Status
Available
Genres
Collection
Publication
New York, Black cat, 2007
Description
Fiction. Science Fiction. HTML: From the National Book Awardâ??winning author of The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, the tale of a troubled boy's trip through history. Half Native American and half Irish, fifteen-year-old "Zits" has spent much of his short life alternately abused and ignored as an orphan and ward of the foster care system. Ever since his mother died, he's felt alienated from everyone, but, thanks to the alcoholic father whom he's never met, especially disconnected from other Indians. After he runs away from his latest foster home, he makes a new friend. Handsome, charismatic, and eloquent, Justice soon persuades Zits to unleash his pain and anger on the uncaring world. But picking up a gun leads Zits on an unexpected time-traveling journey through several violent moments in American history, experiencing life as an FBI agent during the civil rights movement, a mute Indian boy during the Battle of Little Bighorn, a nineteenth-century Indian tracker, and a modern-day airplane pilot. When Zits finally returns to his own body, "he begins to understand what it means to be the hero, the villain and the victim. . . . Mr. Alexie succeeds yet again with his ability to pierce to the heart of matters, leaving this reader with tears in her eyes" (The New York Times Book Review). Sherman Alexie's acclaimed novels have turned a spotlight on the unique experiences of modern-day Native Americans, and here, the New York Timesâ??bestselling author of The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven and The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian takes a bold new turn, combining magical realism with his singular humor and insight. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Sherman Alexie including rare photos from the author's personal collection.… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member kmaziarz
Zits is a fifteen-year-old half-Indian half-Irish orphan whose unfortunate case of acne earned him his colorful moniker. In and out of foster homes for his entire life and subjected to abuse both physical and psychological, Zits has become the classic definition of juvenile delinquent—a bitter,
Unfortunately for Zits, he met another young delinquent in the “kid jail,” a charismatic cult-leader type who calls himself Justice. Justice breaks Zits out of the half-way house and begins to exploit Zits’ desperate need for family, acceptance, and meaning, managing to convince Zits that justice can only be achieved with guns. Soon enough, Zits finds himself standing in a crowded bank with a loaded gun, enacting a twisted 20th century version of the Lakota Sioux Ghost Dance, attempting in this one act of extreme violence to sweep all white people off the earth in revenge for the injuries dealt to him.
When Zits is killed by a bank guard’s bullet to his brain, he is catapaulted onto a century-spanning journey of discovery and, perhaps, redemption. He finds himself occupying the bodies of individuals young and old, on both sides of the ages-old conflict between North America’s native peoples and the European settlers who displaced them. Zits becomes a white FBI agent fighting Indian radicals on a reservation in the 1970s; a mute Indian boy at the battle of Little Big Horn, a white tracker leading the cavalry to massacre an Indian village, his own alchoholic father, and others. In each body he experiences both the overwhelming violence and the astonishing grace of which all humans, regardless of race, are capable.
While the plot is a bit simplistic and the quixotic and sarcastic voice of the bitter and naĂŻve teenage protagonist can grate at times, the overall flow and narrative thrust of the story can be spell-binding, as Zits matures, slowly but surely discovering that there is much more to the story than his own bitter childhood and that perhaps justice and a gun are mutally exclusive after all.
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angry, sarcastic child who trusts no one, drowns his sorrows in illicit alchohol on the streets, and is on a first-name basis with the police. When he strikes his 20th foster father in the face and pushes aside his foster mother in his escape, Zits gets picked up and sent to “kid jail.” The sympathetic policeman who picked him up manages to get Zits on last chance, however, and he is moved to a half-way house rather than facing more jail time. Unfortunately for Zits, he met another young delinquent in the “kid jail,” a charismatic cult-leader type who calls himself Justice. Justice breaks Zits out of the half-way house and begins to exploit Zits’ desperate need for family, acceptance, and meaning, managing to convince Zits that justice can only be achieved with guns. Soon enough, Zits finds himself standing in a crowded bank with a loaded gun, enacting a twisted 20th century version of the Lakota Sioux Ghost Dance, attempting in this one act of extreme violence to sweep all white people off the earth in revenge for the injuries dealt to him.
