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It Was The Obnoxious Cover

For years this book has taunted me. I could walk into my middle school library and show you where and on what shelf this book sits. I picked it up loads of times, it shared shelf space with many of my favorite books; but I could never bring myself to read it. I was entirely prejudiced against this book because of its cover. I couldn't stand the way Sherman Alexie's name looked like it was written in green crayon and I couldn't stand the plastic men. It looked like a clip art project and it bugged me. Either way, I wish I hadn't been such a cover snob because the book is hilarious. And I really wish I had read it when I was 10 because I would have found it even more hilarious then. 
All this little bits of off kilter humor dealing with Penelope and boners really got to me. The general tone of all the humor in the story is raw and forward. The jokes are easy and the jokes are gross and they are exactly the kinds of jokes a child would tell and we laugh at them because of inner child isn’t dead and thank god for that. When you think you’re too serious to laugh at, “I wanted to be her chocolate topping.” (169 eBook) you have let something die.
         In terms of literary devices, I enjoyed Alexie’s use of paradoxes. The money his father gives him is an “ugly and beautiful thing.” The money is beautiful because even though is father must have wanted to spend the money on booze, he still saved it for his son. The money is ugly because even if they money is intended as a gift it is still nothing compared to what Christmas could have been if his father had not left for a three day drunk fest. Paradoxes exist in many aspects of Arnold’s life. Indians are supposed to be wise and in tuned nomadic peoples, but Indians trapped on the rez are anything but and instead they attack people like Arnold who want to change. Arnold mentions that white fathers can “hide in plain sight”. His classmates’ fathers even when present have a way of excluding themselves from events around them, they are uninterested in participating in their children’s lives. There is a coexistence of things as they should be and as they actually are. Arnold spends a lot of the story dancing on the line between what he should be and what he is. He is a paradox, he is hated by his fellow Indians for being too white and he is disliked by the white people for being too Indian. His niche is ill defined.
         My favorite bit was probably the urban legend about the dead horse. There was something just ever so terrifying about the horse’s reappearing body and the flaming, bottomless lake. And it wasn’t even an important part of the story; it was just a tangent to the pine tree. But even so, I’m very fond of Turtle Lake and I’m very glad Alexie included the anecdote on it. I need more.

Comments

  1. UnknownAugust 31, 2016 at 10:32 AM

    I absolutely hated the cover too!!!! I can be kind of okay withe the green name in crayon but the figures. They plastic, and lifeless, and off putting. After having story I still do not think that the cover represented the book at all. It could have been one of Arnold's drawings instead or maybe even an Indian chief with half of a white man's face. The figures make me think of those stupid Hawaiian bobble heads that people put on dashboards. Anyways, aside from that rant, I love loved the horse. I spoke to alot of people that said it seemed creepy but I enjoyed it. I pick out pieces of books and movies that sound creepy, and dark because that's the kind of literature I love to read and write. It makes the book 10x better, and I wish he had other authentic Indian legends incorporated in the book.

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