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A review by heykellyjensen
Mamaskatch: A Cree Coming of Age by Darrel J. McLeod
McLeod's memoir isn't one for the faint of heart or for those looking for a happy story about life as a First Nations person. It's a brutal story about intergenerational trauma -- McLeod's mother was a survivor of the residential school movement in Canada and an alcoholic, among other things -- as well as of sexual abuse, poverty, and the ways that society has failed Native people. McLeod's writing is episodic, as opposed to narrative, and at one point, the story is told from the point of view of his mother. Throughout, we meet his siblings, including one who is trans, and we learn who McLeod's own abuser was and how that abuse followed him through his own personal sexuality exploration, as well as what he experiences while working as an assistant in an emergency room.
As bleak and sad and tough as the book is to read, it doesn't feel hopeless. McLeod's voice really shines through as he works to understand what he carries within him and what it is he is able to offer the world to leave things a bit better than they were for him. There's an especially powerful moment when he works to help a man in the hospital who was on suicide watch to choose not to die and it allows us to not only see the massive size of McLeod's heart but also see the tremendous life he himself has lived.
We don't see enough First Nations or Native voices, let alone in memoir, as told in such a way to be authentic to their storytelling ways (so many white/Western readers are frustrated when it's not a linear narrative). This is a great one, but read knowing it's not going to be a feel good story. Nor should it be.
As bleak and sad and tough as the book is to read, it doesn't feel hopeless. McLeod's voice really shines through as he works to understand what he carries within him and what it is he is able to offer the world to leave things a bit better than they were for him. There's an especially powerful moment when he works to help a man in the hospital who was on suicide watch to choose not to die and it allows us to not only see the massive size of McLeod's heart but also see the tremendous life he himself has lived.
We don't see enough First Nations or Native voices, let alone in memoir, as told in such a way to be authentic to their storytelling ways (so many white/Western readers are frustrated when it's not a linear narrative). This is a great one, but read knowing it's not going to be a feel good story. Nor should it be.