Book Club Guide

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

by Sherman Alexie · 2007 · Literary Fiction

Key themes

The traitor and the pioneer — Junior's impossible position between two worlds
Poverty on the reservation and what it takes from people
Hope as a dangerous thing — and why he has it anyway

About this book

Junior, a fourteen-year-old Spokane Indian growing up on the reservation, decides to transfer to the all-white school in the nearby town of Reardan — a decision that makes him feel he has abandoned his community while also opening a different future. Alexie's semi-autobiographical YA novel is one of the most challenged and most assigned books in American schools.

Published in 2007, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian won the National Book Award for Young People's Literature and is one of the most challenged books in American libraries. Alexie has said it is 85% autobiographical.

Discussion questions

Junior is accused of being a traitor to the reservation for choosing the white school. How does Alexie develop this tension — and does the novel offer a resolution?
The novel is explicitly autobiographical — Alexie made the same choice Junior makes. What does knowing this add — and what does fiction give him that memoir could not?
Junior's poverty is rendered with specificity and humour. How does Alexie use comedy to engage with deprivation — and what would a more tragic register lose?
The illustrations are part of the novel's voice — Junior is a cartoonist. How does Alexie use the visual elements — and what do they add to the text?
The Absolutely True Diary is one of the most challenged books in American schools. What makes it threatening — and what do the challenges reveal about what the novel is actually saying?