“Flight,” the third novel by WSU distinguished alumnus Sherman Alexie, is earning critical praise around the country. According to the May 27th review in The New York Times Sunday Book Review, “It is raw and vital, often raucously funny, and there isn’t a false word in it.”
Published this spring by Grove Press Black Cat, “Flight” is the story of a 15-year-old boy who is half-Irish, half-American Indian and wholly alone in the world after his father deserts him at birth and his mother dies of breast cancer when he’s six.
“Call me Zits,” says the young narrator, and so begins what The Times called a “hallucinatory” new novel that is “all rage and heart.”
Alexie, who received the WSU Regents Distinguished Alumnus award in 2003, is the author of eight books of poetry, several short story collections, two screenplays and two other novels, “Killer Indian” and “Reservation Blues.” A novel for young adults– “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian”– is scheduled for publication in September by Little, Brown.
Alexie received a bachelor’s degree in American Studies from WSU in 1994. “I Would Steal Horses” and “The Business of Fancydancing,” both poetry collections, were published just one year later.
Alexie’s website, www.fallsapart.com/flight.htm, describes “Flight” as “the hilarious and tragic portrait of an orphaned Indian boy who travels back and forth through time in a violent search for his true identity.”
