was younger. When he describes going to high school in a small town, I know what that was like. It was just a lot of fun to read something that felt familiar. It's not often that I read a book that's set in places like that.
It's not a perfect book. (Can such a thing really exist?) But it's good and worth the time. In my opinion, anyway. When Shannon showed up at the library the other day to take over, I told her how much I was enjoying the book. She told me that it was interesting how some people would come in and say they loved it and the next person would say they hated it. There's supposed to be a book discussion at the beginning of May and I'm looking forward to hearing what other people have to say. I can see that people could have problems with the language or content, but both felt appropriate for the age (fourteen) and mentality of the main character.
I also ran into some criticism of Alexie's short sentences over at Amazon. (And, seriously, I need to stop reading those reviews. The bad ones aggravate me.) Now, maybe it's just because I like using short sentences, but I think the criticism that it shows lack of trust in the reader's intelligence is a load of crap. It's a stylistic choice, and one I felt fit with the main character. In other words, I thought they packed a punch.
Anyway. Reading this book made me think a lot about the Ethnic American Literature class I took. Which in turn made me miss classes and discussions (and professors). So I really am looking forward to the opportunity to talk about this book with other people. I may even actually be leading the discussion (if Shannon's not kidding), which is a little daunting and kind of exciting.
The library that I work for is sponsoring a One Book Program and everyone in the community is reading Sherman Alexie's The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. I wasn't planning on reading it, but Shannon recommended it and two of the quotes on the back are from people whose work I enjoy, so I figured I'd give it a shot.
Basically, I loved it. It made me laugh and cry (oh, did I cry) and there were many points where I had to stop and re-read because I hit a sentence that just made me go, "oh."
I'd never read anything by Alexie before. Now I'm thinking I might have to do some further reading. One of the things I enjoyed about the book was that I could actually picture what he was talking about. When he talks about Reardan and Wellpinit and Spokane, I know where he is. There was even a mention of the petrified wood forests near George, Washington. That was field-trip material when I was younger. When he describes going to high school in a small town, I know what that was like. It was just a lot of fun to read something that felt familiar. It's not often that I read a book that's set in places like that.
It's not a perfect book. (Can such a thing really exist?) But it's good and worth the time. In my opinion, anyway. When Shannon showed up at the library the other day to take over, I told her how much I was enjoying the book. She told me that it was interesting how some people would come in and say they loved it and the next person would say they hated it. There's supposed to be a book discussion at the beginning of May and I'm looking forward to hearing what other people have to say. I can see that people could have problems with the language or content, but both felt appropriate for the age (fourteen) and mentality of the main character.
I also ran into some criticism of Alexie's short sentences over at Amazon. (And, seriously, I need to stop reading those reviews. The bad ones aggravate me.) Now, maybe it's just because I like using short sentences, but I think the criticism that it shows lack of trust in the reader's intelligence is a load of crap. It's a stylistic choice, and one I felt fit with the main character. In other words, I thought they packed a punch.
Anyway. Reading this book made me think a lot about the Ethnic American Literature class I took. Which in turn made me miss classes and discussions (and professors). So I really am looking forward to the opportunity to talk about this book with other people. I may even actually be leading the discussion (if Shannon's not kidding), which is a little daunting and kind of exciting.
