This is a wonderful piece, Matthew, and I will re-read it as well as ponder the questions you have posed. I heard Sherman Alexie speak at the National Association of Independent School People of Color Conference sometime around 2003, I think it was. He is a brilliant speaker, inserting his humor along the way. It was not that long after 9/11 and he spoke to what he had experienced as a person of color who was continually and mistakenly suspected of being a threat to this country - my paraphrase. It was powerful and I can still see him standing on the stage, a reminder of the insults and injustices so many experience. He is a gift through his writing and speaking and gives us much to think about, at you do in this essay.
Matthew, I have been looking forward to your fifth essay. This book, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, was penned on my reading list about a month ago when I noticed it was on a banned books reading list in Tennessee. Reading your experience and insight from Alexie's story, I feel the need to move this book up on my reading stack.
"The biases didn’t vanish; they just lost their authority in the presence of someone who’d proven themselves next to you, under pressure, when it mattered." What a powerful statement and reflection. I am additionally intrigued with, "The nomad carries home differently." Both of these thematic ideas i look forward to exploring.
Well, we've all missed you, Matthew, and I concur with the others' opinions about this book. You get to the very heart of what you read, identifying links to your own life - and asking us to find to ours - that are always enlightening.
Sherman Alexie has a stack that I follow.
Do you know the work of Tommy Orange? Orange is enrolled in Cheyenne and Arapjo tribes of Oklahoma; he's from Oakland, California. His book "There There" is well worth reading (and he has other novels).
Matthew, thank you for another excellent in-depth book review. Your review of Their Eyes was also top-notch, imo.
This is a wonderful piece, Matthew, and I will re-read it as well as ponder the questions you have posed. I heard Sherman Alexie speak at the National Association of Independent School People of Color Conference sometime around 2003, I think it was. He is a brilliant speaker, inserting his humor along the way. It was not that long after 9/11 and he spoke to what he had experienced as a person of color who was continually and mistakenly suspected of being a threat to this country - my paraphrase. It was powerful and I can still see him standing on the stage, a reminder of the insults and injustices so many experience. He is a gift through his writing and speaking and gives us much to think about, at you do in this essay.
Matthew, I have been looking forward to your fifth essay. This book, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, was penned on my reading list about a month ago when I noticed it was on a banned books reading list in Tennessee. Reading your experience and insight from Alexie's story, I feel the need to move this book up on my reading stack.
"The biases didn’t vanish; they just lost their authority in the presence of someone who’d proven themselves next to you, under pressure, when it mattered." What a powerful statement and reflection. I am additionally intrigued with, "The nomad carries home differently." Both of these thematic ideas i look forward to exploring.
Aa always thank you for such a thoughtful review.
Beautiful, insightful, and thought-provoking!
Well, we've all missed you, Matthew, and I concur with the others' opinions about this book. You get to the very heart of what you read, identifying links to your own life - and asking us to find to ours - that are always enlightening.
Sherman Alexie has a stack that I follow.
Do you know the work of Tommy Orange? Orange is enrolled in Cheyenne and Arapjo tribes of Oklahoma; he's from Oakland, California. His book "There There" is well worth reading (and he has other novels).