Reviews

I really, really wanted to enjoy this autobiography. I truly believe the stories shared, the experience and perspective are all really important for any North American to read. Exposure to native and indigenous stories and experiences is the only way we as a society are going to even begin understanding the impact of colonialism on native communities.

That being said, the actual way the stories and experiences were written just didn't engage me in the way I hoped. It felt rather like reading a historical account of the experiences rather than a first hand account.

I'd still recommend this book as I believe the more we learn about native and indigenous experiences, the more we can do to uplift and empower change.

abbie_'s review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional informative medium-paced

I finally picked up the autobiography of two-spirit lesbian Ojibwa-Cree elder, Ma-Nee Chacaby, who has lived an extraordinary life, overcoming countless traumas to live as her true self once she hit her 40s. In her 60s, Chacaby, together with Mary Louisa Plummer, took on the monumental task of putting not only her life, but the lives of her parents and grandparents, to paper. To say she’s not had an easy life would be a gross understatement. Chacaby has endured alcoholism, child abuse, racism, rape, child death, domestic abuse, deteriorating vision, homophobia and more, but she’s come out the other side of it determined to find the joy in life. Her mindset is admirable.

Even through audio, I found myself struggling a bit with the style though. It’s very direct, no fanfare, and more a laying down of events in chronological order than a true reflection of everything. But it would be a very long book if that were the case, and I think the authors were more concerned with squeezing in every remarkable aspect of Chacaby’s 60 years.

In the afterword, Mary Louisa Plummer draws comparisons to other told-to autobiographies of Indigenous women, pointing out that these lacked ‘emotional depth’, recounting only the facts and not engaging with any of their feelings around the events. She says that a Two Spirit Journey has tried to offer more emotional depth, and while it’s true that Chacaby does not hold back from baring the most traumatic times of her life, I personally did not find much introspection within the book. The emotions displayed felt a bit surface level. The memoirs I usually read (though I am aware of the difference between autobiographies and memoirs) dwell for pages on a singular event, a memory, the author plumbing their emotional depths. It’s just a difference in approach, and one of the reasons I’m not going to rate this otherwise remarkable book. A valuable read for the perspective Chacaby offers as an Ojibwa-Cree lesbian elder!

Oh, and if you listen to the audiobook like I did, I’d recommend 1.8 or even 2 x speed - the narrator is decent but talks extremely slowly.

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patalienearson's review

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challenging emotional inspiring reflective sad slow-paced

4.0

5erinnicole's review

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challenging emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

4.5

I picked this book up on a whim, after seeing it recommended on a local bookshop website. I didn’t expect to be so interested from the start, but when I first looked up from it 100 pages had gone by. This book told a deeply different story than my own, but held me spellbound nonetheless. The author is frank, honest, and reading this really feels like having someone in the room telling you everything as the remember it. Despite the hard topics covered I stayed engaged, and found so many new pieces of history that l never would have known otherwise. So glad that Ma-Nee advocated for her story to be told.

pulchro24's review

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challenging emotional inspiring fast-paced

4.5

kchin's review against another edition

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challenging hopeful inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

An important voice we must listen to.

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