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A review by laurel00
Jonny Appleseed by Joshua Whitehead
emotional
hopeful
reflective
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
5.0
I picked this up a bit on a whim at the library, with a vague memory of having heard a few people recommend it, and I'm so incredibly glad I did.
This is a beautiful story about Indigenous identity and community, and specifically the way newer generations engage with their culture. When your family has had so much of their history and identity forcibly stripped away from them, the more generations pass, the harder it can seem to connect to that culture. But Whitehead really showcases that just because you don't necessarily speak the language or actively engage in certain traditions or just because you spend some time away from the land on which you grew up, that doesn't mean you are any less attached to your indigenousness. That your culture can live within the love you have for your family and for your community and within the memories you have of those who have loved and raised you.
It was fascinating to follow a main character that teetered the line of growing up in a world that didn't accept his queerness and his Two-Spirit identity, and then moving to a city that allowed him to explore that queerness, but ostracized his indigenousness and made him feel more and more removed from his family and his community. Following him as he battled this dilemma of trying to find out what exactly he considered "home" was heartbreaking and beautiful.
I also really appreciated that Whitehead discusses queerness and sexuality in a way that is effectively tied to sex. I feel like, especially in the last few years, with conservatives and the right trying to fear monger and falsely present queer people as groomers or predatory, and trying to convince others that teaching children about gender identity and sexuality is inherently sexual, we as a community have been trying to overcompensate. We've been battling these lies by trying to paint queerness as something that is pure, to the point that our identities and our shared experiences have become almost completely devoid of sex. We're so afraid of being oversexualized, we're trying to hide the parts of ourselves and our community that are built upon or at least tied to sex in some way or other. And I have so many qualms about this, it was really refreshing to read a story that didn't try to hide that aspect of queerness. That was explicit not in the way that a romance novel or an erotica may be, but in a way that was very introspective.
There were a lot of moments in this book that were quite jarring and maybe a bit difficult to read through, but as a whole it was extremely raw and honest and real. It deserves all of the praise it has received, if not more, and I definitely recommend it.
This is a beautiful story about Indigenous identity and community, and specifically the way newer generations engage with their culture. When your family has had so much of their history and identity forcibly stripped away from them, the more generations pass, the harder it can seem to connect to that culture. But Whitehead really showcases that just because you don't necessarily speak the language or actively engage in certain traditions or just because you spend some time away from the land on which you grew up, that doesn't mean you are any less attached to your indigenousness. That your culture can live within the love you have for your family and for your community and within the memories you have of those who have loved and raised you.
It was fascinating to follow a main character that teetered the line of growing up in a world that didn't accept his queerness and his Two-Spirit identity, and then moving to a city that allowed him to explore that queerness, but ostracized his indigenousness and made him feel more and more removed from his family and his community. Following him as he battled this dilemma of trying to find out what exactly he considered "home" was heartbreaking and beautiful.
I also really appreciated that Whitehead discusses queerness and sexuality in a way that is effectively tied to sex. I feel like, especially in the last few years, with conservatives and the right trying to fear monger and falsely present queer people as groomers or predatory, and trying to convince others that teaching children about gender identity and sexuality is inherently sexual, we as a community have been trying to overcompensate. We've been battling these lies by trying to paint queerness as something that is pure, to the point that our identities and our shared experiences have become almost completely devoid of sex. We're so afraid of being oversexualized, we're trying to hide the parts of ourselves and our community that are built upon or at least tied to sex in some way or other. And I have so many qualms about this, it was really refreshing to read a story that didn't try to hide that aspect of queerness. That was explicit not in the way that a romance novel or an erotica may be, but in a way that was very introspective.
There were a lot of moments in this book that were quite jarring and maybe a bit difficult to read through, but as a whole it was extremely raw and honest and real. It deserves all of the praise it has received, if not more, and I definitely recommend it.