The Place Beyond Grief

An example of a cartoon in the book.

I just finished the funniest book I've ever read. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian made me laugh out loud about once a page. It was not the subject of the book that was so funny, because if I found the subject funny I think I'd be a pretty messed up person. The book is about a 14 year old who lives on an Indian reservation. His father is a drunk and his mom is very poor, but he doesn't really care. What he cares about is that he wants to get out of the Indian Reservation where he lives. He knows if he's going to make anything with his life he has to leave. But leaving means "betraying" his Indian Reservation and his best friend Rowdy. So when he finally makes his decision and goes to a white high-school 20 miles away from the reservation. The entire reservation, except his parents, turn their back on him. But while Junior, the main character, is trying to solves his problems with where his loyalties lie, all his loved ones start dying. Slowly, he enters the place beyond grief. Where, death does not matter to him anymore. 

Sherman Alexie, the author of this book grew  up on an Indian Reservation, and you can tell that even though this is not an auto-biography, some of what he writes about he has gone through. For example, he talks about the impact of alcohol on reservations. The main character, Junior has a good reason to despise alcohol, most of the deaths on his reservation are caused by alcohol. But Junior does not hate alcohol, he is beyond grief which means he is beyond hate too. I wonder if Sherman Alexie once felt as if he couldn't cry, because he was beyond the point of crying. His pain was already a layer back from crying. 

I have never felt like this in my life, but I think that I have had one experience that is a bit similar to Juniors. My aunt Beth had been diagnosed with brain cancer and we knew she was going to die. But the hard part was waiting, and visiting her in the hospital, because you could just tell that she was beyond grief. No crying could help her, she was going to die. I think that's how Junior felt in The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian, crying does not always help the situation. I am reading this blog post know and I realize that after reading this hilarious book, I am writing a very depressing blog post. Maybe that's what Sherman Alexie wanted, for us to see beyond the humor.