Flight

by Sherman Alexie

So this book started out really well. "Zit" (as he calls himself) is 15 years old. His mother, an Irish American, died when he was six. His father, an Indian (Alexie has written, elsewhere, about how he believes it hog-wash to call Indians "Native Americans," so I'll stick with his language.) Anyway, his father, an Indian, disappeared before he was ever in Zit's life. Zit has been in 22 schools and 21 foster homes. He is irreverent, nasty, and some kind of pissed off. Juvenile Detention center is no place new to him, and he's on a first-name basis with several of the local cops. The writing is honest, tough, and, at times, very funny.

About 20 pages in, Zit aligns himself with a street-wise 17 year old who seems to have all the answers. Following an Indian tradition, he performs a ceremony at about page 50...and that's when things go badly, both for Zit & for the book. Suddenly Zit is zipping along through time: as an FBI agent in the 1970s, then as the son of an Indian chief at the time of Crazy-Horse...zip, he learns a lesson, zip he's gone again...learns another lesson...

The history is interesting. The Native American Indian perspective is much missing in YA fiction, and well-done here. The writing is amazing. The lessons Zit learns are well-worth learning. If readers are willing to suspend their disbelief (as I could sort of, kind of, at times do...), the book is worth reading. Just be willing to go with the time-travel without the time-machine thing.