Richard Wagamese's Indian Horse
I've just finished reading Richard Wagamese's Indian Horse . It's a 2013 Canada Reads Radio One Selection. After having heard from three different people saying they'd read it and that it was an excellent novel, I thought I should pick it up at Chapters. I wasn't disappointed. The story is that of Saul Indian Horse whose life traverses losing his family at a young age, being sent to a residential school in the sixties with all the horrors that that involved, discovering the beauty and magic of hockey and later the ugliness of racism and alcohol abuse. And finally the long road to healing. In the middle of the novel during which Saul discovers he has a gift for hockey, he rises in the ranks, going from outdoor reserve rinks to local Northern Ontario tournaments until he finally ends up as a rookie on the Toronto Marlies. The story briefly threatens to turn into a feel good story, but fortunately it doesn't. It stays faithful to what I'm sure, sad