Readalikes: If you enjoyed September's selection . . .

If you liked You Don't Have to Say You Love Me: A Memoir by Sherman Alexie, then you might also enjoy these books recommended by our discussion group members:

• The Leaphorn and Chee novels about the Navajo tribal police by Tony Hillerman
• The Love Medicine and Justice series by Louise Erdrich
• Empire of the Summer Moon by S. C. Gwynne
• Elsewhere: A Memoir by Richard Russo
• Son of a Gun: A Memoir by Justin St. Germain
• Educated: A Memoir by Tara Westover

September Not Fiction Book Discussions

You Don't Have to Say You Love Me: A Memoir by Sherman Alexie is a story of grief as complicated in form and content as the life it describes. Alexie, a Spokane/Coeur d'Alene Indian, is the author of one of the most censored and yet beloved young adult novels in the United States, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, along with over twenty other books and films. Alexie says, "This book is a series of circles, sacred and profane." Repetitive and metaphorical in form and language, his narrative circles around his difficult relationship with his mother, his Native American heritage, his childhood of poverty and being bullied, his chronic health issues, his escape from the worst aspects of reservation life and his success as an author, and his deep need to belong and to be loved. Complicating any reading of Alexie's memoir even further is the fact that just months after its publication, a number of women authors, some of them Native American, accused him of using his fame and power in the publishing world to make sexual advances and inappropriate remarks over the years of his success. Alexie made a public apology and declined the American Library Association's 2018 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction. His publisher, Little, Brown, has delayed the publication of the paperback edition of the book. He has posted an open letter on his website saying that he has stepped away from public life for a while.

What do you think? How do you read Alexie's memoir in light of these recent events, and these events in light of the memoir? Is it possible to read the book on its own terms without reference to the allegations? An important question of the #metoo movement is whether we should even patronize the work of an artist guilty of ethical misconduct. What do we learn about Lillian Alexie? About reservation life in the 20th century? About the "spiritual burden" of being the last generation fully immersed in Native American language and tradition? About the experience of being "a first-generation cultural immigrant to the United States"? About the ways in which trauma can be cultural, generational, and personal? About our own cultural blindspots and our own willingness to judge?

We hope you will join the discussion: Tuesday, September 4, at 6:30 p.m. at Main Library; Thursday, September 20, at 11:00 a.m. at West Ashley Branch Library; and here on the blog.