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, sadly, was not the uncommon experience of being an Ojibway person in a shameful part of our Canadian history.
No more spoilers. You should read the book -- it'll be worth your while.
I'll leave you with some quotes:
"...[I] desperately wanted to close the gap between myself and people. But there was a bigger part of me that could never understand. It was the part of me that sought separation. It was the part of me that simmered quietly with a rage I hadn't ever lost, and a part of me that knew if the top ever came off of that then I would truly be alone. Finally. Forever. That was the part that always won."
"We're not responsible for what happened to us. None of us are... But our healing. That's up to us."
"You reclaim things the most when you give them away."
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, sadly, was not the uncommon experience of being an Ojibway person in a shameful part of our Canadian history.
No more spoilers. You should read the book -- it'll be worth your while.
I'll leave you with some quotes:
"...[I] desperately wanted to close the gap between myself and people. But there was a bigger part of me that could never understand. It was the part of me that sought separation. It was the part of me that simmered quietly with a rage I hadn't ever lost, and a part of me that knew if the top ever came off of that then I would truly be alone. Finally. Forever. That was the part that always won."
"We're not responsible for what happened to us. None of us are... But our healing. That's up to us."
"You reclaim things the most when you give them away."
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