- Joseph Boyden -
I've been meaning to read this book for years now. And I finally did, not in three days, but pretty close. It was a real page turner.
The book is about a pair of young indigenous boys who join the Canadian Army at the start of the first world war. They are sent to Europe and fight the war - they take part in all of the main battles that the Canadians fought in, like Vimy Ridge.
The boys become well known as excellent marksmen and snipers. They possess skills, like hunting and shooting, that were developed as indigenous people living off the land. Unfortunately, they can also use these skills to kill other men. One of the boys takes this route and his obsession with getting the most kills grows and grows. The other boy hates killing. Together they balance each other out. But, when the scales tip ... one dies.
The surviving boy, man at this point at the end of the war, comes home to heal. His Aunt is a healer and tries her best to use her powers to keep him alive.
Throughout the book the story weaves in and out of memories, the present, the past, the even the spiritual world. The transitions are amazing. There is not the typical start a new point of view at the beginning of a chapter, or a break in the prose. Nope, these transitions often take place right in mid paragraph. Very hard to achieve something like that, but Boyden does it. I never felt lost or had to stop and say to myself, who is this and when is this happening. It just seemed natural.
The story of the war was great. It was obvious a lot of time and research went into this book. The details of life in the trenches really painted a vivid picture of how terrible it was. The image that sticks out in my mind is when they are watching no man's land and they decide to take a shot at a rotting horse. It was swollen, bloated, and when they hit it with a bullet it blew up like an overfilled balloon.
I've been meaning to read more Indigenous writers and I'm glad I read this book. Boyden gives us some great insight into the traditions, the thinking, the healing methods, of the Cree people. It reminded me of my favourite book from my younger years, Lost In The Barrens. In that book the two boys, one white and one Cree, have to survive in the northern Canadian wilderness.
