Hi friends, happy Friday! I hope you all had a good week! Today I’m posting my review of Sherman Alexie’s memoir, You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me.

You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me by: Sherman Alexie: This was author, Sherman Alexie’s memoir that dives deep into the relationship he had with his mother. The reader learns about his life, growing up as Native Indian on the reservation in a small town in Washington state, his love for English and words and the very complicated relationship he has with his family, but specifically his mother. Right off the bat, the reader can tell that Alexie is a gifted writer; the way he’s able to convey so many emotions in the form of poems and his storytelling is very encapsulating, we are fully immersed and fully engaged. The use of repetition to really get his point across was also a great device to evoke a lot of emotion. This wasn’t an easy read; there were quite a few moments throughout that were hard and poignant. This wasn’t told in any sort of chronological order; stories of his life bounced from time period to time period – his childhood one chapter, then his adulthood the next – but that worked for this book because then the reader never knew what to expect and it just made the stories hit a little harder. The only thing that the reader didn’t care for was the length of this; it was just over 450 pages and at times some of his stories dragged a bit; the poems did really help to break up the text but his stories could get a little wordy. Aside from that, this was an interesting and moving memoir, that if you’ve read any of this author’s work, this is definitely worth checking out.