Last fall my winter goal was to start pulling together my memoir. I’ve been writing pieces of it with my writing group for the last six years and I thought I was ready to piece it together but it just didn’t happen. Sometimes I think, like making good soil from compost, a bit more decomposition is required. What I did instead this winter was read. I read a lot. I read a variety of books, everything from my passion for gardening to historical novels. I read many of Bernard Cornwall’s books from the 9th to 10th century when the Vikings were raiding the Saxons in what would become England. I then watched the Netflix series, “The Last Kingdom,” based on Cornwall’s novels. I quickly moved onto watching the complete “Viking,” series too. I can’t believe I was able to read or watch stories from that time period, as the violence was so intense. Often I had to close my eyes while watching the shows but that’s hard to do when you read a book and I’m not one of those people who skips over words. If the author feels those words are important for the story, then I’m going to read them. As hard as they are to take in. I’m funny that way.
A while ago, I was looking at my local library’s website offering suggestions for books to read and I came across, Michelle Good’s book, “Five Little Indians.” I’ve been wanting to learn more about the Indian Residential Schools for a few years now. The interest was heightened more so last year after the discovery of the 200 plus unmarked graves at a nearby Residential School site in Kamloops, just north of us. Since then, sadly more and more unmarked graves have been found all across Canada at former Residential Schools.
Shortly after I saw the library’s recommendation, I was listening to CBC radio and “Canada Reads 2022,” books were announced and once again the title, “Five Little Indians,” was brought up. That was it! The Universe was telling me not once, but twice to pick up this book and I try to follow those intuitive signals as I know there is something I need to learn. I immediately put the book on hold at our local library. I was thrilled when I was finally able to collect it a few weeks ago but it just sat on my “to be read” shelf for the first two and a half weeks. I wanted to read it but Russia had just invaded Ukraine and I didn’t know how much emotional energy I had for taking in more horror. Finally, when my library warned me that I only had a few more days to read the book before it would become overdue, I started reading it.
And I didn’t put it down.
The story is about five adult survivors , Lucy, Kenny, Maisie, Clara, and Howie, from the Mission Indian Residential School, on Vancouver Island and takes place in the “60’s. I worried that the flashbacks of their time living in the Residential School’s would be more than I could take and although what they experienced was horrific to say the least, the author, Michelle Good, wrote their stories developing a clear voice for each character brilliantly, but in such a way that it was emotionally readable. Does that make any sense? After reading her eloquent story I feel shaken in my ability to string even few words together that make any sense. I did cry through most of the book, but I also was lifted by their resilience to survive and even take steps to heal.
Halfway through the book the stories of the survivors started weaving in and out of each other’s lives and that propelled me to read even quicker to the end as I wanted to know how she would wrap it up. I mean, could there be a good ending to such a story? Is there a possible good ending after a childhood had been ripped away from these people? How could anything good come after all the pain and horror for the characters or their families? I won’t tell you more but this book left me crying, and smiling and I’m so glad that I finally had the courage to read it. After I finished the last page I went out into my garden, tears moistening the soil, and I just started pulling apart my dead perennials. I’d been putting off this chore as it’s never fun to clean up all the old dead stuff in the garden but after reading that last page, I felt empowered and hopeful…..but still so incredibly sad too. ‘Cause I know this is still happening all over the world…hatred, racism, hypocrisy…when will humans wake up?
While this is a fiction work, I understand that the experiences of the survivors is an accurate representation of what occurred for the Resident School survivors. I understand that Michelle Good’s own mom was one. For me, it was a deeply informative piece of literature and I now see why Ms. Good won the 2020 Governor General’s Literary Award for Fiction and was long listed for the Scotiabank Giller Prize in Canada. And now is on the short list for the Canada Reads list as well.
I’m not going to go any further into critiquing this story but I have to leave you with this one thought, “have you ever read a book where you feel like you want the characters to stay in your life? to become your friends? to become your family?….or for you even to keep reading about how their lives evolve? Those are the BEST books aren’t they? Those books touch our soul and become part of us. I’m so glad I read this book late this winter, as it’s now part of my heart.
If you want to listen to CBC’s Booked VPL with Michelle Good, check out the below;
Until we meet again, may you be well, happy and peaceful.
Blessings from Hope