By: Ken Willette – 12.25
I have always been an avid reader, having devoured over 500 books. So when the challenge was issued to read The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian, I relished the opportunity to accept that televised call to action.
And believe me, as a parent and as an elected official, it definitely opened my eyes as to the sexually graphic, racist, homophobic, misogynistic, and derogatory language used by the author, Sherman Alexie, through the vehicle of his main protagonist— who does portray semi- autobiographical tales of growing up Native American.
Sherman Alexie’s character lives on a reservation, called the “rez,” where the hardships of unemployment, poverty, hunger, and alcoholism are omnipresent.
In the book, the protagonist’s dad grapples with alcoholism, his mom battles her own demons, and his sister routinely isolates herself away from the travails of life on the reservation, in a secluded part of their home.
Regardless of their depressing family issues, they deeply love the main character, including an inspirational grandmother.
Eventually, the protagonist is able to attend a predominantly white high school outside of the reservation school system. He faces the cold reality of a culture shock, the presence of blatant racism, and, at first, either indifference or outright hostility from many of his peers. The fact that the main character gradually overcomes those obstacles and excels in his new high school environment, is truly commendable and worthy of reading.
Unfortunately, while I have read other Native American stories, including the emotional Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, Empire of the Summer Moon, and Killers of the Flower Moon, I was left more angry with Sherman Alexie as an author, while still naturally having empathy for his profound family loss and heralding the underdog victories of a Native American “rez” teenager.
By reviewing both his early journey and learning more about his morally questionable and manipulative adult conduct during the Me-Too Era, I became increasingly confused as to why females at our public meetings were placing Alexie on such an exalted pedestal.
I think Sherman went often for the shock value with much of his internal and external dialogue, which I can certainly handle as a mature adult freely selecting my reading choices.
I have been on the official record, stating that parents at Methuen High School must be fully notified in advance of explicit and adult oriented themes linked to all courses and accessible books. And that ultimately these informed parents are also given a universal opt out, based on any religious and moral objections, before their children are even exposed to Alexie’s book, or any other material of a sexualized, racist, chauvinistic, and culturally insensitive matter.
No one that is expressing valid concerns about a better parental notification system is even remotely interested in banning books.
In fact, I welcome the book debate as an opportunity to dissect Alexie’s words and read further about his own actions, especially in light of his acclaim of winning national book awards and penning a movie screenplay. However, his gross pattern of mistreating a cluster of women cannot go unanswered.
In his book, I immediately noticed a ton of red flags regarding the teenager that Sherman created and his demeaning behavior around females.
He nonchalantly tosses out references to bitches. He describes– metaphorically –of inserting his dick into the girl hole of a tree. Calling someone a “tree fag” served as part of the same passage.
When he was confronted with the news of the untimely death of a family member, he apparently highlighted the moment by writing that a young, attractive female guidance counselor offered Sherman’s character an innocent hug and it gave him an instant erection.
Boners and jerking off are featured repeatedly in this book, often interjected during passages highlighting his grief.
Personally, I found that intersection of despair and self gratification to be abnormal, but my field of study is not in psychology.
Nevertheless, I became outraged by his brazen philosophy regarding the objectification of women, especially in a profitable book being promoted to impressionable students, ages 14 to 15, at Methuen High School.
And if you think Sherman wasn’t objectifying enough women throughout the book, just take the time to learn about his later adult interactions with promising young Native American female writers and poets.
National Public Radio did a comprehensive show—dated March 5, 2018, which focused on how Sherman allegedly abused his celebrity status as a bestselling Native American author in order to have sex with promising female writers, many from the teaching profession.
These brave women testified to NPR that they were sexually harassed and fearful that if they didn’t sleep with him, Alexie would use his status in the publishing industry to blackball them and they would never be published.
Alexie issued a public apology, by which he never fully acknowledged all of the allegations of these young writers, but only that he made mistakes and that there is “truth” in what was being stated to NPR.
But it really doesn’t take a psychologist to connect the dots between the misogynistic behavior of Sherman’s composite protagonist and an unchecked and overpowering mindset toward women later in life.
But again, please read the NPR piece entitled,-” It Just Felt Wrong—Sherman Alexie’s Accusers Go On The Record.”
During that radio show and its accompanying article, 10 women corroborated stories of unwanted sexual contact and harassment, whereby Alexie pressured many of them into sex, and exhibited an overall unprofessional behavior—verbally, physically, and worse.
If we are going to discuss this book in its full context, we are definitely bringing in the totality of the author’s behavior. I remember during my college days, this stunning revelation definitely would have been broached by all vested parties in an unfettered academic environment.
Unfortunately, some people in 2025 fall for the same, scripted intellectual laziness of promoting a faux outrage over censorship or burning books.
If the celebrated “banned” books are readily available at the global marketplace of Amazon, these authors are certainly not suffering any massive backlash or stoppage in the royalty checks.
Let’s not diminish what has transpired the last few months at public forums in Methuen, but rather debate it in a free and intellectually curious society.
We must certainly not fail, with a new school board in January, to provide disclaimers to parents who entrust us to educate their kids.
When directed to electronically access books with depictions of oral sex and sex devices such as Gender Queer, which as an adult I read– but I have grave reservations for minors to peruse, parents must be notified or risk civil rights violations and potential lawsuits taking place.
Celebrating academic freedom, and implementing strong parental safeguards, are not diametrically opposite goals.
And can we finally stop with the loopholes and electronic backdoors to so-called taboo books, without at least notifying parents and giving them empowerment over exposure of adult topics to their minor children.
That definitely reeks of forced indoctrination and runs contrary to landmark Supreme Court decisions upholding parental rights in the domain of public education.
Don’t the parents, voters, and taxpayers of Methuen deserve that same level of transparency, constitutional protection, and oversight for how they raise their children?
Ken Willette is a member of the Methuen School Committee, is a former city councilor and former aid to State Representative Arthur Broadhurst◊