Last week's novels focused on heros and antiheros. I read The Absolutely True Diaries of a Part Time Indian by Sherman Alexie. I loved this book for so many reasons. Although I'm not entirely sure what being a hero does or does not entail? What I particularly loved about this novel, was how Junior is a hero in the typical sense (he gets to date the cool girl and be the star of the basketball team) but also in a more profound way. Throughout the novel, Junior tries to bridge the gap between his identities, as a Spokane native and as a member of his predominantly white middle class high school. The way that he negotiates these identities is what makes him a hero. I find this ability to compromise most admirable.
This book has such a strong emotional pull for me. I'm not really a cryer, but this book made me shed a tear more than once. Junior is such an unlikely hero because of his man challenging circumstances. The poverty he faces daily is endemic in his community and threatens to ruin his life as well. His parents depression and alcoholism prove to be problematic for him as he has few adults he can depend on. The deaths he faces is profound as well, and his grappling with his own feelings of guilt and responsibility are one more obstacle that the hero must come to terms with. Also, the terrible physical challenges he has had since birth add to his feelings of being an outcast for which he has been ridiculed relentlessly.
Issues of ethnicity and class are very prominent in this book, and I liked how our "hero" was neither white nor comfortably middle class.
