Having worked in the field of addiction recovery for most of my working career, I was struck by the compassionate treatment of this coping mechanism in the book. Alcohol and drug abuse is a common means of retreat, to block out painful memories. They coped with their traumatic experiences in various ways, but each one was deeply affected for the rest of their lives. The lives of the five survivors are intertwined in the telling of their stories. The author was able to convey with compassion the resulting intense feelings of loneliness, anger, shame, and humiliation coupled with helplessness. Deprivations, along with physical, emotional, and sexual abuse were rampant. Various punishments were meted out regularly at the school for minor infractions as well as for telling the truth. The children were brought forcibly to the school around the age of 6 and unless they escaped by running away, they had no contact with their parents or relatives until they were dismissed at the age of 16 and told to make a life for themselves. As much as can be possible, she puts the reader in the skin of the survivors, whose identity, self worth and dignity were stripped away at an early age.īecause it is a novel, rather than a recital of statistics of mistreatment, the reader can become immersed in the experiences of the protagonists. I found her writing to be engaging and authentic.
She obtained a law degree as well as her MFA in creative writing. It is a first novel by Michelle Good who is a member of the Red Pheasant Cree Nation in Saskatchewan.
This is a riveting, raw and haunting novel about five survivors of one Indian Residential School in British Columbia. Published by Harper Perennial, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.
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