Po-tee-weet?

by Ellyb on April 7, 2010

With Sherman Alexie's novel "Flight," he may have catapulted himself to the top tier of my favorite authors list. Cribbing unapologetically from Kurt Vonnegut, (the book opens with "Po-tee-weet") Alexie tells us the story of a half-Indian, half-white foster kid named Zits, so named for obvious reasons, who feels unloved, unwanted, and untethered from society. From this stems his decision to commit a terrible act of violence, which unexpectedly triggers a sudden journey out of the present and out of his own body, into vastly different periods of American history and the bodies of similarly different people.
In becoming other people, Zits begins to know himself. It is a very simple premise for all it's fantastical trappings, but the story is told with such humor and anger and love that I was completely swept up in Zits' personal odyssey.
A great story, a great read, and a great author.