emilychamp 's review for:

The Antidote by Karen Russell

5.0

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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This book was so beautiful. For me, it was all about what it means to be a person with pioneer/pilgrim heritage that is grappling with the collective, chosen memory loss of what it took and what was done to steal this land, at great cost to others, for a misguided “dream”. I love Russell’s play on a modern day biblical Job-in-reverse with Harp. And the haunting but timely message that- if we sacrifice everything, including our memory- and we do prosper, it means nothing and is empty when we don’t have an inclusive community of other humans to share it with. Some of the historical touch stones such as the history of Zintkála Nuni and the homes for unwed mothers were new to me. It made me even more reflective on the history that was familiar (but only as an adult) to me, such as the boarding schools. This book, to me was also about love. And mothers. And women. And found family. And being brave enough to try face a hopeless landscape ahead but dare to dream of a different kind of future. How it takes a magic camera (art) imagining something better than what we built on. Something better than before. But we have to remember. “Nothing can change be changed until it’s faced”. It’s hard to hope and sometimes it hurts, but that’s how I felt when I finished this one. Hopeful. ❤️