Merle
The book „The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian“ , which is based on the experience of the author Sherman Alexie, is about the 14 years old boy Arnold Spirit, also named Junior. Junior lives in the Spokane Indian Reservation in Wellpinit. The book is written as a diary and the story is visualised by drawings of the protagonist Junior. In his diary he talks about his difficult life as an Indian and how he changes his life. He writes about his poor life and how it is to be born with too much cerebral spinal fluid in his head. The cerebral fluid is the reason why he has to struggle with some physical damages. Because of this, Junior is a little bit introverted at the beginning, but he knows what he wants to achieve in his life. On the recommendation of his teacher he decides to change the school because it´s the only way to break through the vicious circle. From this moment on he goes to a school out of the reservation, named Reardan. The start at the school is very difficult for him because of the differences between him and the „white” students there, but after a while something changed and he starts to accept himself. But how can he handle the life between the two very different worlds and what consequences will his decision have? The cover gives indirect information about the story. The two different worlds were pictured on it. In my opinion the cover is well chosen. The writing style takes a little getting used to, because Junior shares every thought with the reader. Because of his thoughts and drawings the story seems very realistic and it´s really easy to understand the story. Every character has an important role in this. That´s why I have no favourite character, especially because it seems to me like every person in the book has to struggle with big problems. The story is a really realistic one, but there are some aspects that bother me, for example Junior´s thoughts about women. He is 14 years old and I don´t think that a boy in this age thinks like that. In the book it seems like his entire family dies. I think that his reactions on the deaths aren´t realistic ones. At some point in the book the story was very predictable. Of course I didn´t know that many people will die, but I knew how the story will end and also how it will come to this ending, because it was really obvious. The story makes me start to think about people who have fewer chances because of their social background to achieve something then we have. Some things that we take for granted are unapproachable for others. Unfortunately the story didn´t grip me because in my opinion it was really boring. I read many books, but this one is absolutely not my genre. I think I already mentioned some aspects that I disliked about the book. One other aspect that I disliked is the chapter division. In my opinion some chapters seems to be very short and some are inappropriate. In summary this book helps us to understand how difficult life could be and that we have to cherish our life. In my opinion the plot was a little bit boring. I would recommend this book to younger readers because I think the story line isn´t very interesting for older people. Rating: 2 of 5 stars
