Comments on: Robert Arthur Alexie: Porcupines and China Dolls

By: KevinfromCanada

KevinfromCanada — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 17:47:24 +0000

Alexie was chief of the Tetlit Gwich’in band and, in fact, helped negotiate their land claim. He knows this territory only too well and I must admit that background influenced my opinion of the book. We tend to think that those who were impacted by this disgraceful behavior have all died — it is even more sobering to consider that there are still those who actually experienced it. I admire him for making the decision to document the experience. I gather he is every bit as impressive when he makes a personal appearance and reads from this book. Your review is quite perceptive in noting that the first part is a narrative that sets the stage; I do think after the first 100 pages or so he lets his own experience take over (and I don’t think that is a bad thing). For me, the last third of the book may be both the most impressive and heart-breaking — just when the reader thinks there has been a breakthrough, Alexie shows us that the future does not unfold any better than the past.

By: Trevor

Trevor — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 16:29:12 +0000

There’s a lot to this book, Kevin, thanks so much for sending it to me — forgot to note that in the review and will correct that now. As a visceral read, I’m not sure I can think of many that beat it — and I think the style actually strengthens this part. It might be his anger and indignation coming through the way it does when a teen-age boy is indignant, but we certainly feel it. And then when it is tempered, it is all the more powerful.

I wondered if it was based on some of his own experiences. What an awful experience . . .

By: KevinfromCanada

KevinfromCanada — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 16:20:41 +0000

From my perspective, this is a very fair and perceptive review, both in highlighting Alexie’s strengths and the challenges that some of his writing creates. It is a powerful book, not a pleasant one, and — on my second read — I found myself more sympathetic with some of that awkward language than I did the first time. I do think you are on the right track in wondering whether his own emotion got in the way of his prose (this book is, in fact, a fictional memoir — he experienced all that he writes about).

Thanks for the reminder of the book — it is too soon for another read, but I do intend to go back to it again sometime in the future.