When Zits is killed by a bank guard’s bullet to his brain, he is catapaulted onto a century-spanning journey of discovery and, perhaps, redemption. He finds himself occupying the bodies of individuals young and old, on both sides of the ages-old conflict between North America’s native peoples and the European settlers who displaced them. Zits becomes a white FBI agent fighting Indian radicals on a reservation in the 1970s; a mute Indian boy at the battle of Little Big Horn, a white tracker leading the cavalry to massacre an Indian village, his own alchoholic father, and others. In each body he experiences both the overwhelming violence and the astonishing grace of which all humans, regardless of race, are capable.
While the plot is a bit simplistic and the quixotic and sarcastic voice of the bitter and naĂŻve teenage protagonist can grate at times, the overall flow and narrative thrust of the story can be spell-binding, as Zits matures, slowly but surely discovering that there is much more to the story than his own bitter childhood and that perhaps justice and a gun are mutally exclusive after all.
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LibraryThing member PghDragonMan
I’ve been a fan of Sherman Alexie for some time now. This story took me by surprise and showed me a new side of his ability, one that was only hinted at in Reservation Blues. In Flight, Sherman Alexie has created a socially aware science fiction novel that tackles some very deep philosophical
When I started this work, I almost gave it up. It was that boring. Yeah, yeah, here we go, an Indian kid known as Zits (whose real name is Michael) is fostered out to several families, each worse than the one before, the kid is rebellious, gets in trouble and meets up with the wrong type of friend; gets talked into killing people in a bank. I’ve read this before. I know where it’s going . . . then with an impact as hard as the bullet that kills Michael, the story takes a radical turn and gets real deep.
In what follows next, he is reborn in different times in bodies belonging to people facing various problems. He is aware that he is not his original self, but he is also not in charge of what is happening to his new self. In each incarnation, he learns some new piece of what it means to be a whole person, to overcome your inner problems and become fully realized. By having Michael entering several incarnations that are not Native American, Alexie shows the universality of Michael’s dilemma.
Like I said, some real deep philosophical territory. It is not all doom and gloom, however. The author’s sense of humor and irony is put to good use throughout the story. There is also the redeeming factor in that Michael finally learns that we are in control of ourselves and we can change our life’s path if we really try.
Because of the time travel using reincarnation as the means of time travel, I’d call this science fiction for those who don’t like science fiction. Because of the reincarnation by itself, I’d classify this as a metaphysical novel. There are also strong elements of psychology, sociology and just plain old fashioned storytelling as well. This is very hard to classify, other than calling it fiction. It is also a little strong for the typical YA book, but I can see a very strong appeal to High School readers and should promote some good class discussions.
In short, another fine offering from Sherman Alexie. A good solid four and a half star read.
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issues.When I started this work, I almost gave it up. It was that boring. Yeah, yeah, here we go, an Indian kid known as Zits (whose real name is Michael) is fostered out to several families, each worse than the one before, the kid is rebellious, gets in trouble and meets up with the wrong type of friend; gets talked into killing people in a bank. I’ve read this before. I know where it’s going . . . then with an impact as hard as the bullet that kills Michael, the story takes a radical turn and gets real deep.
In what follows next, he is reborn in different times in bodies belonging to people facing various problems. He is aware that he is not his original self, but he is also not in charge of what is happening to his new self. In each incarnation, he learns some new piece of what it means to be a whole person, to overcome your inner problems and become fully realized. By having Michael entering several incarnations that are not Native American, Alexie shows the universality of Michael’s dilemma.
Like I said, some real deep philosophical territory. It is not all doom and gloom, however. The author’s sense of humor and irony is put to good use throughout the story. There is also the redeeming factor in that Michael finally learns that we are in control of ourselves and we can change our life’s path if we really try.
