This book was suggested to me by my thesis adviser and was part of my required reading in my Introduction to Creative Writing with an Aboriginal Focus class. A general summary of the novel is borrowed from ShermanAlexie.com:In his first book for young adults, bestselling author Sherman Alexie tells the story of Junior, a budding cartoonist who leaves his school on the Spokane Indian Reservation to attend an all-white high school. This heartbreaking, funny, and beautifully written tale, coupled with poignant drawings that reflect the character’s art, is based on the author’s own experiences and chronicles the contemporary adolescence of one Native American boy as he attempts to break away from the life he seems destined to live.It's an easy read, full of humour, cartoons and laughter.At least, my first reading was. I breezed through, nodding my head in some places, and laughing out loud in others. I got the prevalent Indian Humour within, but I don't think that non-FN people would feel excluded. It's just that good.
I read it again a few days before class. I was in a different head space, thinking of home and my new home, thinking of where I want to be in five years. Just thinking a lot deeper than I normally do. So I read it.
I cried.
I cried with a smile on my face, I cried while nodding in agreement, I cried at the end.
While I was glad I was reading in the privacy of home and not in some cafe somewhere, I was a bit startled. I'm not an emotional person, I don't cry often. I had to think and reread yet again to find out what it was that got to me.
One layer of the novel is the constant struggle that Junior goes through as he chooses to leave his reserve and pursue his education. That is a choice that most, if not all, youth on my reserve go through. And after he makes his choice, he has to deal with community not supporting him, his best friend abandoning him and walking in a world where he doesn't know the rules.
While the author touches on plenty of other realistic portrayals of First Nations struggles - poverty, alcohol abuse, lack of hope - it was the struggle between education and community that I could really relate to.
As a young woman who has left her First Nation to pursue a diploma, a BA, a MFA, I haven't lived on my home land in eight years. I am one of the most formally-educated people on my reserve. When I go home, I am aware of my otherness. I am proud of my education, of course, but I am aware that I have lost something of home in order to gain something for myself.
The book brought out that aspect of my life for me, and made the novel all that more real to me. I connected to it, I appreciated it, and I felt that I was understood. That I wasn't alone.
It was a great read. I highly recommend it. It's one of those novels that will challenge you, and appeal to readers of all ages.
Read it, love it, and tell me about it.
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