From the Bookshelf of Read Across Canada: A 2013 Challenge…
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Books set in Nova Scotia & Cape Breton Island
By Janice · 27 posts · 181 views
By Janice · 27 posts · 181 views
last updated Mar 28, 2015 10:56AM
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I wanted to love this more than I did. I was totally absorbed by the story of an Ojibway family trying to keep their children safe from the Canadian government (who was removing first Nations children from their families!) and the journey of Saul Indian Horse into his new (and undesired) life. So I was surprised when half the novel was suddenly a sportsing hockey novel, almost like the author got bored. The slow reveal of sexual abuse felt added in for the wrong reasons and didn't seem to fit. I
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They should teach this book in schools.
You know, I never would have come across this book. Living outside of Canada, if I do happen across a Canadian author among the used books, I have to have heard of them. Even if I'd picked the book up, I might not have been all that convinced by a book about hockey. And until this year Canada Reads was something I sort of vaguely recall hearing about that year I lived in Vancouver, but I knew almost nothing about it. But I can't go to a book signing and not ...more
You know, I never would have come across this book. Living outside of Canada, if I do happen across a Canadian author among the used books, I have to have heard of them. Even if I'd picked the book up, I might not have been all that convinced by a book about hockey. And until this year Canada Reads was something I sort of vaguely recall hearing about that year I lived in Vancouver, but I knew almost nothing about it. But I can't go to a book signing and not ...more
Aug 02, 2012
GateGypsy
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I greatly appreciated many aspects of this book: I loved the description and reverence paid to the rough Canadian wilderness of northern Ontario, I respect the stark reality of the residential school and the spare way he communicated that to the reader, I acknowledge the truth and cruelty of the easy and arrogant racism that native Canadians face, I am grateful for his honesty about the easy journey into drunkenness and the arduous trip back out, and I even appreciate that he was able to expla ...more
Richard Wagamese writes lovely descriptive passages, and I enjoyed reading about Saul Indian Horse's early years with his grandmother. I watch hockey occasionally during the finals, but I'm not a big hockey fan, so I ended up skipping over large portions of the book that dealt with hockey. I found the information about the Indian residential schools very interesting (and tragic), and like many of us, find it difficult to understand how church-run schools could have treated children so badly.
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Excellent! The story was engaging and devastating at the same time, I was so captured by the description of Saul's life and the up front way he shared it with the reader. We meet Saul as he realizes he needs to tell his story in order to work through it and then follow him from childhood and trauma in Northern Ontario and across Canada as an adult. The story rings true and is all the more special because it does.
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Wow. So simple, so powerful. This book is beautifully written, truly heartbreaking and very eye opening during a time when the truth and reconciliation issues are at a forefront in Canadian current events. A book all Canadians should read.
Dec 22, 2012
Susan
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Jan 31, 2013
Jessie
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Jun 14, 2013
Julie Kanyo
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Jul 22, 2013
Georgina Cohen
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Dec 28, 2013
Christy
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Mar 11, 2014
Judy
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May 10, 2014
Crystal
marked it as used-to-own
Nov 11, 2014
Mevm
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Oct 20, 2017
Mélina Doyon
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May 13, 2018
Genevieve Graham
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Jan 07, 2019
Allie Ivanova
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Jul 31, 2020
Sarah Patterson Paleksic
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