One of the aspects of Sherman Alexie I love the best is his ability to draw in reluctant teenage boy readers into his novels. His work grips them to the point that they are almost able to forget they’re doing that deplorable activity we call ‘reading.’ In fact, one of my students last year fell so in love with The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian I had to pick it up and read it. I, too, fell in love. So when this same student tossed Flight my way, I accepted it without question.

Sadly, Flight was not nearly the riveting novel I was hoping it would be. Zits, the main character, is a foster kid. He’s been shoved around the system from foster home to foster home, and finally lands himself in jail. He meets another jail kid and admires him more than he has admired anyone before. This new “friend” helps him escape from holding and he teaches Zits how to shoot. Eventually, Zits heads into a bank, where he begins to shoot. “I spin in circles and shoot and shoot and shoot. I keep pulling the triggers until the bank guard shoots me in the back of the head. I am still alive when I start to fall, but I die before I hit the floor” (35). Alexie had me to this point. And he got me back at the end. But in between, well, let’s just say Sherman Alexie doesn’t write the supernatural well.

Once he “dies,” Zits begins to bounce around time. He becomes a cop, he hangs out at Custer’s Last Stand for awhile, and he becomes an old man. Two problems: first, Zits never questions or has any problem with the fact that not only is he not dead, but he’s floating around the space-time continuum like an energy particle. Second, Alexie never spends any significant amount of time in any of these places. He lost a real opportunity to allow Zits — and readers– to learn and experience different elements of history and culture. Anyone who has read Alexie’s work knows he’s capable of giving the perfect amount of realistic description.

The book seemed like it was penned very quickly, and at the end I felt the same way I would if I ate a hundred-dollar filet mignon in a three minute drill. It tasted good on the way down, but damn I wanted to enjoy it longer. And I was left with a taste in my mouth and a stomach ache and feeling bummed because I really wanted to love it. Both the steak and the book.

If you’re an Alexie fan, you probably won’t love this book. He redeemed himself quite a bit in the ending, enough that I’ll go out on a limb and say Alexie fans will like the book. Folks who have never read a Sherman Alexie book (are those folk out there?), start with this one. It’s a decent read for a young adult novel, and if you’ve never had filet mignon before, cramming one down in three minutes tastes just as good.

No related posts.

Novel Sherman Alexie, Young adult