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4.02 AVERAGE
4.02 AVERAGE
emotional
funny
hopeful
sad
fast-paced
Reveals the sad state of affairs on Indian reservations with poignancy and a sense of humor. Love the protagonist! Quick read.
When I first started this book I was sure I would never finish it. The audio cd was read by the author. Good author, I later determined, but not a great narrator. If you can get beyond his unusual reading style & find his rhythm, the book begins to open up.
At times I was ready to smack Junior myself, finding his "constant woe is me attitude" annoying & irksome. Many times, however, I found his insights truly brilliant in their simplisity, humorous in their teenage boy way.
At times I was ready to smack Junior myself, finding his "constant woe is me attitude" annoying & irksome. Many times, however, I found his insights truly brilliant in their simplisity, humorous in their teenage boy way.
You can tell by my list of favorite quotes from this book that I loved it. It hit pretty close to home for me. There is a lot about alcoholism, and family problems. This book is darkly funny, by that I mean it will have you laughing during the grandmother's funeral. It is fiction of course, but it also made me realize a lot of things about the Native American culture that I never really thought of before (even though my mother swears we are some fraction Native American.) I guess when you are removed from situations, it's easy to forget that other people might be struggling.
Fave quotes:
“If you let people into your life a little bit, they can be pretty damn amazing.”
“Life is a constant struggle between being an individual and being a member of the community.”
“I think all of us are always five years old in the presence and absence of our parents.”
“If you're good at it, and you love it, and it helps you navigate the river of the world, then it can't be wrong.”
“Poverty doesn’t give you strength or teach you lessons about perseverance. No, poverty only teaches you how to be poor.”
“There are all kinds of addicts, I guess. We all have pain. And we all look for ways to make the pain go away."
“Drinking would shut down my seeing and my hearing and my feeling," she used to say. "Why would I want to be in the world if I couldn't touch the world with all of my senses intact?”
“I've learned that the worst thing a parent can do is ignore their children”
“We Indians really should be better liars, considering how often we've been lied to.”
“In the middle of a crazy and drunk life, you have to hang onto the good and sober moments tightly.”
"“Yep, my daddy was an undependable drunk. But he'd never missed any of my organized games, concerts, plays, or picnics. He may not have loved me perfectly, but he loved me as well as he could."
Fave quotes:
“If you let people into your life a little bit, they can be pretty damn amazing.”
“Life is a constant struggle between being an individual and being a member of the community.”
“I think all of us are always five years old in the presence and absence of our parents.”
“If you're good at it, and you love it, and it helps you navigate the river of the world, then it can't be wrong.”
“Poverty doesn’t give you strength or teach you lessons about perseverance. No, poverty only teaches you how to be poor.”
“There are all kinds of addicts, I guess. We all have pain. And we all look for ways to make the pain go away."
“Drinking would shut down my seeing and my hearing and my feeling," she used to say. "Why would I want to be in the world if I couldn't touch the world with all of my senses intact?”
“I've learned that the worst thing a parent can do is ignore their children”
“We Indians really should be better liars, considering how often we've been lied to.”
“In the middle of a crazy and drunk life, you have to hang onto the good and sober moments tightly.”
"“Yep, my daddy was an undependable drunk. But he'd never missed any of my organized games, concerts, plays, or picnics. He may not have loved me perfectly, but he loved me as well as he could."
Rereading this was such a good choice. Sherman Alexie is just so awesome.
Junior is a Spokane Indian who lives on a reservation. He decides to transfers schools and go to school off the reservation. This spark a series of quite hilarious anecdotes and changes. Junior's basketball career, adjusting to not being surrounded by Native Americans all the time, and the way people respond to him just adds up to hilarity. Even the way Junior deals with death and talks about it is funny.
The cartoons that Alexie has in the book add another layer to Junior's voice. He has something else to express his thoughts and they add some funny little asides to the narrative.
Yes, there are inappropriate parts. There are in most books. But the book is no more inappropriate than your average 14 year old boy.
I love this book. I just want Alexie to write more for young adults.
Junior is a Spokane Indian who lives on a reservation. He decides to transfers schools and go to school off the reservation. This spark a series of quite hilarious anecdotes and changes. Junior's basketball career, adjusting to not being surrounded by Native Americans all the time, and the way people respond to him just adds up to hilarity. Even the way Junior deals with death and talks about it is funny.
