Flight

"Maybe you can't kill somebody twice for real, but it sure hurts your heart just the same."

Sherman Alexie

Flight

Growing up is hard. Growing up is especially hard if you are a zit-faced, teenage Native America boy struggling through a hardly fail-proof foster care system like Zits is. Abandoned by his father at birth and after his mother died when he was six, Zits has a bunch of problems. He can't find a foster home that fits, he drinks a lot, he starts fires, and he does drugs. One day in prison he meets another teenager, named Justice, who convinces him to run away with him and to shoot up a bank full of people because of what whites did to the Native Americans. Right after he pulls the triggers, he finds himself spirited back in time into the body of one of the FBI agents working to bring down IRON in the 70's. His journey doesn't stop there. He leapfrogs from body to body across time, experiencing snippets of the lives of several different people: a Native American boy at little bighorn, a general in the US Army during one of the many massacres in the settling of the west, a pilot instructor reeling from the death of his Muslim friend from Ethiopia. Along the way he learns what it is like to walk in another mans shoes, and learns a whole different way of looking at the world.

I thoroughly enjoyed this story. I loved the way it looked at how our actions affect others, even if it is years later. I loved the way it looked at how connected we all are, and how two wrongs don't make a right. I loved how it looked at ways we could all be better as people, and the many reasons why what we are doing now is not enough. I loved this book.

I especially loved the character Zits. I loved the way that he described things, and how the language used really made you feel that you are in the head of a sad, hurt, and confused teenager. His character is fantastic, and I really love how the events that happen to him force him to consider really hard questions like those regarding shared cultural blame, absolute moral laws, trust and forgiveness. This was a truly fantastic book. Sherman Alexie is a magnificent writer.