Brian Post # 7

     So I finally finished the book, and boy was it a great book. I had heard great reviews, and now I see why they were so great. The end of the book pretty much summed up the story and left me with a feeling you get after reading something so great. It sounds cheesy, but I'm not kidding. The different order of the plot I had discussed before was actually great. It was kind of refreshing to read something different for a change.

     Part of the reason that this book was so good is probably because of the Sherman Alexie's unique writing style mixed with the themes of this book. Things like poverty, friendship, race, and tradition and custom gave the story an interestingly harsh setting that gave Arnold a challenging time for just about everything. It was great. An adventure in itself indeed

     I definitely enjoyed this book very much. 5 out of 5 stars is what I would give it. 

Brian Post #7

     Well the big climax has come, but it wasn't as bad as I thought It'd be. Shocking, but not really that bad. I guess I made a big deal of it in my previous posts, and that makes this seem a little less extreme as what I had imagined. Boy do I get carried away sometimes. So although all extremity of Arnold's life with all the racism, deaths, and people drinking made this story seem a little to exaggerated, the ending was fairly realistic. Turns out this is just a success story, a good one at that. The plot format was probably what threw me off. Normally it's an intro, story, story story, rising action and then a huge climax (or at least a good one), then a conclusion. This story was intro, rising action, story, climax, story, climax, story action lowering, conclusion. Basically, instead of a regular adventure and then a big part of the story at the end, the big part was at the beginning, and it wound down as the story went. Nonetheless, it has been a great book, and It has managed to keep me interested the whole time. I have been very tempted to keep reading, but I want to make sure I have enough info for each post. At least i'll finally get to finish the book.

Brian Post #6

     I'm a little surprised that so many people showed up for the wake held for Arnold's grandmother. I didn't expect that out of people who have so many problems. I guess life and family pulls through. Love is blind or whatever the saying is. It's funny how even there racism emerged. I thought it was pretty funny what they did, but the fact the they're all so used to it that it happens at these kinds of events is, pretty crazy.
     I had predicted that something would happen that would make Arnold's dad quit drinking, but I didn't see what happened coming. It would suck to have your two best friends die. Unfortunately, that's the kind of stuff that's happening in their community every day. All of this kind of bugs me a little, because I know that one story like this can't represent a whole culture. I hate it when people do that. It's happened to me when people see a movie about Mexicans and it portrays them in a bad or different way. Just like everywhere else in the world, every country and community has it's good people and bad people, so don't judge a book by it's cover.
     Things are still looking good for Arnold, but the climax of the story is coming, and it'll be here any moment now. I hope it's not too bad, although it probably will be since things are going good outside of the reservation. It'll probably have to do with some conflict between inside and outside the reservation. We'll see how this turns out.

Brian Post # 5

    More of the sad life of Arnold emerged when his father went and got drunk over Christmas, then came back the following month. There's no real sign of improvement, but at least he still thinks of his family (when he gave Arnold $5). Arnold talks about his grandmother and what she did. Based on her personality and age, I'd say that, for the most part, that's how indian reservations used to be like. I wonder what happened. I guess influence from foreign cultures (mainly whites) changed everyone. I think it was ironic that she was killed by a drunk driver, because Arnold talks about her right after he talks about his father. Maybe this is foreshadowing something in his future, like maybe Arnold's dad hits, or almost hits, someone. Maybe Arnold, Penelope, Rowdy, or just someone else that hasn't been mentioned in the story enough for the reader to make a connection with. They would all be horrible, especially the first three, so if this happens I hope it's someone undefined, which will mean that this event will just have to do with his dad getting put in jail for a while, and maybe even changing his ways (or at least trying to). The other thing about this, that I found really shocking was the fact that the guy that hit Arnold's grandmother was only sentenced to 18 months in prison. I'm pretty sure that the sentence is supposed to be a fair amount more than that, but if that's what it is, then what the heck is going on? Anyways, that guy should definitely have been sentenced to more time.
     Well Arnold's grandma was a great person, and I wish that all the indians, or at least most of them, wer like her. She evenasked that the drunk driver be forgiven, and that really shows what kind of a great person she was.
     Just like all the other posts, I'd like to say that I'm really enjoying this book, and I can't wait to see what happens next.

