Sherman Alexie

I have begun reading the author Sherman Alexie. One of his short stories, Indian Country, performed by John Lithgow on a Selected Shorts broadcast which I listen to on my MP3 player, that was my first exposure to Alexie, but just yesterday I finished reading his novel written for young adults, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. (You'll have to excuse my lack of appropriate punctuation at times, I am just getting used to a new lap top and sometimes it seems too much effort to highlight or bold or italicize. So I finished reading the "young adult" novel and am going to ask my 15 year old son if he'd like to read it. I don't know just what I'd say about the book yet, it was a "good read." I was intrigued by the stamina of the main character. I loved the character of the grandmother and Eugene. I was struck by the personal account of the narrative. Sherm, (may I call the author Sherm even though I've never met him?) wrote an autobiographical work of fiction. How lovely. Perhaps that will be my choice of novel. You see, I have a story I've wanted to tell, maybe embellish, of a true event that happened to me over 15 years ago. Also, sometimes, when I think about plot lines of works I might consider doing, sometimes I feel contriving. I suppose all authors to be successful must contrive somewhat, and I will too, but another part of me wants only to be genuine.

So back to my topic of the author Sherman Alexie. I'm interested in this guy's work. After finishing the YA title, I immediately dove into another book. This one entitled, Ten Little Indians. So these stories are more adult oriented. And sometimes, I think, I am just suited better toward children's literature or young adult, because I get tired of the complications adults make for themselves--even in their literature. In children's & youth's literature, surely there are problems, too, but the protagonists are more hopeful to me in their struggles. In fact, reading one of the stories, I found myself midway, wondering, do I really want to read about these character's distressing situations? The story is called Can I get a witness and it's about this woman living a very mediocre life. She's out eating alone in a restaurant in Seattle when a terrorist comes in with a bomb strapped to his body and blows himself up killing many people, but not this woman, even though the woman is close enough to see the terrorist's facial expression, she lives, crawling out from under dead bodies and body parts. She leaves the restaurant and meets a stranger who brings her to his apartment where she proceeds to act crazy, denying that she was in the restaurant and, well, it just seems to be getting worse when my dear husband hands the new Dell laptop over to me. Something kicked in me and I finally started my blog at the end of 2009 on a blue moon night I posted two entries. I'm afraid I haven't said anything very substantial, I have this thing for stream of consciousness writing...but bear with me, I might. My dearest 11 year old son just brought me a large glass of pepsi to celebrate the New Year in Minnesota--my home state! Happy New Year, I've techinically have 1 hour left of 2009--gonna go celebrate with my kinder and let the sleeping dogs lie (we have a beagle and a rat terrier). I give thanks for the past year....I hope you will, too.

~Liz