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thebacklistborrower's review
emotional
funny
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.0
This was my LAST book in @CBCBooks 30 Works of Canadian Fiction to Read before you Turn 30. And what a book to end with! I expected something so different than what I got. Rooted in magical realism, we follow a handful of characters who struggle with identity and belonging in a colonized Canada.
The storytelling of this novel is one of the best examples of non-linear, decolonial storytelling that I have read yet. As we switch between characters, and times, and places, the story of the creation of Turtle Island and First Woman is told and told again, but each time remixed with a colonial story, from a lecherous Noah on his arc, to Jesus walking on water, to Ahab and Moby Dick. All these patriarchal characters try to interfere with and subjugate First Woman but she rejects them and moves on from their story.
The most interesting characters to me were the “Old Indians”. Four indigenous men and women, said to be between 100 and 500 years old (depending on who you ask), who live in an asylum in Florida but escape periodically to change the direction of the future. They exist in all times and places in this book and are not the “serious elder” trope often used in colonial fiction, but probably the goofiest, most fun characters in the book. I still smile thinking of them all crammed into the back of a truck singing “Happy Birthday” on repeat.
All the characters each struggle with their own issues of identity, and how their first nations identity interacts with the colonial world they are attempting to navigate. What does it mean to leave home, and come back, or come back too late? What needs to change to fit in in a white world? Can you get around the stereotypes that stand in the way of self-determination?
But for all these hard questions and hard answers, there are also soft, funny, and loving moments, and the book is well worth a read for the cast of characters you won’t soon forget.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Domestic abuse, and Emotional abuse
Moderate: Cancer
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