TATDOAPTI 2

After finishing The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian, I still don't think that the book is "of comparable literary merit" to the other books we've read this year. At the same time, I had fun reading it, understood the whole thing, and was emotionally invested in the characters. It was a good reminder that a good story is always fun to read. 

There were some parts about the book that I didn't like. The lack of intricacy that is in other books we've read was noticeable at different points, and the message seemed kind of inconsistent. If he was supposed to leave and follow his dreams, like Rowdy says in the end, why did his sister die from doing this exact thing. For all the other deaths the argument could be made that the reservation killed them, driving him away, but the sister's death didn't seem to fall in line with the message of the book. I guess that Alexie could be simply trying to show the effect reservation life has on Indians; like The Bluest Eye but a bit of a happier ending (not a hard thing to do), but it doesn't feel like that was his goal.