Because of the time travel using reincarnation as the means of time travel, I’d call this science fiction for those who don’t like science fiction. Because of the reincarnation by itself, I’d classify this as a metaphysical novel. There are also strong elements of psychology, sociology and just plain old fashioned storytelling as well. This is very hard to classify, other than calling it fiction. It is also a little strong for the typical YA book, but I can see a very strong appeal to High School readers and should promote some good class discussions.
In short, another fine offering from Sherman Alexie. A good solid four and a half star read.
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LibraryThing member jothebookgirl
This book is about a time traveling serial killer. It's about a suffering young teen with no one to love him. Sherman Alexie is an incredible writer; one whose writing I don't always get, but I love reading excellent writing.
Zits has lost both parents at a very young age. He's basically been
Zits, and yes he does have bad acne adding to his multitude of problems, Meets a new friend who fills the void of having no one to care about him. Justice is a handsome white boy who seems to understand his pain, anger, and loss.
Justice gives Zits his first taste of power; power that comes from seeing fear and terror on the faces of those to whom he is about to do violence. Justice gives Zits two guns, a paintball gun and a real weapon.
Now here is where the book it gets weirdly clever.
Zits intends to mow down random customers in a bank he happens to walk into. Suddenly he is transported through time and space into the lives and experiences of different individuals. First, he awakens in the body of a white FBI agent investigating the alleged activities of American Indian rebels in the 1970s. He participates in the killing of one activist – in the name of a different kind of justice – and quickly discovers his own repulsion at killing.
Transported into the bodies and experiences of a 19th century US calvary scout on the trail of Crazy Horse, a white pilot, and his own father, Zits learns that 'revenge is a circle inside of a circle inside of a circle.'
The end of the story has a satisfyingly redeeming factor.
Zits has lost both parents at a very young age. He's basically been
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abandoned. Zits is a 15 year old part Native American youth who has moved from foster home to foster home. He has been in and out of juvenile detention facilities, and has been drinking on the streets with homeless people since he was eleven. When greeted one morning by his newest foster family at breakfast, he says nothing except 'whatever.' Needless to say, he has trouble with authority, and he is about to become a mass murderer. Zits, and yes he does have bad acne adding to his multitude of problems, Meets a new friend who fills the void of having no one to care about him. Justice is a handsome white boy who seems to understand his pain, anger, and loss.
Justice gives Zits his first taste of power; power that comes from seeing fear and terror on the faces of those to whom he is about to do violence. Justice gives Zits two guns, a paintball gun and a real weapon.
Now here is where the book it gets weirdly clever.
Zits intends to mow down random customers in a bank he happens to walk into. Suddenly he is transported through time and space into the lives and experiences of different individuals. First, he awakens in the body of a white FBI agent investigating the alleged activities of American Indian rebels in the 1970s. He participates in the killing of one activist – in the name of a different kind of justice – and quickly discovers his own repulsion at killing.
Transported into the bodies and experiences of a 19th century US calvary scout on the trail of Crazy Horse, a white pilot, and his own father, Zits learns that 'revenge is a circle inside of a circle inside of a circle.'
The end of the story has a satisfyingly redeeming factor.
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LibraryThing member xollo
When I initially heard about the premise for this book, I was skeptical. A kid, in the midst of gunning down a bank full of people, is transported into the bodies of others. But this book is amazing. It’s so well executed. Each scene is powerful, fully realized and moving. It’s a modern day,
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Indian version of A Christmas Carol. Just as Zits, the main character, sees the world through the eyes of the people he inhabits, so too does the reader come to understand their circumstances, and even understand their sins, crimes, hatreds and sorrows. A quick, punch-you-in-the-heart read. Show Less
LibraryThing member edspicer
Sherman Alexie has two books nominated for BBYA this year. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian (Little, Brown) is Alexie’s first YA novel. Flight is published as an adult title, don’t ask me why. Both deserve spots on our BBYA final list, but it is Flight that gives me goose bumps.
