Take a photo of a barcode or cover
barfwolf 's review for:
The Distant Dead
by Heather Young
Although this book is written palatably and I found it easy to step into the story, it pushes a narrative of racism and erasure that is incredibly problematic. Speaking of Indigenous people as if they have been long gone from their land without discussing how or why that has taken place is irresponsible and lazy.
It isn’t until more than halfway through the book that the local tribe is even named, and even then it appears the author made no other effort to educate themselves or their readers about that group. Allowing the white characters in the book to regale us with their perceptions of the “legends” of their gods, while also treating them as a creature to be studied by a anthropologist is erasure of the fact that Indigenous people are alive and thriving today. Not to mention the singular native character in the book being represented by a violent drug dealer, is a racist trope.
To top it all off pushing the Bering straight theory is the cherry on top of the settler colonial racism that runs throughout this story. As far as I could tell there was not even a single mention of black people or a person of colour in this entire book. (save for allusions to the main boy Sal having a vaguely tan skin colour?)It’s interesting to me that the entire premise of this book can be about the presence of people of colour having created the world around them and yet the author couldn’t conjure up a single positive depiction of current living bipoc in all of its pages.
It isn’t until more than halfway through the book that the local tribe is even named, and even then it appears the author made no other effort to educate themselves or their readers about that group. Allowing the white characters in the book to regale us with their perceptions of the “legends” of their gods, while also treating them as a creature to be studied by a anthropologist is erasure of the fact that Indigenous people are alive and thriving today. Not to mention the singular native character in the book being represented by a violent drug dealer, is a racist trope.
To top it all off pushing the Bering straight theory is the cherry on top of the settler colonial racism that runs throughout this story. As far as I could tell there was not even a single mention of black people or a person of colour in this entire book. (save for allusions to the main boy Sal having a vaguely tan skin colour?)It’s interesting to me that the entire premise of this book can be about the presence of people of colour having created the world around them and yet the author couldn’t conjure up a single positive depiction of current living bipoc in all of its pages.