Reviews

Flight by Sherman Alexie

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amslersf's review

2.0

Zits, the narrator, is a great vehicle for Alexie's humor and style. However on several levels the book either falls short of its ambition or uncomfortably strengthens stereotypes and cliched answers to teenage alienation and transformation.

Zits is certainly a likable self deprecating and insightful teenager. His struggles with self image, abuse, identity, family, criminalization, and the foster care system would be great opportunities for my students to reflect and examine their own lives. And to Alexie's credit he mines these areas to try to understand a bit of what is happening in America when a teenager decides to walk into a public space and shoot as many people as possible. Unfortunately the answers seem pat and easy. Geez, kids need loving homes and affirmation.

What is most disconcerting however is the portrayal of characters that easily fit into established archetypes. We have the Indian father who abandons his child, retreats into alcohol because of his own abusive father. The white liberal public servants will eventually create the safety for Zits to claim his own identity. I'm confused why Alexie would structure it this way. Just as his answers to teenage alienation seem pre-packaged in our culture, so do his racial portrayals. And these portrayals reinforce the racism that Zits struggles against... and incredulously it is in this context that Zits finds the secure footing he needs to heal himself.

I'm not ready to completely discount the book, or its potential to be carefully used with teenagers. However, in Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven, a character says, "I haven't laughed like that in 500 years." Nothing in Flight helps us laugh since Columbus' arrival.

coolgirlsgopop's review

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5.0

Do you ever wonder how it felt to be an Indian in the old days, getting your land taken away from the European settlers? Do you ever wonder how the Europeans felt? Do you ever wonder how it felt to have a friend betray you that it destroys you completely? Do you ever wonder how it feels to not know your place in this Earth? This book talks about that and many more topics that will open your mind.

jbrombach's review

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challenging dark hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

flatmtns's review

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3.0

3.5 stars. A beautiful, poetic novel, easily breezed through, but also fairly easy to forget. It feels like YA fiction (I'm not sure if it was intended as such), and wraps up a little too neatly. The protagonist is a 15 year old boy, and as such is entirely preoccupied with his own masculinity. Other reviewers criticisms are certainly valid, particularly those regarding his utter disinterest in women as developed characters and his bizarre glorification of whiteness. I think, though, that the underlying themes - a teenager's growth in empathy and emotional vulnerability, and the way that pain spreads and is passed on - are beautiful and important, and well-represented here.

iffer's review

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3.0

For the most part, I liked this book, although, I do agree with others who have reviewed it that it is somewhat didactic, and that the happily-ever-after ending is rather sudden and ill-fitting with the rest of the work. Because Alexie spends the bulk of the work showing (and unfortunately sometimes telling) the reader that pain, suffering, fear, and revenge continue in a "circle inside of a circle inside of a circle," it is somewhat unbelievable and uncharacteristic of the work that the protagonist, Zits, not only comes to the epiphany that he shouldn't shoot the people in the bank, but also shrugs off his lifetime of emotional baggage to live in harmony with the hot white nurse sister-in-law to Zits' favorite arresting officer (p. 77). I do acknowledge that Alexie sprinkles the protagonist's time travels with a few "good" people, or people that have done "bad" things because they are hurting, but are, or try to be, "good" people in general, so I am not saying that it's completely out of the question for Zits to be redeemed, as he is in the end. Rather, it bothers me that the happy ending seems a foregone conclusion rather than something that will be an ongoing battle.

The narrative writing style of Flight was engaging and easy to read and this was both an asset and a downfall to the novel. At times, the stark descriptions and writing style aided in conveying Alexie's ideas, especially the brutality and fear, but at other times, the simple language fell short of expressing the complexity of the darkness of humanity and the uncertainty of the outcomes of human life and behavior, as happened with the ending, because Alexie did not fully express the impact of the main characters' journey through time and experience on his decision to change.

I liked the premise of this novel a lot, and I think that it motivated readers to attempt to think about life from the perspective of others. Although I don't know how well-researched the various persons and events in Zits' romp through time were (although I think that they could've researched in more detail), I do believe that Alexie succeeded in showing us the ways in which our pain, fear, and desire for revenge separate us and feed misunderstanding, separation, and violence, despite the fact that they are universal emotions. I also think that Alexie does a good job of not reducing the complex issues of history to "common human experience," because he shows readers that even though humans share common emotions and motivations, and may act them out in similar ways (oftentimes violence), that people are not the same; outcomes are not equal; and some stand to benefit more, or lose less than other groups.