Post 7 First person vs. Third person

In an interview for the National Book Foundation with Rita Williams-Garcia, Alexie reveals he worried that using first person narrative would turn his novel into a “thinly disguised memoir”; thus, he wrote an early draft in third person.  In this format, he recognized that he’d created “emotional distance” between Junior’s experiences – many of his own experiences – and his readers.  He adds “I was afraid of the first person because I was afraid of my own history.”  How would your responses to the novel change if it were written in third person?  Do you think Alexie courageous for using first person narrative?  Explain by citing examples that you’re impressed or amazed he’d share!  Support your insights with references and page citations!

Post 8 Chuckles J

Much of the content in this novel can be regarded as serious and thought-provoking.  As you’re reading, are there episodes that bring a smile to your face, or even make you laugh out loud?  Cite two examples  (and page references!) and explain why / how they tickle your funny bone.  Finally, what do these incidents add to our understanding of Junior, his culture, and the novel as a whole?

Post 9  How about reading?  How about Alexie?

Anna Quindlen is an accomplished writer – both fiction and non-fiction.  She’s authored a short (less than 100 pages!) gem of a book titled How Reading Changed My Life.  We’re big fans of her insight and artistry.  Following are a few of her observations from this title:

1.   “Books are the plane, and the train, and the road. They are the destination, and the journey. They are home."

2.      “In books I have traveled, not only to other worlds, but into my own.”

3.      “Those of us who read because we love it more than anything, who feel about bookstores the way some people feel about jewelers...”

4.      “How is it that, a full two centuries after Jane Austen finished her manuscript, we come to the world of Pride and Prejudice and find ourselves transcending customs, strictures, time, mores, to arrive at a place that educates, amuses, and enthralls us? It is a miracle. We read in bed because reading is halfway between life and dreaming, our own consciousness in someone else's mind.”

5.      “I remember the first year after my second child was born, what I can remember of it at all, as a year of disarray, of overturned glasses of milk, of toys on the floor, of hours from sunrise to sunset that were horribly busy but filled with what, at the end of the day, seemed like absolutely nothing at all. What saved my sanity were books. What saved my sanity was disappearing, if only for fifteen minutes before I inevitably began to nod off in bed...and as it was for me when I was young and surrounded by siblings, as it is today when I am surrounded by children, reading continues to provide an escape from a crowded house into an imaginary room of one's own.”

6.      “While we pay lip service to the virtues of reading, the truth is that there is still in our culture something that suspects those who read too much, whatever reading too much means, of being lazy, aimless dreamers, people who need to grow up and come outside to where real life is, who think themselves superior in their separateness.”

Once you’ve completed The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, if you find yourself in any of Quindlen’s reactions to reading, identify which one seems to speak of you and detail your response to this work.  If not, share your reaction to reading and, especially, to your reading of Alexie’s work.  As always, support your response with details…and be honest…please!