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Zits is the name of our protagonist for obvious reasons. Not so obvious is the scream for attention from this foster child. He fights. He bites. He goes to jail. While in jail, he meets a white boy whose name is "Justice." Justice Zits that he really needs to do the ghost dance, which would bring back his ancestors and make the white people disappear. The practical manifestation of this ghost dance is that Zits goes into a bank and shoots up the people and is shot by the bank guards. Or is he? Just before he hits the ground (??), he wakes up back in time. Zits assumes the characters of various characters, from Hank Storm a racist FBI agent to Gus the guide leading soldiers on a massacre of an Indian village. In his final persona, Zits becomes a homeless Indian whom Zits realizes is his father. This journey allows Zits to heal enough so that when the Dave the cop places him in a new foster home with his brother, a fireman, Zits can be given a real name, Michael, and he can allow himself to hope. This genre-bending, fabulous book deserves to be in high school libraries because of its depiction of the complex problem of drinking and homelessness, especially in context of the Indian communities Alexie knows so well. Fabulous!—As much for its careful, beautiful writing as for its sensitive look at a profoundly serious problem. Show Less
LibraryThing member cathyskye
First Line: Call me Zits.
I first became a fan of Sherman Alexie when I watched the film Smoke Signals. The fandom intensified when I read Indian Killer. Now that I've read Flight, I may just graduate to waving his books in the faces of everyone I meet, exclaiming, "You gotta read these!" Alexie is
Everyone in Flight calls the main character "Zits", and if you wonder how Zits thinks of himself, he'll tell you:
" I'm a blank sky, a human solar eclipse."
Zits is half Indian, half Irish. His alcoholic father took off when he was born. His mother died when he was six. His aunt kicked him out when he was ten after he set her boyfriend on fire. (Don't feel too bad for the boyfriend; he was a pedophile.) Now he's fifteen. He's been in twenty foster homes and twenty-two schools. He has barely enough clothes to fit in a backpack. He's a throwaway kid, and he wants revenge, so one day he takes a gun and walks into a bank...and begins a series of adventures in time travel. No time machine for Zits; the gun is the catalyst for his stints as a mute Indian boy during the Battle of the Little Big Horn, an FBI agent, an Indian tracker, an airplane pilot instructor, and his own father. His desire for revenge rapidly becomes an ongoing lesson in empathy.
The book had barely begun when I fell for Zits hook, line and sinker. What did he say? Something that every passionate reader will understand:
" I bet you a million dollars there are less than five books in this whole house. What kind of life can you have in a house without books?"
Alexie's skilled pen makes Zits anything but a throwaway kid in the reader's mind. I empathized with this lonely young boy, my heart broke when his broke, I became angry when he did. As Zits time-traveled, his attitude began to change, and I found myself hoping with all my heart that he no longer thought of himself as worthless; that someone somewhere would see how valuable he was.
What better thing can you say about a writer than that you were totally involved in what happened to his fictional character? That, for a short period of time, you were transported miles away from your comfort zone and confronted with people totally alien to you, and that you began to care, to get angry, and to be compelled to do something?
I first became a fan of Sherman Alexie when I watched the film Smoke Signals. The fandom intensified when I read Indian Killer. Now that I've read Flight, I may just graduate to waving his books in the faces of everyone I meet, exclaiming, "You gotta read these!" Alexie is
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a powerful, imaginative writer with a talent for making readers see other people, other cultures, in a whole new--and very real-- way.Everyone in Flight calls the main character "Zits", and if you wonder how Zits thinks of himself, he'll tell you:
" I'm a blank sky, a human solar eclipse."
Zits is half Indian, half Irish. His alcoholic father took off when he was born. His mother died when he was six. His aunt kicked him out when he was ten after he set her boyfriend on fire. (Don't feel too bad for the boyfriend; he was a pedophile.) Now he's fifteen. He's been in twenty foster homes and twenty-two schools. He has barely enough clothes to fit in a backpack. He's a throwaway kid, and he wants revenge, so one day he takes a gun and walks into a bank...and begins a series of adventures in time travel. No time machine for Zits; the gun is the catalyst for his stints as a mute Indian boy during the Battle of the Little Big Horn, an FBI agent, an Indian tracker, an airplane pilot instructor, and his own father. His desire for revenge rapidly becomes an ongoing lesson in empathy.
