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

The title of this book intrigued me. How can someone be a part-time Indian? And then I wondered about the “absolutely true” diary part — what complete truths would I hear and how would I really know they were true?

Even though this is a fiction, the story is based on the teen years of the author, Sherman Alexie. He grew up on the Spokane Indian Reservation in Washington. The main character in the story is Arnold “Junior” Spirit. Junior was born with hydrocephalus, or water on the brain, and survived a life-threatening brain surgery as a young child. His enlarged head, as well as over-sized feet, odd eyes, stutter, and other issues made him the brunt of jokes on the “rez.” One day, he finds his mother’s name in one of his schoolbooks and, fed up with the lack of new supplies and his poor existence in general, he flings the book; it hits his teacher and gets him suspended.

Ironically, Junior’s teacher ends up having a heart-to-heart talk with him that convinces him that to have a full life he needs to leave the rez and go to the wealthier, white school in Reardon. So he ends up splitting his time between living on the rez where he’s shunned further and going to the white school where he has trouble fitting in at first — that’s where the part-time Indian phrase comes from in the title. It’s one of those “I don’t feel at home anywhere” stories…done well. Junior ends up finding his niche on the Reardon basketball team, but that proves to hold more conflict than he expects.

The “absolutely true” part of the title comes through in Alexie’s genuine characters. Junior speaks with an authentic teen voice that includes a wide range of feelings: anger, joy, frustration, hope, confusion, disappointment, love, and more. Junior’s main outlet is drawing — he makes cartoons of the people and situations in his life; those drawings seem to help him deal with his own feelings, as well as the anger of his best Indian friend, Rowdy, and the racism he finds in the white school. Another ‘real’ part of this story is the frankness with which it is told: teens swear sometimes, teens have oddly brutal ways of showing respect, and teens think about their own sexuality more often than most adults probably realize.

Overall, I enjoyed reading this book and highly recommend it to teens and adults alike, especially those teens and adults that can handle honest sharing of thoughts on some delicate topics. This book reminded me both of how tough and how joyous it is to be a teen. There were many ‘laugh-out loud’ moments and more than a few tragic events along the way. I listened to this book as a Playaway digital audiobook and felt honored to hear the author reading it; on the other hand, though, I had to go find a hard copy of the book in order to truly appreciate the fantastic cartoons and other drawings by Junior. Alexie’s writing was fresh and engaging. I appreciated both the reminder that Indian life is hard on reservations and that we are in control of our choices and are largely responsible for our destinies — both important messages from a must-read novel.