The cartoons that Alexie has in the book add another layer to Junior's voice. He has something else to express his thoughts and they add some funny little asides to the narrative.
Yes, there are inappropriate parts. There are in most books. But the book is no more inappropriate than your average 14 year old boy.
I love this book. I just want Alexie to write more for young adults.
fast-paced
I will be thinking about Arnold Spirit Jr. for a long, long time.
I absolutely adored this book. It is so devastating yet so beautiful and funny. I don’t know how you make something so heavy and so funny at the same time—but this was it. The characters were so complex and at times so surprising. This book will stick with me forever and I think everyone should read it. Doubt I will ever stop recommending it. I didn’t know what to expect when picking this up—but I was not prepared for what I got and it was not what I expected at all.
Unpopular opinion time: I thought this one was ok, but it wasn't great.
Absolutely True... is a journey through the defensive humor of one Arnold "Junior" Spirit as he navigates poverty, racism, family and societal alcoholism, and loss in his first year at a majority-white high school. These are serious topics, and I'm glad to see a book that addresses them so bluntly as this. However, if the goal was to bring awareness to these issues, then the tight first-person focus on Junior detracts from that end, and if the goal was simply to tell a good story, then I found it lacking.
I'm biased on both of these conclusions. For the first, I read Lakota Woman earlier this year, so I've already seen a more thorough treatment of social issues on and off reservations. For the second, YA typically doesn't hold a lot of appeal for me. There are some exceptions, but juvenile humor isn't one of them. I wasn't interested in the inner thoughts of teenage boys when I was in highschool, and I'm not interested now.
That's not to say it's without merit. This book serves a great jumping off point for discussion, not only of topics previously mentioned, but also of Junior's choice in coping mechanisms (humor and cartoons). In summary, perfectly suitable to its target audience with discussion.
Absolutely True... is a journey through the defensive humor of one Arnold "Junior" Spirit as he navigates poverty, racism, family and societal alcoholism, and loss in his first year at a majority-white high school. These are serious topics, and I'm glad to see a book that addresses them so bluntly as this. However, if the goal was to bring awareness to these issues, then the tight first-person focus on Junior detracts from that end, and if the goal was simply to tell a good story, then I found it lacking.
I'm biased on both of these conclusions. For the first, I read Lakota Woman earlier this year, so I've already seen a more thorough treatment of social issues on and off reservations. For the second, YA typically doesn't hold a lot of appeal for me. There are some exceptions, but juvenile humor isn't one of them. I wasn't interested in the inner thoughts of teenage boys when I was in highschool, and I'm not interested now.
That's not to say it's without merit. This book serves a great jumping off point for discussion, not only of topics previously mentioned, but also of Junior's choice in coping mechanisms (humor and cartoons). In summary, perfectly suitable to its target audience with discussion.
This story details the difficult life of a young adult, living in a despondent community of learned helplessness. Although the plot describes a situation that few kids will ever experience, Sherman Alexie strikes a chord with the reader – by clearly illuminating the trials and tribulations of Arnold Spirit. The story is told in first person, through Arnold’s eyes, and this style allows the reader to identify with Arnold’s struggles, most of which are universal to many pre-teen boys. Bullies, sports, comic books and best friends – Alexie covers all these subjects and more with an endearing knack for simple storytelling.
After speaking with my husband, who grew up in Washington State, on another small “white” school with a reservation nearby, he agreed on the authenticity and remarkable accuracy of Alexie’s novel. Many Native American children growing up on reservations do have to deal with a daily life of depression, alcoholism and limited chance of escaping the Rez in adulthood. Arnold’s humor throughout the book keeps a dark coming-of-age story fairly lighthearted, and his enduring tenacity and inner drive hold up a perfect character example of how to face adversity.
After speaking with my husband, who grew up in Washington State, on another small “white” school with a reservation nearby, he agreed on the authenticity and remarkable accuracy of Alexie’s novel. Many Native American children growing up on reservations do have to deal with a daily life of depression, alcoholism and limited chance of escaping the Rez in adulthood. Arnold’s humor throughout the book keeps a dark coming-of-age story fairly lighthearted, and his enduring tenacity and inner drive hold up a perfect character example of how to face adversity.