The book had barely begun when I fell for Zits hook, line and sinker. What did he say? Something that every passionate reader will understand:
" I bet you a million dollars there are less than five books in this whole house. What kind of life can you have in a house without books?"
Alexie's skilled pen makes Zits anything but a throwaway kid in the reader's mind. I empathized with this lonely young boy, my heart broke when his broke, I became angry when he did. As Zits time-traveled, his attitude began to change, and I found myself hoping with all my heart that he no longer thought of himself as worthless; that someone somewhere would see how valuable he was.
What better thing can you say about a writer than that you were totally involved in what happened to his fictional character? That, for a short period of time, you were transported miles away from your comfort zone and confronted with people totally alien to you, and that you began to care, to get angry, and to be compelled to do something?
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LibraryThing member ljbwell
Zits is 15 years old, half white, half Native American. His father abandoned him and his mother when he was born, and his mother died when he was 6. Since then, he has bounced around from foster home to foster home (some better than others - with better being a relative term), started drinking and
Zits finds himself in a bank, committing a terrible crime. When he comes to, he has traveled in time and is inhabiting someone else's body. This is the start of a series of jumps through time, into several different bodies, at key moments.
Through Zits's experiences - in his present, his past, and his time travel - Alexie raises questions about history, the point(lessness) of revenge and war, and much more. There is anger, hurt, loss, desperation, but also glimmers that things can be different. Zits has been exposed to so much at such a young age that there is a sense at the start that he is a lost cause; that he's been written off by family after family, by the authorities, by his social workers and his therapists; that he never had a chance - and that he wonders if it is nature or nurture that he landed him where he is. When he suddenly is jumping from event to event, he is thrust into violent situations, forced to examine who he is, why things are the way they are, how he's ended up here.
The ending is on the neatly-wrapped up saccharine side, but otherwise Flight is a tightly-written, staccato, fast-paced journey through jarring events.
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getting into trouble. He is well-known to the police. Zits finds himself in a bank, committing a terrible crime. When he comes to, he has traveled in time and is inhabiting someone else's body. This is the start of a series of jumps through time, into several different bodies, at key moments.
Through Zits's experiences - in his present, his past, and his time travel - Alexie raises questions about history, the point(lessness) of revenge and war, and much more. There is anger, hurt, loss, desperation, but also glimmers that things can be different. Zits has been exposed to so much at such a young age that there is a sense at the start that he is a lost cause; that he's been written off by family after family, by the authorities, by his social workers and his therapists; that he never had a chance - and that he wonders if it is nature or nurture that he landed him where he is. When he suddenly is jumping from event to event, he is thrust into violent situations, forced to examine who he is, why things are the way they are, how he's ended up here.
The ending is on the neatly-wrapped up saccharine side, but otherwise Flight is a tightly-written, staccato, fast-paced journey through jarring events.
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LibraryThing member haloolah
This was an impulse purchase at the airport. I knew Alexie had a new book out, but hadn't looked into it yet for some reason. I should just make it a point to go back a read everything he's written, because it's always awesome. Flight is different from anything else I've ever read, really. The main
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character, Zits, is a half-Indian, half-white foster kid in Seattle. He's always in trouble and has a bad attitude, but is a really engaging, funny character. If somebody described the story to me, I'd think it sounded hokey and wouldn't be interested, so I won't get into much detail. Basically, Zits travels through time, jumping into the bodies of a variety of people in history. It's all fascinating and realistic. Seriously, this is good stuff--I read it straight through on my Seattle-Denver flight and couldn't wait to foist in on all my friends. I've already lent it to one and promised it to another. Read this one! Show Less
LibraryThing member ambookgeek
One of the best YA books I've read this year! Don't know how I missed this one earlier.
