I started reading Through Black Spruce amidst my other load of school readings. Though I'm barely halfway,I'm finding author Joseph Boyden's writing captivating and I'm finding his style somewhat of a vortex, one which is hard to look directly at but sucks you in at the same time. Reading a few chapters transports me into the body of a fifty-year-old Cree man with a drinking habit- shoes which I are foreign andslightly uncomfortable to travel in. Boyden's writing brings to life what common Canadians do not know about life in Northern Ontario. The characters have a raw connectedness with nature amidst the ever-trickling-in of urbanization. Modernity seems to take its negative toll on the youth of the small town of Moose Factory as the American construct of gangs inflicts violence on the seemingly innocent nature of the protagonist. Boyden's middle-aged protagonist, Will, seems to embody the last whisperings of an ancient culture and the youth are victim to hollow destiny's indicative of a media and consumer-driven society. Will's merited fear of the adolescent gang is Boyden's proselytization of a distant pure way of life soon to be usurped by one of hatred and violence.
Predictions:
-Willwill come out of his with a new found appreciation for life?
-Annie finds Suzanne in Toronto and tries to take her home but Suzanne has succumbed to a life of drug use and sex slavery?
-Will and Dorothy get it on?
Two things:
ReplyDelete1. I don't think that gangs in isolated communities or this novel are "American constructs", I think that they are, for some, a means of survival. Maybe one of the few means of wealth accumulation; obviously at the expense of others.
2. Also I wonder if Will really is the last of the old culture. Surely he's holding on to things he knows to be true, even grasping, but there's always hope in the youth. He is very modern dude as well - and all his hunting and flying has made him efficient in the present world, as well.
Three Day Road is good, too.
Thanks for the comment touristiko! I'll keep on reading and perhaps my assertions will change.
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