Summary

The author begins his memoir with a memory of a precarious New Year’s Eve party hosted by his parents in the early 1970s. It is here that he initially describes the concrete environment in which he was primarily raised: a half-finished, two-story home on the Spokane Indian Reservation, built by his tribe using grant money from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and lived in by the author, his father, Sherman Alexie, Sr., mother, Lillian Alexie, four siblings (twin sisters Kim and Arlene, and older brother Arnold), one half sibling, Mary, and a wave of friends, cousins and various extended family members over the years.

Only seven years old at the time, Alexie was terrified of what he recounts as a "lethal" party (10). His fear was centered on the possibility of being sexually assaulted, which Alexie notes was...