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Indian Horse Richard Wagamese 9781553654025 Books

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Indian Horse Richard Wagamese 9781553654025 Books

As I started reading this book, I naturally compared it to Joseph Boyden (Three Day Road, Through Black Spruce, and my favourite --- Born with a Tooth), whose books have been like a door opening for me. I am a huge fan of Joseph Boyden, and I come from Northern Ontario, and so I was really hoping for a story with teeth. I found something unexpected. I was completely lost in this story; this young boy; his wounded life and family.

If I had known it was a hockey story at the outset, I may not have read it - but as it turns out, hockey is a metaphor for much that is happening in young Saul's life, and an opportunity for beautiful prose. It is both escape and trap; curse and salvation; a divine gift and a path. Hockey was a huge part of my family's life as I was growing up. My brothers played; everyone played. Still, as I read this story, I realized that I did not really see the whole picture of hockey in Northern Ontario. Sure, my town was completely multi-cultural - people from all over Europe and the world - came there to work the mines and lumber camps, and even so, this book helped me to realize that there was probably still a dividing line in many areas, and yes in hockey, that I was oblivious to.

But this book is much more than a story about hockey and redemption. The author paints a heart-wrenching story about the residential school system, without making it overly sentimental. I found that the story was not predictable, and I was still surprised and completely enthralled right to the last page.

The mystical moments were beautifully blended with reality,to make a remarkable book about a life's journey, that still leaves room for hope.


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Indian Horse Richard Wagamese 9781553654025 Books Reviews

I recently read 'Medicine Walk' by Wagamese and it was so good that I rushed to read 'Indian Horse', another book of his. It was no disappointment. The writing soars and the story is one that evolves over time and speaks to generations of Native American and Native Alaskan children who have spent their childhoods in boarding schools.

As the novel opens, Saul Indian Horse is in a rehabilitation center for treatment of his alcoholism. He has hit bottom and his sponsor has asked him to tell his story. Saul is reluctant to share but, with time, and with a visit to his roots, the reader gradually learns his history.

Saul's great passion was ice hockey and he was so good at it that he made the NHL. He loved the game, the way it let him escape the poison in his mind, and he loved the camaraderie of the team. Soon, after joining the major league, he finds that he is feeling more rage and anger than enjoyment. He decides to leave the team just as his teammates and coach have decided to kick him out. Saul wanders from bar to bar, drink to drink, until he is so down and out that his life is without meaning. What happened to this man with the passion for the game, the lust to play hockey and soar with the sport?

The answer to Saul's descent lies in the narrative he tells to his sponsor once he returns to rehab after visiting his now crumbled boarding school, the places he lived as a youth, and his renewed connection to his Ojibway heritage. To say any more would be to provide spoilers. I highly recommend this amazing book that is the story of one man but is also representative of a whole generation of Native American children. It is an amazing book with insight and understanding of those who are culturally outcast by mainstream society. Saul's story is one that will lift your heart and wet your eyes. It is a book to cherish and remember long after the last page is read.
Despite the terrifying efforts of Sister Ignacia to disinfect or bleach out his native heritage, Saul Indian Horse clings to his essential self. Despite appalling abuse and casual racism Richard Wagamese's remarkable hero endures. Indian Horse is Saul's story from early years with a nuclear family, through an orphanage work house, and the discovery of a brilliant gift. Adulthood sees this talent disdained and diminished by racism. Unwanted it withers like grapes unpicked. Potential atrophies; promise is unrealized.

We first meet Saul drying out in a clinic, exhausted by failure and worn down by six weeks of group therapy. His story though begins at age six with a family living a traditional native existence--their only threat the arrogance of whites who so despise Ojibway people as to abduct children, tearing families apart. The scenes of native life, and Saul's relationship with his grandmother are especially moving. They are in stark contrast to life in a Catholic reserve school. Priests and nuns epitomize the barbarism they claim to expunge from native Canadians. They behave with appalling cruelty. Sadly they are not an aberration but a microcosm of the greater world.

Saul's love and his gift for the game of hockey is beautifully realized and told. Shamanistic visions in the natural world are linked to Saul's natural athleticism. The magical and the personal gift are one. Ironically as Indian Horse's skills flourish, his teammates want them to be used to bring the Moose out of their segregated reserve world. They want to display them to the white man. They wish to preen. To show him they belong. The hatred they encounter is stunning, to both themselves and the reader. It will sear your soul. Sadly, but unsurprisingly Saul Indian Horse succumbs to the pressure. He stops playing his game and plays theirs. A tragic mistake. What was beautiful and separate is now sullied.

Wagmese's gifts as storyteller are as impressive as Saul's athleticism. Indian Horse is a disturbing book but it is not at all a depressing one. The author infuses it with a spirit (one is tempted to say Great Spirit) that is unflinching, but appreciative as well. Saul Indian Horse's greatest talent was not hockey. It was never mystical vision nor even the ability to endure. Saul Indian Horse has not become like his abusers. If he has harmed anyone it is only himself. And he is not as alone as he thinks. The recounting of the devolution into alcoholism and the journey back is absolute stunning, as powerful as anything I have read in years. Wagamese is a magnificent story-teller. Powerful and compassionate.

Happily, through all of this tribulation, they have not "remove[d] the Indian". He is bruised but not broken. He is not as alone as he thought. Saul Indian Horse has lost a step or two and never realized his potential. Yet life and the game remain beautiful still.
As I started reading this book, I naturally compared it to Joseph Boyden (Three Day Road, Through Black Spruce, and my favourite --- Born with a Tooth), whose books have been like a door opening for me. I am a huge fan of Joseph Boyden, and I come from Northern Ontario, and so I was really hoping for a story with teeth. I found something unexpected. I was completely lost in this story; this young boy; his wounded life and family.

If I had known it was a hockey story at the outset, I may not have read it - but as it turns out, hockey is a metaphor for much that is happening in young Saul's life, and an opportunity for beautiful prose. It is both escape and trap; curse and salvation; a divine gift and a path. Hockey was a huge part of my family's life as I was growing up. My brothers played; everyone played. Still, as I read this story, I realized that I did not really see the whole picture of hockey in Northern Ontario. Sure, my town was completely multi-cultural - people from all over Europe and the world - came there to work the mines and lumber camps, and even so, this book helped me to realize that there was probably still a dividing line in many areas, and yes in hockey, that I was oblivious to.

But this book is much more than a story about hockey and redemption. The author paints a heart-wrenching story about the residential school system, without making it overly sentimental. I found that the story was not predictable, and I was still surprised and completely enthralled right to the last page.

The mystical moments were beautifully blended with reality,to make a remarkable book about a life's journey, that still leaves room for hope.