Flight

Sherman Alexie reaches out to every adolescent who has ever felt isolated, alone, or embarrassed about themselves. The protagonist, Michael (or "Zits") embodies the very essence of adolescent behavior: he lashes out against authority; he seeks acceptance and friendship from a boy that shares similar beliefs; he speaks in a tone and voice that is a perfect replica of most teens today; and, Zits searches for his identity at a point in his life which mirrors when most teens are uncertain of who they are. Each of these important life experiences offer the reader a chance to connect to this dynamic character. The language that Sherman Alexie uses really is sophisticated, relatable and engaging. Zits uses foul language to protect himself. Basically, the language Zits uses serves as a defense mechanism, and in turn, shows his reluctance to open his heart. Zits usually reacts with statements like, "You bet your plopping a** I'm laughing at you," (15) when he wants to avoid conversations or agitate someone. This is by no means the crudest of his language usage, but for this review, I chose to keep it as clean as possible. Check it out to see what other hostile comeback responses Zits responds with. As a future high school English teacher, I am a little reluctant to use this book during the beginning of my career because of the crude language used at times, but I would definitely recommend this book to all tenured teachers who want to share endless conversations about adolescent behavior. For those readers out there that just want to curl up with an engaging quality read, I recommend this book to you as well.

This book was a fantastic adventure. This having been my first experienc with Sherman Alexie i wasn't quite sure what to expect. what i found was a suprisingly funny and lovable main character whose very soul is shaken to the core after his experinece of being juggled from foster home to foster home. Alexie really gets to the crux of what happens to an innocent kid who falls through the cracks of the system when his parents have either abandoned him or are ripped out from underneath him. This book made me laugh out loud, cry, and really think about the place and priority (or lack thereof) of children in the foster care system, especially those who are of a minority. Brilliant book, simply billiant!

I read this book and was just wowed. A mere 180 pages generates over 40 discussion questions at the end. This is a fast read. How did Alexie say so much, so simply? I was compelled to read it again, and again I finished in tears. The main character is a 15-year-old, who has countless times been betrayed, abandoned and beaten down. He time-travels 5 times, into five different bodies, to learn about being betrayed, abandoned and beaten down, through different eyes. This is a truly worthy read.

I have pretty much loved everything that I've read of Sherman Alexie's. He is absolutely brilliant, and his latest work is no exception. I found out about this book from a recent NPR interview with Mr. Alexie and bought it the next day. In a few short days, I was finished with it. I'm not sure that it would have had such a strong impact on me if it hadn't been for the recent incident at VT. Such an event is difficult to make sense of, but reading this book about a person who justifies random murders in his head is eerily similar to what happened. Is killing ever all right? How many things do we justify to ourselves that may be in the scheme of things really unjustifiable? What I was really in need of after something so awful was hope. This book helps give the reader hope that people can change; people can realize their mistakes and undo the brainwashing they have done to themselves. In the end, a little bit of hope goes a long way, and this wonderfully written and insightful book manages to give just that. Please read it!!!

FLIGHT is the latest novel by Seattle-based author, Sherman Alexie, and is probably his best yet! Alexie's works are always rich with double entendre and poetic depth. He has the power to make you laugh so hard you cry, and then cry so hard that you laugh. As an author, he mixes bitterness with joy, all the while looking at human tragedy and its power to make or break you, or, in this case, provide enough material to induce powerful fantastical experiences. Alexie transfers the experience of alienated, biracial identity to main character, Zits (the name speaks for itself), a half Native/half Irish young teenager who has been through the foster care system numerous times, never knew his biological father (his link to his Native identity), and therefore never felt a sense of himself as Native or Irish, but an ambigiously ethnic "other." Zits deals with turbulent experiences in his foster homes (including sexual abuse at the hands of his foster father, and numerous violent episodes with others), through escaping into a fantasy world, where he has the power to time travel and takes on the persona of numerous characters, including a Caucasian vigilante and a Native boy who has lost the power to speak. Powerful and beautiful.........I can already see this being adapted for the screen.