Brian Post #4

     So, things are still improving in some categories for Arnold, but not in everything. He gets closer to Penelope and goes to the dance with her. I respect Arnold for having the courage to take her to the dance, and then take her out for dinner with so little money. I probably wouldn't have done it. He wasn't being himself, which is like the first thing people tell you when you ask for dating advice, and the truth spills in the end but it's not bad at all. Man, if stuff like this happened all the time, life would be great.
     Although things are going great outside of the reservation, inside, things with Rowdy have just gotten worse and worse. Rowdy hates him. He gave him a concussion! Things were starting to peak, but man that was pretty crazy. I don't think they were really friends to begin with. Just people in similar situations. That's probably why things changed; Rowdy's situation got very harsh. So the better Arnold's relationship with Penelope, the worse it is with Rowdy. He's not really his friend anymore. He should just stop communicating with him. It better for the both of them.
     Finally, racism came up again. This is definitely a big theme in this book, probably the biggest. It certainly does give me an interesting view (to an extent) of what is going on.
     I'm really enjoying this book. Things are at a point where the climax could come at any momet, and I can't wait to see how this all ends.

Brian Post #3

     So, more bad things occurred, but that was expected. Arnold's (which is Junior's real name) sister runs away with an Indian from Montana to live a happy life of their dreams. There is also more trouble with Rowdy (I wonder if that's his real name) as he is becoming more and more violent. I'm thinking he's probably going to snap later on and something big is going to happen that really hits Arnold where it hurts (maybe even literally).  Aside from those things, however, it seems that things are finally starting to come together. Arnold finds out the girl he likes is bulimic, but it works out for him because helping her gives them a chance to connect with each other and it turns out they have the same dream. Looks he's got a chance with her after all. This is also probably going to have a certain significance to the story other than the fact that things are starting to look good. Maybe they break up or something really bad happens at the same time as something bad happens with Rowdy plus maybe a few other things. It could be he has to chose between them, we might even get some conflict with his friend Gordy too. Well, something like that is probably going to happen later on. Anyways, being with her gives him a ticket to more popularity, so hopefully he won't get carried away with this. In general though, it's starting to look good, so I'm hoping that if there is in fact something bad waiting for him around the corner, that it's not that bad, and that it's really far away. But then we'd have a boring story line wouldn't we...

Brian Post #2

    Well, there are definitely many cultural differences in this book. There's a lot of racist comments, and racial stereotypes. They're displayed from the receiving end though, so there is definitely a big implication that this is a very bad thing. It's especially obvious when Junior asks his parents who has the most hope and she replies "White people".I have heard previous stories of racial abuse and other sorts of violence like this on Indian reservations, but none this bad (even though this is fiction). I'm wondering if things really are this bad, though, in some places The truth isn't always told in these situations for fear of things getting worse, so it may be true. So, Juniors math teacher has a very good point when he tells junior that he needs to leave. He doesn't really have a future there, so it's a good thing he chose to leave.
     Then when he goes to the new school the racial comments continue, but I guess that's just society here. They're not on the reservation anymore, but they're close enough to it that the environment is almost the same. It's interesting, though, the view Indians in this story have of "white people". But I don't blame them. They make it hard for the Indians do succeed. Why do they have to have such a negative view on them. What did they ever to do to make them angry. Well, at least he has a larger chance of a much brighter future in the new school. If only everyone else could just let go of those stupid racial views.

Brian Post #1

      Well, the book begins with pretty much the story of Junior's life, and boy is it harsh. It's almost ridiculous really. The title of the book says this story is true (and most times these things are incorrect), and this made me wonder whether or not it was true, so I did some research, but didn't come up with anything much other than book reviews. There is some evidence that shows it isn't true and based on the amount of exaggeration in this book, I'm just going to go with it's not a true story. Still it's a good book so far.
      Now back to the exaggeration. It's pretty crazy. It starts out the main character junior. So he's had a bad medical history. I'm thinking it's along the lines of a sob story with a happy ending that's supposed to make me feel warm and fuzzy. But then his life is described. Even worse. Soon there's so much, it starts to sound fake. It actually makes the story funny really. He threw a textbook at the teacher during the story. It's shocking at first, but slightly humorous. A pretty good story so far.
     The story basically the adventures/story of his life, up to a point. Stories like that are pretty cool. But with Junior's background, I think this is gonna be a pretty interesting story. I've heard it's good, so let's find out.