Flight

Reason I Chose This Book

Sherman Alexie is a local (to where I live- Seattle) award-winning popular author, and I had read other works by him I enjoyed, including The Absolutely True Story of a Part Time Indian (winner of the National Book Award and New York Times Bestseller). It also appeared to one of few urban fiction books that also fall into science fiction and fantasy genres, and with an Indian protagonist. Lastly, I chose this book because it is a crossover “adult” novel.

Bibliographic Information

Author: Sherman Alexie

Publisher:  Grove Press

ISBN: 0802170374

Copyright Date: 2007

Genre

Urban Fiction/Science Fiction/Fantasy

About the Author

Sherman Alexie is a Native American author whom writes for adults and young adults. Much of his writing centers around modern Native American life, althought his readership is broad. Alexie grew up on a reservation himself, in Spokane, Wa and currently lives in Seattle. He has received numerous awards for his work. He also writes poetry and short stories.

Reader’s Annotation

Zits travels through time and time travels through Zits.

Plot Summary

After committing a serious crime, “Zits”, a troubled American Indian and Irish teenager whom has been in and out of foster homes and juvenile detention centers, finds himself traveling to new places – the past. Without any control over where or when he goes, he is transported to different scenes in Indian history, and is forced to both witness and participate as history folds and unfolds before him. Among other things, Zits is a warrior, a pilot, an Indian kid, and a white man on a quest to kill his own people. He runs forward through history, and is pushed back into his own head and the collective past, the whole way through. He is also an average teen with too many zits and too many roots, looking for himself, looking for the answers to a complicated history – of its land and people - , looking for a future where he will have some firm ground to grow on. Along the way he engages with many characters - a cop, his father, legendary war heroes, a terrorist, and more - and has the most unlikely relationships with all of them. 

Critical Analysis

This is a great “Science fiction” book for the reader who doesn’t like science fiction that much. The plot is fast moving but slow and strange and beautiful in unique places, and Alexie creates emotion in his character and the reader at the most unusual, unexpected times. Time almost feels like its own character in this novel, and there is a universal sense of loss and hope, for American Indians, for struggling teens, for anyone who knows what it is like to feel or be transient - physically, emotionally, mentally. Time and identity are so nicely woven with a writing style that is so simple, yet so familiar. Alexie really captures the way a teenage boy, facing many hardships, might experience the world. The fact that it is set in different worlds or times only adds to this – capturing Zits’ psyche, the feeling of not belonging, not having a home, physically or culturally. The various “short stories” that exist in this book are sad and unexpectedly funny at little moments, and it is possible a reader will not feel emotionally invested at all, until bam out of nowhere Alexie pulls some magic trick and the reader is sobbing, and surprised by this. There is deep societal commentary buried in these simple prose that will stick with a reader for a long time.

Themes/Issues/Tags

Hope, Poverty, American Indian, War, Seattle, Identity, Home, Time, Self-Esteem, History

Controversial Subject Matters

Historical tragedy of the American Indians

Foster care system

Terrorism (scene with pilot)

Booktalking Ideas

Character hook- Description of Zits

Setting/Plot hook- Short descriptions of the situations Zits finds himself in

Have you ever wanted to time travel through the history of your people?

Topic/Theme – Collective and/or historic trauma

Curriculum Ties

History- American Indians

History- American Indians-Reservations-Modern

Reading Level

This is an adult novel, suitable for teens

Interest Level

14+