Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian is a painfully revealing look into the life of a teenager named Junior who lives on a reservation. He wants to be more than what he sees. Junior opens up describing his health condition
hydrocephalus. He talks about how he gets bullied and beat up by other kids on
the reservation. He keeps to himself and draws cartoons all the time. “I draw
because words are too unpredictable. I draw because words are too limited… so I
draw because I want to talk to the world. And I want the world to pay attention
to me.” He describes being extremely poor and how that affected his dog Oscar
who was dying for hours, but his family couldn’t afford to take him to the
veterinarian so Junior’s father euthanized the dog. Junior talks about how his
family has always lived on the reservation and in the same place, noting that
“no one paid attention to his parents’ dreams” which seemed to be a
generational cycle. Junior asserts: “But we reservation Indians don’t get to realize our
dreams. We don’t get those chances. Or choices. We’re just poor. That’s all we
are. It sucks to be poor, and it sucks to feel that somehow you deserve to be
poor, and it sucks to feel that you somehow
deserve to be poor. You start believing that you’re stupid and ugly because
you’re Indian. And because you’re Indian you start believing you’re destined to
be poor. It’s an ugly circle and there’s nothing you can do about it. Poverty doesn’t
give you strength or teach you lessons about strength or teach you lessons about
perseverance. No, poverty only teaches you how to be poor.”
When Junior contemplates running away his best friend Rowdy
tells him no one would notice. Rowdy is described as the toughest kid on the
“rez”. They hang out at his house and read comics together. On Junior’s first day of school at Wellpinit High School he
gets so angry about receiving a geometry book that belonged to his mother when
she was in high school that he throws it at his teacher Mr. P’s face. He gets
suspended for the incident. Mr. P visits his house and tells Junior that he has
to leave the rez forever! He tells
Junior that his older sister Mary was the smartest student he ever had and that
she wanted to be a romance writer. Now she spends all of her days in the
basement. “All these kids have given up. All your friends. All the bullies. And
their mothers and fathers have given up too. And their grandparents gave up and
their grandparents before them. And me and every other teacher here. We’re all
defeated.” Mr. P starts crying and says that the farther Junior gets away from
the rez the more hope he’ll have. Junior decides to go to Reardan High School
after his parents tell him white people have the most hope. “I had to multiply
hope by hope.” Rowdy is angry that he is transferring and refuses to go with
him. He screamed and punched Junior in the face.
Junior’s dad drove him to Reardan on his first day of school in his rundown truck. He
feels worthless when he stands outside the school. While he attends his classes
he develops feelings for a blond girl named Penelope and encounters a popular
jock named Roger who makes an extremely racist joke about Indians. Junior is so
angry he punches Roger in the face and makes him bleed. Roger and his friends
leave. When Junior tells his grandmother what happened she tells him it means
they respect you. Junior dresses like a homeless dude for Halloween and claims
he’s going to raise money for the poor to impress Penelope. He does end up
raising money, but gets jumped and robbed. Penelope feels sorry for him and
touches apart of his back where he was attacked.
Over the next few months Junior feels invisible and talks
about his struggles getting to and from school. He is shocked when his sister
gets married and moves to Montana with her husband. Eventually Junior is tired
of being lonely and approaches a nerdy boy named Gordy and asks him to be his
friend. They become friends and mostly study together. Junior comforts Penelope
after discovering she is bulimic. They start sort-of-dating and go to the
Winter Formal together. Junior wears one of his dad’s old suits. They go to a
diner and Junior feels sick about the fact that he doesn’t have any money.
Roger figures out that Junior is poor and pays for him. Junior’s high school
life changes dramatically when he makes the varsity basketball team against the
odds. When he plays against his former high school Rowdy knocks him unconscious
during the game and he goes to the hospital. Tragedy strikes his family when
his grandmother gets killed by a drunk driver. His dad’s best friend Eugene gets
shot and killed by his friend. Junior gets depressed and misses class a lot.
Gordy stands up for him in school after his teacher says he shouldn’t miss
class so much. The rest of the class drops their textbooks and leaves too.
The rematch against Wellpinit draws media attention and
Junior gets interviewed by a reporter. Junior starts the game and blocks Rowdy’s
opening game dunk and makes a three pointer. Reardan wins by a large margin and
he celebrates with his team, but he feels guilty and ashamed when he thinks
about Indians. He cries thinking about what the loss must have done to their
spirits. Reardan goes undefeated for the rest of the regular season. Tragedy
strikes again with the news of his sister’s death by fire. Junior becomes
hysterical when his dad takes him home from school. Rowdy is crying and says “Your
sister is dead because you left us. You killed her.” Junior’s classmates hug
him and support him. Penelope cries and hugs him. At the cemetery with his
parents Junior remembers his grandmother, Eugene, and his sister. “I mean, she
was amazing. It was courageous of her to leave the basement and move to
Montana. She went searching for her dreams, and she didn’t find them but she
made the attempt. And I was making the attempt, too. And maybe it would kill
me, too, but I knew that staying on the rez would have killed me, too.”
After many months of not speaking, Rowdy comes over to
Junior’s place over summer break and says he’s bored. They play a basketball game
and Junior realizes that Rowdy sees to accept Junior’s decision to go to
Reardan when he calls him nomadic. Rowdy says he’s okay staying where he is.
They don’t keep score of the game and play for hours.
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