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A review by showthisbooksomelove
Blue Bear Woman by Virginia Pesemapeo Bordeleau
3.0
Trigger warnings: Violent deaths, car accidents, alcoholism, incest, sexual abuse, child abuse, rape, violence against first nations people, marital infidelity.
This is a very unique collection of essays from Bordeleau. Non-linear, these are stories about her quest to discover more of her Cree kin and culture, to discover her home, to discover herself. Through the course of the book, she meets people she’s related to and learns something more about her history. She learns about loss and grief, anger and love.
The hardest part of this book is how non-linear it is. Months or years pass between chapters, sometimes we go back in time, sometimes it seems to move from day to day. None of the stories are really all that connected, just loosely scattered around the overarching theme of belonging. Many of the stories jump into abusive or otherwise challenging topics with little or no warning. This is how life goes. Yet at the same time, I’m used to seeing tragedies unfolding over pages, where you see the worst of it coming before it gets there. There’s no foreshadowing in real life, though, and Bordeleau doesn’t let her readers have that luxury either.
The narrators voice was soothing, but almost overly so. I often zoned in and out of this book, as her voice would sometimes take on a monotone quality, making it difficult to stay engaged. Neither was there usually something interesting happening when I zoned back in, so for most of the book I struggled to rejoin the book as it went along.
This is a very unique collection of essays from Bordeleau. Non-linear, these are stories about her quest to discover more of her Cree kin and culture, to discover her home, to discover herself. Through the course of the book, she meets people she’s related to and learns something more about her history. She learns about loss and grief, anger and love.
The hardest part of this book is how non-linear it is. Months or years pass between chapters, sometimes we go back in time, sometimes it seems to move from day to day. None of the stories are really all that connected, just loosely scattered around the overarching theme of belonging. Many of the stories jump into abusive or otherwise challenging topics with little or no warning. This is how life goes. Yet at the same time, I’m used to seeing tragedies unfolding over pages, where you see the worst of it coming before it gets there. There’s no foreshadowing in real life, though, and Bordeleau doesn’t let her readers have that luxury either.
The narrators voice was soothing, but almost overly so. I often zoned in and out of this book, as her voice would sometimes take on a monotone quality, making it difficult to stay engaged. Neither was there usually something interesting happening when I zoned back in, so for most of the book I struggled to rejoin the book as it went along.