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[CCBC-Net] Absolutely True Diary
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From: MShuttleworth at slv.vic.gov.au <MShuttleworth>
Date: Mon, 21 Jan 2008 09:59:48 +1100
Sherman Alexie's novel won't be out in Australia until August of this year. I've been working with a boys' reading program, focussed on disadvantaged boys in outer suburban and country locations. I can't wait to get The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian into their hands! It's a book that works on so many levels. Not least is the way Alexie handles Arnold's voice. The very grim moments never move into didacticism (which it very easliy could). Does it write off the Indian society? Well, it is at times a very harsh portrayal. However, I think it is interesting how Alexie also introduces another uncomfortable topic, poverty, into the picture. I admire the way he breaks down what poverty means to Arnold, what disadvantages it brings to him and how he overcomes it on a day-to-day level. I think that far from dismissing the Indian society, the scene late in the book makes that bitter-sweet quality, which others have mentioned, sharply felt.
The use of illustration is, in my view, a model for how to incorporate comic art into text. It helps of course that the narrator is into drawing, but it is so deft and witty that other publishers could learn a lot from it.
As a teenager, I stumbled upon a copy of Dee Brown's seminal Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee. (My neighbours were American.) It was a book that I read with a fascination that I couldn't quite explain at the time. I now think that the book started a change of thinking for me about the experience of indigenous people in Australia. There are certainly plenty of parallels between the two people, and of course, plenty of differences. I thnk Alexie's book can offer the same thing for Australian teenagers today.
Mike Shuttleworth Program Co-ordinator Centre for Youth Literature 328 Swanston Street Melbourne VIC 3000 PH: 03 8664 7262 FAX: 03 9639 4143 http://www.slv.vic.gov.au/youthlit/
This message and any attachment is intended only for the use of the Addressee and may contain information that is PRIVILEGED and CONFIDENTIAL If you are not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any dissemination of this communication is strictly prohibited. If you have received this communication in error, please delete all copies of the message and its attachments and notify the sender immediately. Thank you.
Received on Sun 20 Jan 2008 04:59:48 PM CST
Date: Mon, 21 Jan 2008 09:59:48 +1100
Sherman Alexie's novel won't be out in Australia until August of this year. I've been working with a boys' reading program, focussed on disadvantaged boys in outer suburban and country locations. I can't wait to get The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian into their hands! It's a book that works on so many levels. Not least is the way Alexie handles Arnold's voice. The very grim moments never move into didacticism (which it very easliy could). Does it write off the Indian society? Well, it is at times a very harsh portrayal. However, I think it is interesting how Alexie also introduces another uncomfortable topic, poverty, into the picture. I admire the way he breaks down what poverty means to Arnold, what disadvantages it brings to him and how he overcomes it on a day-to-day level. I think that far from dismissing the Indian society, the scene late in the book makes that bitter-sweet quality, which others have mentioned, sharply felt.
The use of illustration is, in my view, a model for how to incorporate comic art into text. It helps of course that the narrator is into drawing, but it is so deft and witty that other publishers could learn a lot from it.
As a teenager, I stumbled upon a copy of Dee Brown's seminal Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee. (My neighbours were American.) It was a book that I read with a fascination that I couldn't quite explain at the time. I now think that the book started a change of thinking for me about the experience of indigenous people in Australia. There are certainly plenty of parallels between the two people, and of course, plenty of differences. I thnk Alexie's book can offer the same thing for Australian teenagers today.
Mike Shuttleworth Program Co-ordinator Centre for Youth Literature 328 Swanston Street Melbourne VIC 3000 PH: 03 8664 7262 FAX: 03 9639 4143 http://www.slv.vic.gov.au/youthlit/
This message and any attachment is intended only for the use of the Addressee and may contain information that is PRIVILEGED and CONFIDENTIAL If you are not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any dissemination of this communication is strictly prohibited. If you have received this communication in error, please delete all copies of the message and its attachments and notify the sender immediately. Thank you.
Received on Sun 20 Jan 2008 04:59:48 PM CST
