Earlier this year I mentioned that I picked up a copy of Leslie Marmon Silko's Ceremony (1977) based on an interview in The New York Times of Sherman Alexie, the author of The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian (2007). Alexie said Ceremony was his favorite book of “Native America literature.” Curious about this book, I picked up a copy while book shopping in New York last holiday season.
Well, I did read part of Ceremony, but did not finish it. This is not a reflection of the book, because the writing was fine, and the theme and the portrayal of a young soldier Tayo, who returns to the reservation after World War II seemed authentic, as Alexie suggested.
Sometimes as a reader you know that even though a book is good, you just don't feel like completing it. I am from the school that says “Read what you like or engages you at the moment, if it doesn't work for you, then move on to something else. You can always come back to it.” People can criticize my lack of fortitude attitude, but if I am forced to read something I don't like, then I just quit reading. Not much point in that. (It also explains why I don't do many reviews of books on this blog.)
The irony is that a longtime friend read the book shopping New York posting and bought me a pre-owned copy of Alexie's novel, which I did finish. It's the story of a middle school-aged boy who leaves his reservation school to go to a white school. All the problems of adolescence combined with the life and despair of growing up as a self-loathing Native American and then being alienated from his own community and family, make this a downer like Ceremony. On the positive, Alexie's breezy narrative style and the illustrations by Ellen Forney– both what you might expect from a boy who is hitting puberty hard – keeps you reading. (You can see the influence of Ceremony on Absolutely True Diary.)
Alexie has been getting attention lately for appearing on The Colbert Report bringing to attention the plight of his publisher Hachette who is fighting Amazon's unfair business practices. I have no doubt that Amazon is a bully and appreciate the importance of independent bookstores, but I doubt throwing a sticker on your book saying you didn't buy the book at Amazon will do much to change that. Besides large publishers and independent bookstores are not above reproach for their practices and policies as well. Ask any published author and he or she will tell you that writing the book is not enough – it is up to you to hump and hustle to sell a few copies during it's short, short, shelf life.
It's only when an obscure mention in an article or an insignificant blog like this one says something about your past book that you can get another sale or two and be assured that the only likely way you can buy that out-of-print book is thru Amazon.
Note: Another interesting coincidence between Sherman Alexie and William T. Sherman (subject of a lot of posting lately) is that after the Civil War, Sherman was responsible for some of the policies that led to the further placement of indigenous tribes on reservations.
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