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A review by lkedzie
Moon of the Crusted Snow by Waubgeshig Rice
adventurous
dark
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.25
It's like the Anishinaabe Parable of the Sower.
Soft collapse book about an indigenous community in central Canada. The writing is plain, but the characterization is good and the plot effective..for a while at least. It is the most stereotypical thing for a white guy critic to complain about the white guy's portrayal in a book by a non-white author, but I am not complaining about the racism - wait, that came out wrong - I am not complaining about the characterization of the racism, which seems spot on to me, but in terms of storytelling, it drains all the dramatic tension. Then again, the twist at the end of the storyputs the whole thing into a the field of fable, and on that kind of account it works: the antagonist is a clownish, storybook villain because this is a mythological field . So maybe? But even if that, it runs in opposition to the quality of the rest of the earlier books grounding.
Then there are the real oddities. One section of the book takes us within range of Rorschach's "no" speech from Watchmen, putting this book in accord with right wing pulp versions of this topic. There was some casual ablism that I disliked (the approach to some of the deaths), and the ending is a bit mystifying. It feels like a rejection of community, in a micro and macro sense, and my suspension of disbelief-o-meter is strained under the logistics (we avoid the invaders by becoming invaders? ), even as I get the meaning of the message that is there.
The damn with faint praise here is I can see this working as a screenplay for TV or movies. The spareness would make it easy to film, and there is much that could be communicated visually more effectively than is deployed in a written version. And in general, while I can (and have) nitpicked at it, there is something good here, I just am unsure that it is framed up correctly.
Soft collapse book about an indigenous community in central Canada. The writing is plain, but the characterization is good and the plot effective..for a while at least. It is the most stereotypical thing for a white guy critic to complain about the white guy's portrayal in a book by a non-white author, but I am not complaining about the racism - wait, that came out wrong - I am not complaining about the characterization of the racism, which seems spot on to me, but in terms of storytelling, it drains all the dramatic tension. Then again, the twist at the end of the story
Then there are the real oddities. One section of the book takes us within range of Rorschach's "no" speech from Watchmen, putting this book in accord with right wing pulp versions of this topic. There was some casual ablism that I disliked (the approach to some of the deaths), and the ending is a bit mystifying. It feels like a rejection of community, in a micro and macro sense, and my suspension of disbelief-o-meter is strained under the logistics (
The damn with faint praise here is I can see this working as a screenplay for TV or movies. The spareness would make it easy to film, and there is much that could be communicated visually more effectively than is deployed in a written version. And in general, while I can (and have) nitpicked at it, there is something good here, I just am unsure that it is framed up correctly.