Book Review: Flight

                                                                                   BOOK INFORMATION:                                                                 

Sherman Alexie is one of our most gifted and accomplished storytellers and a treasured writer of huge national stature. His first novel in ten years is the hilarious and tragic portrait of an orphaned Indian boy who travels back and forth through time in a charged search for his true identity. With powerful and swift, prose, Flight follows this troubled foster teenager--a boy who is not a "legal" Indian because he was never claimed by his father--as he learns that violence is not the answer.

The journey for Flight's young hero begins as he's about to commit a massive act o violence. At the moment of decision, he finds himself shot back through time to resurface in the body of an FBI agent during the civil rights era, where he sees why "Hell is Re driver, Idaho, in the 1970s." Red River is only the first stop in an eye-opening trip through moments in American history. He will continue traveling back to inhabit the body of an Indian child during the battle at Little Bighorn and then ride with an Indian tracker in the nineteenth century before materializing as an airline pilot jetting through the skies today. During these furious travels through time, his refrain grows: "Who's to judge?" and "I don't understand humans." When finally, blessedly, our young warrior comes to rest again in his own life, he is mightily transformed by all he has seen.

This is Sherman Alexie at his most brilliant--making us laugh while he's breaking our hearts. Time Out has said that "Alexie, like his characters, is on a modern-day vision quest," and in Flight he seeks nothing less than an understanding of why human beings hate. Flight is irrepressible, fearless, and groundbreaking Alexie.

                                                                        MY THOUGHTS ON THE BOOK                                                              

I found myself not really caring for this Alexie novel. Flight has a fantastic narrative voice and addresses some many themes. Those are trauma, forgiveness, revenge, and violence. This isn't abnormal for Sherman Alexie, it just wasn't as good as I expected. Sherman Alexie uses his humor and writing skill to hilariously explore complex themes. 

This book has some major issues. It actually is sort of rife with them. They really turned me off of this book. I am tired of Alexie's constant need to make every Native American have a drinking problem. It is very stereotypical. As someone who lives around a bunch of tribes and has Native friends, so that isn't a problem with every single person. He is so defensive about this he makes it a truth rather than a horrible stereotype.

Another issue is every single girl is only mentioned or discussed in her sexual appeal. I understand that the narrator is a fifteen-year-old boy but it got old for me. I just don't like the view that women are sex objects that are one dimensional, while men have all the fun in these novels.

The ending of this book was so cheesy and too neat. I found it too has been wrapped in too neat of a bow. Our main character finally trusted again after finding an adopted home with a white cop. I disliked that a huge amount of this book is a mixed kid trying to figure out how to be Native, but the ending doesn't match that with him basically hating on his identity.

Don't even get me started on the 9-11 paranoia.

In summary, I am not a huge fan of this book, but I am a huge fan of Alexie. I disliked this one but I do believe it is worth reading though. I just think this book too on too many political and emotional themes.