LibraryThing member chesterboy
Zits is an angry, sad, neglected 15 year old half indian boy. Sad and depressed he talked into committing a crime. Suddenly he is transported into different peoples lives: FBI agent 1975; 13 yr old mute indian boy; Gus, an old indian tracker for the army; pilot instructor who taught a terrorist to
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fly; drunk indian man. Is it ever right to kill someone? Do the circumstances make a difference? When the young warrior comes to rest again in his own contemporary body, he is mightily transformed by all he’s seen. Simultaneously wrenching and deeply humorous. Show Less
LibraryThing member StefanY
I wouldn't say that this is a bad book by any means, but I didn't greatly enjoy it. Alexie seems to have a lot to say and has many messages and in the end, this book does have impact, but it just wasn't my cup of tea.
The main character, Zits, is overall fairly compelling. I truly felt for his
This book also takes a look at the foster care system and at the lives of young people who have been driven to lives of crime because of the crappy lives that they live. Zits goes from this life of foster homes and crime to a whirlwind of time travel experiences and finally to end up where he started, but with a chance to change things if he so chooses.
In the end, I felt a strong sense of compassion towards his situation and was fairly attached to the character. However, I don't think that I'll be actively pursuing any more of Alexie's works.
The main character, Zits, is overall fairly compelling. I truly felt for his
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situation and a lot of his actions and thought rang true to his situation. When he begins to travel through time, we see flashes of how Native Americans have been poorly treated throughout history and you really come away from the story with a feeling of sympathy towards their plight.This book also takes a look at the foster care system and at the lives of young people who have been driven to lives of crime because of the crappy lives that they live. Zits goes from this life of foster homes and crime to a whirlwind of time travel experiences and finally to end up where he started, but with a chance to change things if he so chooses.
In the end, I felt a strong sense of compassion towards his situation and was fairly attached to the character. However, I don't think that I'll be actively pursuing any more of Alexie's works.
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LibraryThing member danofthedead33
A very good view into what kids have to deal with in the foster care industry. Sherman Alexie has a great way of expressing his discontent with Native American life in past and present without coming off as angry, but actually wanting to shed light and help to his people. If you can deal with the
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sadness and brutality of his words than this is a good read. Show Less
LibraryThing member jesssh
A fast, interesting read. Zits, a Native American teen who has bounced between foster homes in Seattle for years, considers random violence and finds himself flashing through time, encountering different sides of violent and difficult situations in rapid succession. Through these experiences, he
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develops an understanding of the complexity of the presence of violence in the world and forms a more clear notion of the part he wishes to play. Alexie's clean, honest style takes the reader along for Zits' journey, exposing the reader to the same harsh realities with Zits, and encouraging a similar development of one's own sense of the role they play in an often violent world. Show Less
LibraryThing member ohioyalibrarian
The foster teen known as "Zits" is always in trouble. When he goes into a bank, armed with a gun and starts shooting, he mystically goes back in time to inhabit different people's bodies. He learns a lot from his journey through other people's lives and returns to his own to make better choices.
LibraryThing member heathersblue
Amazing book about the nature of humanity in general with a splattering of hope in a world that seems impossibly difficult. I was put off originally by the image on the cover and the initial introduction to the story, but I stuck with it because I'm huge Alexie fan and was hugely awarded...read it!
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Are you reading it yet? Show Less
LibraryThing member Djupstrom
When I first started reading Flight, I thought it was just going to be another coming of age story of a kid in the foster care system. But all of a sudden Alexie takes you on an incredible journey full of memorable and unpredictable characters. It becomes a cross between Quantum Leap and Natural
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Born Killers. I liked this book very much. Show Less
LibraryThing member 4sarad
This book only took me an hour or two to read... it was just really quick. I can't even say much about it... just that it was very good. Alexie has a way with words that I can't describe. The book just seemed very real, even though it was obviously fiction/fantasy/whatever. Overall it's just an
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entertaining story that has a point and is worth the time and effort. Show Less
LibraryThing member momeara
Like all of Alexie's novels it is a quick enjoyable read. Not quite on par with his other work, but perhaps because it is deriviative of the others. A young American-Indian boy (Zits) is caught up in the foster care system. Angry and alone he enters a vision-quest somewhate akin to "quantum leap"
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where is transported to other times and other bodies, helping him to understand history, perspective, and his own father who abandoned him. Show Less
LibraryThing member khuggard
I devoured Flight in one sitting. Zits, the teenage narrator, has one of the strongest voices I've ever experienced in literature. He uses ample doses of humor and profanity as he describes significant events in his short but tragic life.
