Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

Throughout the novel, I was supremely impressed with the writing style by Sherman Alexie. There were so many metaphors and similes that were so powerful sometimes that I had to stop and re-read the sentence because I was blown away by the writing. As far as character development goes, I think that we really see Junior's development more so than any other character, which makes sense given he is the main character. I would have liked to see some other characters developed a little bit better though. Even the characters closest to Junior were developed only to a certain extent. Rowdy, for instance, is a character we know not very much about, and I would argue that we learn the most about him at the end of the novel when him and Junior are climbing the tree in the flashback.

As far as what the text leaves out, I'm sort of at a loss. I feel like there were a lot of different topics covered: Poverty; racial relations; death; alcoholism. There are many more topics, and even more themes, so I feel like Alexie did a great job of weaving all of them throughout the novel. This book really gave me a lot of insight into an Indian reservation--something I am admittedly rather ignorant on.

I think that this text is a lot like John Green's books in that they seem to position adolescents in a very realistic manner. It doesn't show them as particularly strong, or weak--rather, it positions them as survivors. Junior had to experience a lot of death in this novel, and I know that a lot of that was based on Alexie's real life. I think he did an incredible job of providing us with a realistic look into the life of a young Native-American living on a "rez".  I think this book would definitely appeal to young adults because it is humorous and it doesn't skirt around one of the most important issues that young adults face--death. It is also crude enough to appeal to high-schoolers, in my opinion.

Overall, I would have to give this book an A+. Even though some of the characters were a bit under developed, the writing style and soul-rending insight into death make this novel on of my new favorite books. I did not read this book in high school like a lot of other people in the class seem to have, but it is definitely a novel I think that I will re-read at some point. This book also made me not want to touch alcohol ever again, which is probably something that would be good to teach to high-schoolers, if only to delay them from drinking until they are a legal age.

An Abundance of Katherines

Having read another John Green book, "The Fault in Our Stars", I tended to read "An Abundance of Katherines" and compare the two texts. I felt as though I liked the characters in TFiOS better, in so far as that I think they had to deal with more problems than Colin and others in "An Abundance of Katherines".

I actually found Colin to be slightly creepy. I mean, the guy dated 19 Katherines. I'm glad he finally breaks the chain, but dating someone just for their name is pretty dang creepy. Colin also seems to be pretty self absorbed, being far more concerned with living up to his prodigy potential than anything else. As far as developing characters, however, if that is what John Green was going for he nailed it.

There are other stereotypes that are woven into the text. For example, we are given the character of Hassan, who is Muslim. Admittedly, I do not have the most experience with this community so it is difficult for me to determine whether or not there was a completely respectful portrayl of this character throughout the text. At one point, Hassan declares when meeting Lindsey that he is "not a terrorist". This is an example of a situation that may seem questionable in regard to its authenticity. Still, in a group discussion, someone else pointed out that as a person of color, they felt as though Hassan (especially for the time period) may have been justified in making this statement, especially since they were travelling through the South as well, which is likely to be less friendly to Muslim people. Overall though, Hassan is shown as a very human character, participating in the all-time-favorite pass-time of teenagers everywhere--doing a whole lot of nothing.

I think that adolescents in the novel are essentially treated like they are real people. The characters have both redeeming qualities, as well as qualities that are maybe not so desirable, but at the same time realistic. This can be seen, for example, in Colin's insecurities and how he asks K-19 if she loves him. K-19 appropriately responds later on that Colin doesn't need a girlfriend he needs a robot to constantly tell him that it loves him. This sort of insecurity is a quality that we may not appreciate Colin for, but we, as the audience, are able to relate to his character in this way--we can identify the insecurities in ourselves through first examining Colin's.

Overall, I would give this novel a B. It was somewhat engaging, but lacked the serious critical thought that I feel other novels present the reader (in particular, "The Fault in Our Stars", which deals with far heavier topics. I believe that this novel felt too "safe" and that John Green chose to not tackle any substantial issues throughout the novel, but did touch on some universal themes, such as not living up to your potential, and dealing with heartbreak.