Editor:
Regarding “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian:” Even though I haven’t read this particular book by Sherman Alexie and I don’t have children, I have read a few of his and can imagine. I found most his stuff uninspiring and base.
I stopped reading new fiction in general because, as have movies and TV, a lot of fiction has taken a dive into the gutter. There’s no value there.
If vulgar language and lewd behavior is what your eighth-grade students need to get them “plugged back into the world of literature and education,” something is wrong. The teachers are making the wrong book choices or something.
How about, fiction-wise, “Boy’s Life” by Robert McCammon, or “Assassin’s Apprentice (The Farseer Trilogy, Book 1)” by Robin Hobb?
Or, better yet, why not challenge them with a good nonfiction adult book like anything by Tony Horwitz? Tony does history like no one else. Or “Rocket Boys” by Homer Hickam, or “Touching the Void” by Joe Simpson?
Or how about “The Sex Lives of Cannibals: Adrift in the Equatorial Pacific,” by J. Maarten Troost, or
“Skeletons on the Zahara: A True Story of Survival” by Dean King or “Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage,” by Alfred Lansing?
Mary Roach does some interesting stuff and there’s Tim Guest’s “My Life in Orange: Growing Up with the Guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh (at SHL).”
Also, there’s “Talent is Overrated: What Really Separates World-Class Performers from Everybody Else,” by Geoffrey Colvin.
Two books I have not read but might be interesting about life on an Indian reservation are “Boarding School Blues: Revisiting American Indian Educational Experiences,” by Clifford E. Trafzer et al, and “Keeping Heart on Pine Ridge: Family Ties, Warrior Culture, Commodity Foods, Rez Dogs and the Sacred,” by Vic Glover.
Foul language is not the language of business or normal life. It is the language of anger and frustration. It’s not something you want to cultivate or become resigned to.
Diane Daiute
Sweet Home