Happy New Year 2014. We had our annual Pajama Party at Darby's. And, it was a great night. We missed Janie, Barb and Lis. The rest of us donned our pj's, bathrobes and fuzzy slippers for a relaxed evening with a Mimosa or Mexican Hot Chocolate. As you can see from the photos, we enjoyed an evening Brunch of egg & sausage casserole, cinnamon french toast, cheese, fruits, banana nut waffles and a scrummy pineapple dessert.
We kicked off 2014 with Sherman Alexie's The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. This book is considered Young Adult and a 75% autobiographical novel (the authors estimate). Arnold Spirit, Jr. is a 13 year old living on an Indian Reservation in the mid 1990's and told from his first person perspective. As Lou said, this book gave us insight into a life and lifestyle that we would not normally have had. Darby offered us a quote from her boyfriend, Nate, "Having been a 13 year old boy, this was the most authentic representation of that time in life." I may have paraphrased that a bit. Arnold, the the author, was born with too much fluid on his brain resulting in life threatening surgeries that should have left him brain damaged. However, the most damage that seemed to result was that his head was little larger than normal. Arnold is a kid with great "spirit" indeed, as his last name implies. He is resilient to the core and doesn't let family dysfunctions and tragedies do him in. He stands up to bullies, eventually making them his friends. The pivotal moment in the book is when he realizes that he is studying from the same text book that his mother had used 30 years ago. In a fit of anger, he throws the book at t his teacher. But, rather than be angry with Arnold, his teacher understands. His teacher apologizes for all the way in which he as harmed the Indians on the "res" and tells Arnold he must get of it in order to live any kind of life. The best that Arnold can do at the time is to ask his parents to take him off the reservation to the mostly white school in Rearden. To his surprise, his parents support his decision and Arnold's future is forever altered.
The book is funny and poignant. It is hard to watch one so young suffer so much loss. But, the book is also infused with humor and hope. Arnold is a very endearing character and wise beyond his years. He never gives up but he also knows when to step back and let nature take its course. As it does with his friend Rowdy. Rowdy, is angry and feels abandoned that Arnold is leaving the "res" for another school. He punished Arnold by withdrawing from the friendship. But, rather than let that hold him back, Arnold lets Rowdy take his time to process and move through his feelings. In the end, the friendship resolves.
Arnold also seems to be able to step back and look at his parents with wise observation. He sees their flaws and dysfunctions but he seems to intuitively know that he can't change them. And flawed as they are, he can love them for what they do offer him. And they do offer him love and support. They want him to have better, be better and they do make sacrifices to get him to the school in Rearden.
We didn't really touch on the fact that we still have Indian Reservations in this country. There are 310 still in the U.S. Arnold calls them death camps, where they interred Indians and waited for them to die out as part of an "ethnic cleansing." Lou, was correct that we don't technically have reservations anymore in Oklahoma. Before statehood, the entire Oklahoma Territory was a reservation divided up by mostly the 5 civilized tribes that were moved here in the 1830's; the end of the Trail of Tears. Before statehood, however, they were renamed as Oklahoma Statistical Areas or given Tribal Jurisdiction. Some were event sold to non-tribal members. The difference being now that they though they still live on the "reservation "lands they are allowed to govern themselves.
Arnold's "diary" is a brief one covering the first year he went to Rearden High School. But it touches on adolescent themes of; coming of age, sexuality, disenfranchisement, Indian History, alcoholism, poverty, friendship, family dysfunctions, death, love, resilience and hope.
It packs more of a "punch" (pun intended) than one would gather from a first glance and rated a 4.2
