Reviews with content warning for Body shaming - A Council of Dolls

Reviews tagging 'Body shaming'

A Council of Dolls by Mona Susan Power

1 review

just_one_more_paige's review

challenging emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

First, thanks to NetGalley for the eARC for review (all opinions are my own). I was interested in this one as soon as I read the blurb, and requested it right away. But, as per usual, I didn't get to it until post-publication. Knowing that about myself, I requested that my library get the audiobook (I just am really getting into those, you know) and was hoping it would get added right after the pub date. Unfortunately, that was not the case. BUT, then it was long-listed for the National Book Award and was *immediately* available. And since I had requested it weeks before that, I was conveniently right at the top of the holds list and here we are. Look at me go. *wink*

A Council of Dolls follows three generations of Yanktonai Dakota women, connected over a century by the experiences of massacres, Indian boarding schools, cultural pride and advocacy, family, and a tradition of treasured dolls. Cora was born in 1888, in the wake of the so-called Indian Wars, sent across the country, far from her home and family to be "civilized." Lillian is Cora's daughter, born in 1925 into a tumultuous home life, as her parents (but especially her father) deal with the trauma of their youth, and the family generally struggles with meeting their needs. Cora and her sister, Blanche, are also sent to boarding schools, where Blanche refuses to bow to vicious nuns and Cora finds refuge from tragedy around her in memories of a doll she had to give away before leaving home. Lilian's daughter, Sissy, is both our opening and closing narrator. Born in Chicago in 1961, she has both wonderful and terrifying memories of time with her volatile mother. And she too has a close dool friend, who supports her, in particular, through those terrifying and fragile times. The stories of these women's lives shadow and mirror each other's in many ways, and those tales are told both in their own voices and through the voices and perspectives of each of their dolls.

Well, I can see why this made awards lists. It's incredibly emotionally resonant, with prose that is powerful, artistic, and yet remains accessible and really compulsively readable. I made it through the audiobook in just a few days, because I just kept wanting to pick it up and re-immerse myself in these characters. It doesn't shy away from terrible and heartbreaking truths, but it maintains an equal focus on the cultural and familial connections that provide reason and hope. While all three perspectives (possibly we could ever say four, since the age difference between Sissy's two sections is big enough to set them very apart from each other), were moving and compelling, I was particularly drawn to the first, that of Sissy as a young girl. This is honestly a surprise for me, as child narrators are *very* hit or miss for me (and more often than not, a miss, with the notable exception, recently-ish, of Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line.) In any case, the way that complex topics like land theft and residential schools and forced assimilation leading to language/culture loss were explained to Sissy as a child was incredibly touching and tender and heartbreaking. It was such a highlight (though one would wish it didn’t have to be) of passing on what does remain - the good memories and touchstones along with the bad and traumatic. Similarly, the hypervigilance of Sissy, as a child with an inconsistent/unstable parent (at least in part as a result of an attempt to "toughen a child up to prepare them for the world") is well portrayed and adds to the building heartbreaking-ness of the story, while also being well balanced with the softness of the good memories of a father when he’s there and a mother in her better moments.

Another aspect of this novel that I was lukewarm on, at least to start, was the doll theme and parallels through the generations. Honestly, I am usually lukewarm on dolls - they were really never a "thing" for me, so I don't even have nostalgia to help with that. But to be honest, the dolls as a literary vehicle for the things each character knows but doesn’t want to/isn’t ready for yet (or symbolic of a literal experiencing/fate of their owner), is developed so well. The creepy-factor I usually get from dolls was just, nonexistent, by the end, because of the power with which Power's writing utilizes them. So affecting. Between the dolls and the girls who bonded with them, this novel covers residential schools to massacres to “legal” land grabs to the ‘self-loathing born of brutally effective colonization’ to the intergenerational effects of the realities and memories of these atrocities (and the many ways the legacy of being failed can lead to failure in return), in an overall individual experience of the universal truth of indigenous peoples' treatment at the hands of colonizers (white people) and their government(s). The thing is though (and I know I've said this already, but I feel the need to reiterate), there is also, especially in the work that the older Sissy's perspectives has done and continues to do towards healing, but resonant in ways throughout the generations, a great deal of deep, life-saving, cultural connection, familial support and love, a clear effort towards doing one's best as a parent, and just generally a thread of belonging and yearning and hope that brings a well of, if not necessarily joy or happiness, of a sort of contentment and peace that isn't perfect, but is uplifting/fulfilling all the same.

Throughout this novel, there is a stark acknowledgment of truth, mixed with a delivery of that truth with a profound tenderness, that I feel can only come from (at least semi) autobiographical experience, or an experience that one is intimately familiar with (in the tradition of family stories/lore). The Author's Note/Afterward of the novel does indicate that that is at least partially true for the contents of this novel, and while it would have been a forceful read either way, that makes the heart of this story, the women and the dolls at its center, beat that much stronger.

"Sometimes when you lose every fight, you end up breaking."

"I let out a shaky breath and learn an awful lesson I still don't understand. How when a dream comes true have to feel deserving or else it brings on;y guilt and shame."

"In all the stories I've read and heard about magic, people do best when they just believe. It's when they start poking at it, asking too many questions, that everything unravels."

"My father says that we should welcome all stories to see if they are worth remembering. You can put ideas on and off just like moccasins. You can wear them and set them aside, hold onto those you find meaningful. Don't be afraid of learning something beyond what we're able to teach you. Even the wisest person doesn't know everything. But it's also important to preserve the ideas that make sense to you, even in the face of resistance--someone telling you that you're wrong and only they know the truth. Such boasting is evidence of a fool, perhaps a dangerous one."

"I just want you to know that what strangers make of you means nothing. Your heart knows the truth."

"We don't see the truth. But our hearts feel it if we listen."

"Creativity that comes from our most courageous, authentic heart opens us to the Flow, an unseen river of images, insights, and visions where we connect across time with all that has ever lived."

"You're the writer, so you'll understand this better than me, but I learned that we can't heal the story by changing the plot, pretending the awful stuff didn't happen. Tragedy just breaks out somewhere else along the line. The story won't heal until the players do."

" Survival is never a waste... Remember what you told me one time, how you felt your main job some years was to stay alive? Well, you did your job, you made it through. Not everyone does. It takes fortitude."

“Stories are funny that way. They can kick up your nerves even though you know the ending.”

“There is no true healing without remembering.”

"Wrecked children inherit the power of the destroyed - a formidable energy. They create the ferocious allies they need either to survive or let go and embrace destruction. Mended children carry stronger medicine. Their magic unites the flow of Time with Love, our oldest waters. And so they bring us Home."

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