IF I EVER GET OUT OF HERE

 

if i ever get out of here

IF I EVER GET OUT OF HERE, written by Eric Gansworth, tackles tough issues  with raw rugged honesty.  The author, an enrolled member of the Onondaga Nation, grew up on the Tuscarora Indian Reservation in upstate New York.  This coming of age novel brings the reader to this Reservation world.  This world for most readers is a very different place, a different culture, but this novel resonates with universal themes for teens from any place or culture:  the clash of social expectations, the struggle to understand one’s own identity and within that, to figure out, “who am I and who do I want to be?”  What is my place within my family, school, community and friendships?

            In this novel Lewis Blake steps – or leaps – out of the safety of his Reservation life into the nearly all-white junior high.  Lewis, an Indian, and, worse than that, a smart Indian, is uninvited, unwelcome, and unappreciated.

              Lewis’s passion is music – guitar and Beatles, particularly Paul McCartney.  Listening to McCartney’s new “post-Beatledom” songs, Lewis asks himself:  “I wondered which life McCartney himself secretly wanted – his new one in Wings or his old one with the Beatles…he wanted to make a distinction…He wanted to be Paul McCartney, not “Beatle Paul.”  In the same way, I thought, I wanted to be just me, Lewis Blake, not “Indian Lewis” like I was at school.  I didn’t have any objection to being known as an Indian, but couldn’t I have my own life as just me? Or like McCartney, was I stuck being expected to play the songs of my first band for the rest of my life?  Could you play both, or were you required to make a choice?”

Could you have both?  And could you share it with a friend who lives on the other side of Snakeline, the boundary between Reservation and White? Friendship is always tricky, but being friends with “them” requires many risky decisions.  Music became a strong link of communication, a safe language.

Francisco X. Stork on the book’s back cover describes the heart of this story: “The beauty of this novel lies in the powerful friendship between two young men who are so externally different and so internally similar.”  

Lewis’s new friend, George, is a military kid with an air force dad who has  strict rules and a German mother who keeps a meticulously clean home.  How can Lewis trust anything about them?  Or trust himself not to embarrass himself and humiliate his entire family?  At home his best friend is his uncle, a war-damaged Vietnam Vet.  And what if his White classmates ever found out what it really means to be a Reservation Indian?

How far does one go to be a friend?  Risk physical safety?  Betray one’s family?  Humiliate oneself? Even drop out of school?

This novel reminds me of Sherman Alexie’s Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian.   Honest descriptions depict Reservation life – a house that is falling apart, a family that is missing a father, yet something strong holds the family together. 

IF I EVER GET OUT OF HERE answers Lewis’ question, “Could you play both?”  The answer echoes words by Simon Ortiz, written as part of his introduction to Norla Chee’s poetry collection, CEDAR SMOKE ON ABALONE MOUNTAIN:

  “It is necessary I believe to indicate and illustrate comparisons in order to express a fuller and richer dimension of cultural vitality.  And to show cultural entities not working against or not contrary to others but to depict the differences that bring about a fuller appreciation of different cultural legacies in vigorous relationship with others.” 

Lewis Blake, one smart Indian, is bullied and rejected by peers and adults for trying, but not by everyone.  In this book, we experience the confusion and courage felt and required each day in little actions and big ones,by many, especially Lewis, as he continues to ”play both.” 

Eric Gansworth, author, has published nine books of fiction and poetry for adults, exhibited his art internationally.

IF I EVER GET OUT OF HERE is an Arthur A. Levine Book, published by Scholastic, August 2013.  See also:  www.ericgansworth.com   www.thisisteen.com/books

 

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