Cosmopoetica

[CC licensed image by moontan]

“What the slams are all about is an attempt to create an oral tradition. The real issue is that I don’t think there’s a lot of critical distinction in the slams. They are more interested in the quantity of expression versus the quality of expression. When I was at a slam in Boston I got in trouble for making a critical distinction. But, damn, it’s poems. I’m happy anytime someone gets up and gets poetic.”

(my feelings exactly)

Posted in: Commonplace Book No Comments »

You know all those adjectives people like to use in book blurbs, things like: tender, moving, poignant, and laugh-out-loud-funny? They actually apply to Sherman Alexie’s hilarious and powerful novel The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. Here’s my blurb:

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian is not just a great "young adult" novel, but a great novel, in which Sherman Alexie combines the wit & timing of the best kind of stand-up comedian, the sensibility of language of a poet, and the captivating skills of a world-class storyteller.

I’ve long been a fan of Alexie’s fiction and poetry. The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven will be found in any of my short lists of short fiction, and I eagerly await releases of Alexie’s all-too-infrequent collections of poetry. In the form of a diary kept by Arnold Spirit Jr.– aka just "Junior"– a young Spokane Indian who chooses to attend a nearby white high school (off "the rez"), The Absolutely True Diary captures everything I like about Alexie’s writing. I laughed out loud, with and at Junior. I cried… for Junior and for myself and for my dead father. I marveled at how true many of Junior’s experiences were to my own, both in the city and in small-town Bush Alaska (which shares much with the reservation), and both common and fantastic.

Junior is a cartoonist and I’d be doing a great disservice if I didn’t mention the pefectly-pitched cartoons that pepper the book, created by Ellen Forney. These are an indispensable part of Alexie’s creation, illuminating and expanding upon elements of the story, such as Junior trying to hide his poverty or remembering his estranged best friend.

Find this book. Read it. You’ll finish it in a day, but Junior and his spirit will resonate for a long time after.

Posted in: reading log 1 Comment »