Scan barcode
A review by wanderingraccoonbooks
The Memoirs of Miss Chief Eagle Testickle: Vol. 1 by Gisèle Gordon, Kent Monkman
4.0
*Thank you to Libro.fm and McClelland & Stewart for the free ALC in exchange for an honest review*
I don't know if I've ever read anything else quite like this, so brace for kind of a long review. This is somewhere between fiction and nonfiction - using a fictional, immortal narrator to tell historical facts. I also listened to the audio version, of which there are two versions within the single file - with and without endnotes. Specifically, I listened to the second version, with the endnotes included in situ, as I personally love a good endnote.
The authors Kent Monkman & Gisèle Gordon read the introduction, and copious notes, disclaimers, and asides prior to the beginning of the actual text. Kent Monkman is Swampy Cree (Fisher River First Nation, Manitoba) & Gisèle is a "settler" from the UK. Together, Kent & Gisèle have created and used the fictional âtayôhkanak (legendary being) Miss Chief Eagle Testickle in a wide variety of media to tell the story of the history of Canada and its peoples - especially the wide range of queer peoples.
The audio is read by Gail Maurice, a fluent Cree & Michif speaker and is Cree/Métis (Beauval, Saskatchewan). She does an absolutely AMAZING job with this story & I can't wait to listen to her narrate more.
Personally, I think the audio is a MUST for this, due to the copious use of Cree throughout. Not only is the narrator fabulous, as I just mentioned, but hearing the Cree, rather than letting my brain make a butchery of it, was a lovely experience. That being said... the endnotes. I am very conflicted over the use of endnotes in the audio. On one hand, they are absolutely necessary, as they convey much of the factual, historical context for what is happening with our fictional (and fabulous) Miss Chief. On the other... they are copious, they are lengthy, and because they are read by Gisèle rather than Gail, they can take you out of the story itself. Will I listen to Volume 2 with the endnotes? Yes. Do I necessarily think endnotes in audio are fabulous? No, but I still love them in print.
All told, I had no clue what to expect and boy was this a ride. An in-depth look at the Indigenous history of Canada, told with the additional layer of queer culture. There's sex, and a lot of it, as well as all the harsh, terrible realities of what colonizers did to native peoples.
-Jena B.
I don't know if I've ever read anything else quite like this, so brace for kind of a long review. This is somewhere between fiction and nonfiction - using a fictional, immortal narrator to tell historical facts. I also listened to the audio version, of which there are two versions within the single file - with and without endnotes. Specifically, I listened to the second version, with the endnotes included in situ, as I personally love a good endnote.
The authors Kent Monkman & Gisèle Gordon read the introduction, and copious notes, disclaimers, and asides prior to the beginning of the actual text. Kent Monkman is Swampy Cree (Fisher River First Nation, Manitoba) & Gisèle is a "settler" from the UK. Together, Kent & Gisèle have created and used the fictional âtayôhkanak (legendary being) Miss Chief Eagle Testickle in a wide variety of media to tell the story of the history of Canada and its peoples - especially the wide range of queer peoples.
The audio is read by Gail Maurice, a fluent Cree & Michif speaker and is Cree/Métis (Beauval, Saskatchewan). She does an absolutely AMAZING job with this story & I can't wait to listen to her narrate more.
Personally, I think the audio is a MUST for this, due to the copious use of Cree throughout. Not only is the narrator fabulous, as I just mentioned, but hearing the Cree, rather than letting my brain make a butchery of it, was a lovely experience. That being said... the endnotes. I am very conflicted over the use of endnotes in the audio. On one hand, they are absolutely necessary, as they convey much of the factual, historical context for what is happening with our fictional (and fabulous) Miss Chief. On the other... they are copious, they are lengthy, and because they are read by Gisèle rather than Gail, they can take you out of the story itself. Will I listen to Volume 2 with the endnotes? Yes. Do I necessarily think endnotes in audio are fabulous? No, but I still love them in print.
All told, I had no clue what to expect and boy was this a ride. An in-depth look at the Indigenous history of Canada, told with the additional layer of queer culture. There's sex, and a lot of it, as well as all the harsh, terrible realities of what colonizers did to native peoples.
-Jena B.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content and Colonisation