Reviews

The Reason You Walk: A Memoir by Wab Kinew

selinayoung's review against another edition

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4.0

Excellent read. An accessible and important read on how to walk in a good way on the path to reconciliation. Also importance of self healing, family and community.

jessicatempleton's review against another edition

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5.0

Fantastic book! I connected with this book emotionally, spiritually and intellectually. I would love for all Canadians and anyone seeking reconciliation to read this book. It teaches the road we must travel to find forgiveness on a deeply emotional level. Wab, also, captures some of the most important moments in Canadian and Aboriginal history.

ncrozier's review against another edition

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4.0

Well written, entertaining read that simultaneously teaches about Aboriginal culture and our country's history.

kimcheel's review against another edition

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4.0

As I read more memoirs and books by Indigenous authors, especially Canadian, I become even more aware of the need for Reconciliation. I appreciate the emotional labour done by these authors so people like me can be better informed.

In this book, I especially appreciated the detail about sundance - something I knew next to nothing about. Thank you for sharing those experiences.

rfw262's review against another edition

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3.0

I learned from the stories and could appreciate the struggles, but the writing style was very difficult to get through.

sweetramona's review

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4.0

This book really moved me. Kinew deals with themes of love, forgiveness, and reconciliation both on a personal and societal level. Both are worthwhile narratives and he does a good job of tying them together with minimal cliché and with a surprising measure of subtlety. Kinew has introduced some of the depth of Anishinaabe culture to Canadians through his journalistic work, and this book extends that process through the story of his relationship to his father, and his father's relationship to his own culture and the one that removed him to a residential school as a small child. His father's subsequent path, while not always smooth, was truly remarkable, and Kinew illustrates the results both in societal and personal terms.

This book is a thought-provoking, generous read, and I would recommend it to every Canadian.

rocketbride's review against another edition

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"I told him how sad it was that I could speak Ojibwe to someone my age in jail but had never done so in university."

lisalikesdogs's review against another edition

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3.0

I enjoyed this, the writing style wasn't my favourite but I learned a lot and Wab is lovely.

amn028's review against another edition

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3.0

I don't read a lot of autobiographies but I love Wab Kinew and was very interested in this story. It was more than a biography. The topics covered his father's life, his life and the struggles of indigenous life in Canada with the residential,schooling system and reconciliation attempts. I enjoyed that the book followed all of these tangents. The feelings Wab describes after watching his father die is very relatable for anyone who has gone through a similar process. The book allows us to learn more about one residential school survivor and how this experience affected all those in his life.

baffy's review

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5.0

What an inspiring book, I couldn’t put it down. Honest about the damage done by the Residential School system, the Canadian Government and the Catholic Church but so hopeful about the possibility of true Reconciliation.
Another book that should be on every high school curriculum but especially for Catholic schools.

Kinew lets us on on the sacred celebration of the Sundance and contrasts it beautifully with the canonization ceremony for St Kateri Tekakwitha, the first Indigenous saint. His father’s ability to ultimately forgive the Church for its sins against him, makes him saintly in his own right but when the author shows his continued doubt, he gives the reader an opening to join him on the journey.

We need a path to forgiveness and Kinew gives me hope for that possibility. The path starts with education and acceptance of the wrongs done before we can pray for that forgiveness.
Kinew shows that Reconciliation is possible although not easy. Hopefully we Canadians will take the journey with him going forward.