The 2008 “One Book, One Redmond, One Summer” reading campaign is drawing to a close.

On Friday, managing librarian Chris Livingston from the Redmond Regional Library led a discussion of this summer’s featured novel, Sherman Alexie’s “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian” at the Redmond Senior Center.

Alexie and the book’s illustrator Ellen Forney will appear at a free, community-wide event at 7 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 25 at the Redmond High School Performing Arts Center, 17272 NE 104th St. Earlier on Sept. 25, Alexie will meet with Language Arts classes at Redmond High School.

Livingston noted that the high school performing arts center was chosen as the venue for the culminating event because the public library might have been temporarily closed for remodeling at the time of the author’s and illustrator’s visits. And Alexie tends to draw large crowds. A National Book Award winner, he is very popular in this region.

“Both Ellen and Sherman are extremely vivacious and exciting people. Sherman is so funny — he does a lot of stand-up comedy,” Livingston remarked.

She mentioned Alexie’s background as a student, first at Gonzaga University and then Washington State University, where he started getting published as a writer. His books have been both humorous and serious but inevitably describe his struggles as a Native American.

Although it’s a sensitive subject, Alexie has been very frank in discussing his family’s and his own past with alcohol addiction.

The group at the senior center discussed the causes and effects of the alcoholism that was rampant on the Indian reservation in “The Absolutely True Diary …,” a semi-autobiographical account of Alexie’s life as a teen. Being poor, feeling ostracized and hopeless sometimes lead people to think that drugs and alcohol are the only ways to numb their pain, the group agreed.

Livingston inquired, “Why the title mentioning ‘a part-time Indian?’ What do you think is behind that?”

Discussion participant Gen Cahoon speculated, “He separated himself, made that jump, that giant leap …” referring to the book’s hero, Arnold Spirit (nicknamed Junior) who decided to leave his high school on an Indian reservation and go to a white high school, because he wanted a better education and more opportunities.

“His parents supported him to get away from there, which I thought was pretty unusual,” Cahoon added. The group concurred that though Junior’s family was troubled, there was underlying love and support.

Elaine Lee commented, “He had a foot in both camps, going back and forth between the two worlds.”

Livingston interjected that when Alexie was a young man, he was often very angry. She described an incident when he spoke at a book discussion with older people and insulted them by saying that most great works of literature were written when the authors were young.

“After 9/11, Sherman said he was no longer going to focus on the things that keep us apart. He said, ‘I’m going to focus on the things that keep us together,’” Livingston explained.

That also is an important theme in “The Absolutely True Diary …” as the character of Junior learns to trust people outside of the reservation and earns their respect, as well.

The senior group also talked about the reasons why the character of Junior draws so many cartoons.

“It’s a release — it’s a way he can communicate what he’s feeling,” said Dorothy Gilroy. “It’s very personal, but his friends can understand it.”

Shirley Breitenstein stated, “I think a lot of times we close ourselves off to young people. We don’t want to go back and relive it or admit how much things hurt. We all know we were young once and did crazy things. If we didn’t, it’s too bad, because that was a good time to do crazy things.”

The group laughed but Lee agreed, “Pictures can clearly demonstrate what words are hard to say.”

Livingston asked the group to think about Junior’s bonds with his two best friends in the book — one an Indian like himself, the other white.

Speaking about his Indian friend, an ill-mannered lug named Rowdy, Gilroy said, “They’re both outcasts and those people seem to find each other.”

But Junior’s closest white friend was also an outcast because he was so smart he was considered a nerd.

The end of the story was climactic as Junior became the unexpected superstar at a basketball game, playing for the white school’s team, against the school from his Indian reservation. It was a great triumph and yet, in some ways, he felt embarrassed because it was like he was betraying his own people.

“Like survivor’s guilt,” said Lee.

As the discussion wrapped up, the seniors wondered how the high school students would interact with Alexie the following week and what kind of questions they would ask him.

“As adults, we see the tragedy in this story,” said Livingston. “I think the high school kids will see the hope — the thought that Junior is going to go on and be okay.”

The object of the “One Book, One Redmond, One Summer” campaign, now in its second year, was to get all adults and teens in the city to read the same book, exchange their opinions, and appreciate their differences and similarities.