Sherman Alexie

It's been a few years since we've heard from one of the Pacific Northwest's most enjoyable writers: Sherman Alexie. He has just released a new novel titled Flight. In typical Alexie style, it is funny and depressing and gripping all at the same time. The narrator is a 15-year-old half-Indian, half-Irish street kid who has a revolving door relationship with detention centers. And even though he has had a lot of adult experiences and gained a lot of adult knowledge in his short life of crime, he is still a kid. In the middle of another criminal act, he seems to be transported through time and space to inhabit the body of another person. He continues his travels through much of the novel, inhabiting different people and living through different times. And as he travels, he begins to gain some of the maturity and thought processes that need to go with the street knowledge he has already acquired. It's an interesting book, written by an entertaining author - an author who openly acknowledges that he thinks librarians are sexy, so how can you not like him?