Comments on: Why Young Adult Novels–and Sherman Alexie–Are Indispensable

By: Amy

Amy — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 14:55:25 +0000

I found this blogpost after reading Alexie’s WSJ response – and I could not love/agree with Alexie and what he says about reading more! Though your post focuses on his response, I just want to add that Alexie is so much more than a YA author, and that Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian is so much more than a YA novel. I read that novel when I was 28 years old, and found it every bit as therapeutic, insightful, emotional, and helpful (yes!) as I probably would have at 13. I am a high school teacher, and that is my go-to novel recommendation for my students because not only is it well written and interesting, it is real and relatable. And when I loan students my copy, I have to remind, harass, and demand for them to give it back when they finish!

I recently read a collection of Alexie’s short stories (The Toughest Indian in the World), and found this experience to be almost as enjoyable as Absolutely True Diary. His writing for adults is just as complex and filled with humor as his writing for YAs. If you’d like to know more about his short stories, check out: http://abooklst.blogspot.com/search/label/Sherman%20Alexie

By: BeckySharper

BeckySharper — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 23:30:32 +0000

@foureleven: You’re welcome. Isn’t it amazing? He wrote a villanelle! About Dachau! And it’s brilliant! The man has some serious talent.

By: foureleven

foureleven — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 22:28:44 +0000

@BeckySharper – Thank you for sharing that link!

By: mischiefmanager

mischiefmanager — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 12:59:54 +0000

You’d think the WSJ people never read Dickens. Back in the day, if you wanted to read, you read fiction written for adults, since there was no YA literature. And some nasty stuff happened in those British novels, starting with Fielding and company and going forward. Rape, theft, murder, kidnapping, fraud…you name it and you can find it in a classic English novel.

This whole separation of genres is pretty arbitrary. People should read what they like reading and not worry about what the person sitting across from them on the train is going to think.

By: Ms. M

Ms. M — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 01:46:44 +0000

Lately I’ve been reading 2-3 YA novels to every adult novel… I have one child old enough to be reading this stuff, and I’m trying to find good stories, mainly sci fi / speculative fiction / dystopian / alternate history. There is so much more GREAT YA stuff out there now, compared to the 80′s when I was growing up. I’ve really been enjoying the stories and passing them along to my child.

By: Mackey

Mackey — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 21:32:23 +0000

what anna said!

also, I’m reminded somewhat of what Aristotle said about theatre, in that watching and being engaged by the performance provides catharsis.
In order to do this, the full human experience should be depicted on stage (the Greeks didn’t just do tragedy and didn’t solely have happy feel good stories either .
I think the same can be said of books.

By: annajcook

annajcook — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 18:47:09 +0000

The WSJ essay and the continued attention to the issue (including in places that ought to know better, like NPR!) is just too frustrating for words. As a former young adult, I have to say I read more genre fiction than I did straight-up “young adult” material … I didn’t like stuff with a heavy-handed moral message and/or the sort of “gritty” stories about drug addiction, etc., that were all the rage in the early 90s (PSA to the WSJ: this “trend” is not new!). But I am offended on behalf of all young people — and hell, all people in general! — by the assumption that this literature is exposing teens to stuff they wouldn’t otherwise know about. Sometimes it is, sometimes it isn’t. If we erase all the painful, violent shit from literature then that’s tantamount to telling the children who experience drug addiction or sexual abuse: “your experience is so abnormal and horrible it’s unspeakable.”

THAT would be the real crime.

I think the escapist fluff should be available too … young people shouldn’t be forced to read stuff that gives them nightmares if they don’t want to. Jeanne Birdsall, an award-winning children’s novelist, specifically decided to write books where nothing truly traumatic happens because as a child who had traumatic shit happening to her what she wanted to read was “Little Women” and “Swallows and Amazons” as reassurance and comfort.

So the whole range of human experience should be available to our children and our teenagers through literature. Full stop.

By: wondering

wondering — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 16:12:56 +0000

WORD. To all of it.

By: BeckySharper

BeckySharper — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 15:10:58 +0000

@MM: I’ve seen interviews with Sherman Alexie where he talks about Jews and Native Americans having a shared history of genocide and similar humor because of it. Here’s a link to his long poem “Inside Dachau” that draws parallels between the Jewish and indigenous experiences of genocide. The 6th and 7th stanzas are my favorite.

http://www.bpj.org/poems/alexie_dachau.html

By: mischiefmanager

mischiefmanager — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 14:57:15 +0000

Mega-word. Alexie is one of my must reads. His sensibility feels similar to a Jewish one in that he can find humor and humanity in terrible situations and come out stronger.

And really, WSJ, what kind of world do you think your privileged kids live in? Get a clue already.