Zits is an orphaned Native-American teenager who has spent
The saccharin sweet ending, should have seemed out of place given the tone of the rest of the novel. But it worked. After all, Zits deserves a happy ending after everything he's been through. The rest of the book reminds us that Zits' ending isn't typical, which just makes it all that much better.
Zits is an orphaned Native-American teenager who has spent
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most of his life bouncing from foster home to foster home. The main action of the book occurs when Zits moves through time and space occupying the bodies of significant players in his cultural and personal history. We move with Zits from raids on Indian camps to the street of Seattle, where Zits occupies the body of his homeless father. Through his travels Zits begins to see life and history from multiple perspectives and experiences the complexities of moral choices.The saccharin sweet ending, should have seemed out of place given the tone of the rest of the novel. But it worked. After all, Zits deserves a happy ending after everything he's been through. The rest of the book reminds us that Zits' ending isn't typical, which just makes it all that much better.
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LibraryThing member hilllady
Against expectation, this book made me cry. How'd Alexie do that? The story has a lot of seeming flaws, not least of which is a narrator perhaps too literary to be believed. But somehow it works. I think it's because Alexie isn't afraid to go to the sentimental places so many other writers of his
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generation seem to have had beaten out of them in workshop. I mean "sentimental" in its best possible sense. He tells the truth, and it's ugly, but ultimately his characters use it to find redemption. And not some pie-in-the-sky fake redemption, either, but an in-your-face, human, flawed redemption that comes from struggle and small gifts of compassion and forgiveness. I'm probably making this sound terrible and schmaltzy and maybe it is. It made me cry, dammit! What more do you need to know? Show Less
LibraryThing member sharlene_w
I enjoy Sherman Alexie's writing. He has such a talent for enlightening the reader about social issues facing native American Indians while being thoroughly entertaining. I appreciate the character, the story, and the especially the message. Adam Beach did an exceptional job of bringing the audio
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version of the book to life. Show Less
LibraryThing member poetreegirl
A runaway who is sick of foster homes becomes involved with a dangerous character. When about to make a decision that will permanently affect his life, he experieces a slip in time allowing him to understand the impact of choices and consequences through new eyes. Alexie at his best.
LibraryThing member framberg
Though short, this was a difficult book for me to make my way through. The story of Zits, a more-or-less homeless half-Indian teen with a private history of abuse and abandonment and a public history of arson and escape from foster homes, is wrenching enough, but the other lives he inhabits as he
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carooms through time add additional layers of pain, betrayal, and sadness. Part of this is because though Zits finds himself within a variety of bodies in a variety of times, he is unable to change history. While he can impact personal choices, his knowledge of the inevitable final outcome tinges even the small personal triumphs with an overarching sense of tragedy. Still, the book ends hopefully, with Zits given the opportunity to make a personal choice that has the potential to change his future. Show Less
LibraryThing member MikeD
Fast paced and humorous, we follow Zizs an angry young indian boy who after being wounded travels through space and time, briefly occupying the bodies of people somehow linked to him. A somewhat spritual journey.
An engaging book but it's story is too short for the subject. I would have liked to see
An engaging book but it's story is too short for the subject. I would have liked to see
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the stories of the personas Zits occupies expanded. Show Less
LibraryThing member DF1A_ChristieR
Amazing book by Sherman Alexie about an irish-indian sent back in time. Each time he travels back in time he is a different person. Each person has a problem they need to overcome. The boy has to solve their problems so he can get back in time to solve his own problem. This book was amazing because
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it is not like every teen book on the shelf. I like difference. Show Less
Awards
Best Fiction for Young Adults (Selection — 2008)