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A review by vdarcangelo
Flight by Sherman Alexie
3.0
This review originally appeared in the BOULDER CAMERA
http://www.dailycamera.com/ci_13079928
In award-winning books such as "The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven," "Indian Killer" and "Reservation Blues," author Sherman Alexie has tackled issues of displacement, racism, sexual identity and the challenges of being a Native American in modern America. But never has he captured the zeitgeist as well as he has with his new novel, "Flight," which he'll sign tonight at the Boulder Book Store.
Alexie, 40, is a Spokane/Coeur d'Alene Indian who grew up on a reservation in Wellpinit, Wash. He currently lives in Seattle and has authored nearly 20 books, primarily writing poetry and short fiction, though he has written three novels and two screenplays.
"Flight" is Alexie's first novel in more than 10 years, and it deals with the themes of anger, disenfranchisement and senseless violence masquerading as revenge, like that witnessed on the Virginia Tech campus on April 16. In light of recent events, Alexie's newest work of fiction is a parable that almost reads like prophecy.
The book's protagonist is an angry 15-year-old foster-home runaway who goes by Zits because of the prodigious acne that scars his face. After befriending and being tutored by a militant, well-read gutterpunk named Justice, Zits arms himself in preparation for a shooting spree at a bank.
But just as the slaughter begins, Zits somehow exits his own body and occupies that of another, and with that his body-hopping, time-traveling journey has begun. Throughout the book he enters the bodies of numerous people at various points in history: He experiences the war between Indians and whites from both sides of the battle; he inherits the body of an FBI agent on an Indian reservation; and in the book's most poignant twist, he awakes as a drunk, homeless man with a final lesson to teach.
The lesson is that life is sacred, and Alexie says he wrote "Flight" as his response to the messages his two children have been getting from the news and from their classmates regarding the war in Iraq.
"How do you explain violence to your children?" Alexie says.
While the events at Virginia Tech and similar school slayings are "horrible," they're not surprising, he says, especially in light of the daily images and messages coming out of Iraq.
"It's sort of the culmination of war's influence on daily life," Alexie says. "This kid, this shooter (at Virginia Tech), heard our politicians justifying extreme violence for years. The amorality of politicians is a lot more influential than the amorality of rap music or the Second Amendment."
At the time he began writing "Flight," Alexie — one of America's most heralded young authors, whose breakthrough book "The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven" was the basis for the film "Smoke Signals" — was working on a young adult novel, "The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian," due for release in September. It was during this process that the character of Zits bubbled to the surface.
"It was a struggle to find a young adult voice," Alexie says. "This rowdier voice kept popping up."
Eventually, he needed to give wings to this "rowdier" voice, and in some ways he considers the result a rewrite of a classic American novel, Kurt Vonnegut's "Slaughterhouse-Five." Like Vonnegut's tome, "Flight" involves time travel and explores the enduring trauma of violence and the self-perpetuating nature of anger. ("Anger is never added to anger," Alexie writes. "It multiplies."). Ironically, the day after the book's Canadian release, on April 11, Vonnegut passed away in his Manhattan home.
But it was less the themes and more the style of Vonnegut's work that inspired Alexie, who is known for his direct, yet poetic use of language that relies more on action than setting.
"His simplicity of style always influenced me," he says. "Vonnegut was always in the moment that mattered. He didn't allow lyricism to distract him from his art. Lyricism can get in the way of a great novel."
The quick-paced, no-frills language of "Flight" keeps the reader in the moment, whether that be in a bank in Seattle moments before a disenfranchised youth is about to open fire or in an Indian war camp as a teenager is being forced to take revenge by disfiguring a juvenile enemy combatant.
But whatever the era, the sentiment of "Flight" is symptomatic of current events. The New Yorker once named Alexie one of its 20 Writers for the 21st Century, and it's likely that some of his literary output will last 100 years or more. But for now, with "Flight," Alexie is firmly entrenched in the moment.
http://www.dailycamera.com/ci_13079928
In award-winning books such as "The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven," "Indian Killer" and "Reservation Blues," author Sherman Alexie has tackled issues of displacement, racism, sexual identity and the challenges of being a Native American in modern America. But never has he captured the zeitgeist as well as he has with his new novel, "Flight," which he'll sign tonight at the Boulder Book Store.
Alexie, 40, is a Spokane/Coeur d'Alene Indian who grew up on a reservation in Wellpinit, Wash. He currently lives in Seattle and has authored nearly 20 books, primarily writing poetry and short fiction, though he has written three novels and two screenplays.
"Flight" is Alexie's first novel in more than 10 years, and it deals with the themes of anger, disenfranchisement and senseless violence masquerading as revenge, like that witnessed on the Virginia Tech campus on April 16. In light of recent events, Alexie's newest work of fiction is a parable that almost reads like prophecy.
The book's protagonist is an angry 15-year-old foster-home runaway who goes by Zits because of the prodigious acne that scars his face. After befriending and being tutored by a militant, well-read gutterpunk named Justice, Zits arms himself in preparation for a shooting spree at a bank.
But just as the slaughter begins, Zits somehow exits his own body and occupies that of another, and with that his body-hopping, time-traveling journey has begun. Throughout the book he enters the bodies of numerous people at various points in history: He experiences the war between Indians and whites from both sides of the battle; he inherits the body of an FBI agent on an Indian reservation; and in the book's most poignant twist, he awakes as a drunk, homeless man with a final lesson to teach.
The lesson is that life is sacred, and Alexie says he wrote "Flight" as his response to the messages his two children have been getting from the news and from their classmates regarding the war in Iraq.
"How do you explain violence to your children?" Alexie says.
While the events at Virginia Tech and similar school slayings are "horrible," they're not surprising, he says, especially in light of the daily images and messages coming out of Iraq.
"It's sort of the culmination of war's influence on daily life," Alexie says. "This kid, this shooter (at Virginia Tech), heard our politicians justifying extreme violence for years. The amorality of politicians is a lot more influential than the amorality of rap music or the Second Amendment."
At the time he began writing "Flight," Alexie — one of America's most heralded young authors, whose breakthrough book "The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven" was the basis for the film "Smoke Signals" — was working on a young adult novel, "The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian," due for release in September. It was during this process that the character of Zits bubbled to the surface.
"It was a struggle to find a young adult voice," Alexie says. "This rowdier voice kept popping up."
Eventually, he needed to give wings to this "rowdier" voice, and in some ways he considers the result a rewrite of a classic American novel, Kurt Vonnegut's "Slaughterhouse-Five." Like Vonnegut's tome, "Flight" involves time travel and explores the enduring trauma of violence and the self-perpetuating nature of anger. ("Anger is never added to anger," Alexie writes. "It multiplies."). Ironically, the day after the book's Canadian release, on April 11, Vonnegut passed away in his Manhattan home.
But it was less the themes and more the style of Vonnegut's work that inspired Alexie, who is known for his direct, yet poetic use of language that relies more on action than setting.
"His simplicity of style always influenced me," he says. "Vonnegut was always in the moment that mattered. He didn't allow lyricism to distract him from his art. Lyricism can get in the way of a great novel."
The quick-paced, no-frills language of "Flight" keeps the reader in the moment, whether that be in a bank in Seattle moments before a disenfranchised youth is about to open fire or in an Indian war camp as a teenager is being forced to take revenge by disfiguring a juvenile enemy combatant.
But whatever the era, the sentiment of "Flight" is symptomatic of current events. The New Yorker once named Alexie one of its 20 Writers for the 21st Century, and it's likely that some of his literary output will last 100 years or more. But for now, with "Flight," Alexie is firmly entrenched in the moment.