5 comments about Tales of an Empty Cabin.

1. This is an excellent book. It explains a man of two nationalities, proudly recoginizing his Indian heritage. How can people say that he was an Englishman?? He focused on the wild-life because most people take the wild-life for granted. From his mother's side, he had the Scottish blood; his father's side a more dominant, showed up in his personality and his physical appearance. He was involved with Great Britian, he did most of the things an English lad would do, as far as I am concerned, he did not wrong to anyone, only to himself by the consumption of alcohol; which is known today as "A white man's disease" He was "brave enought to tell the truth" I recommend this book as the best.



2. Fantastic book.. wonderful stories told from a very perseptive individuals point of view. A man who loved to live life far from the modern day lifestyle of his day and enjoy the harshness and or the beauty that mother nature had to give. It definetly shows the stark reality of living a lifestyle in the Canadian wilderness. Yet he also conveys the beauty and peacefulness of living with nature and the animals.



3. If it weren't for his fantastic writing ability, Grey Owl would have gone down in history as a liar and a fraud (after his death, the world discovered that the "Indian" known as Grey Owl was actually an Englishman born Archibald "Archie" Belaney). However, his books - true works of art - made a statement in the early 1900's that have stood the test of time. Anyone who appreciates a walk in the woods or quiet mountain stream will understand Grey Owl's passionate plea for conservation. "Tales of An Empty Cabin" has always been my favorite, but all of his works were masterpieces.



4. Would it not be interesting for each of us to express our point of view regarding all those experiences that brought us to a certain point in our lives. Tales of an Empty Cabin does just that. The cabin is actually a make shift structure somewhere in the northern reaches of Quebec, at a placed called Birch Lake (1928). This is where a man's life, like Saul of Tarsus, was transformed from trapper, guide, and forest ranger, to one of Canada's leading "environmentalists' and respector of animal life. Grey Owl, in contradistinction to most, was a real individualist, who took upon himself the task of challenging the 'status quo' in his day. Each chapter is a short story describing "life" in certain situations, conditions, and circumstances. It is a marvelous attempt at the sharing of one's perception of things. Grey Owl was a gifted observer and prolific writter. He was like an Olympic Athlete in that he worked, indefatigably, towards a goal; namely, depicting with great insight, a variety of activities so prevalent during his days in the north of Canada. He perfected his writting skills so well, that millions around the world recognized his abilities and talent. In fact, one of the stories (XIII), The Tree, was so popular it was published as a separate book. In his Epilogue he ends with this moving statement, "And the cabin won't be empty any more, nor the grove again so silent and deserted, while yet remains a solitary reader whose sympathy and kindly understanding brings Life to that memory-haunted valley in the hills, and awakens those others, who have dreamed and waited there so long." Grey Owl was a man who did his best to share his heart. This is a noble cause.



5. The author emigrated from England to Canada early in the 20th century and adopted a Native American persona. He gained some fame as a Canadian nature writer, although he never attracted much attention in other countries.

   This book is a potpourri of stories, philosophy, commentaries on conservation politics and on the Canadian national spirit, and other writings impossible to classify. The author's prevailing style ages poorly. He is fond of elaborate Victorian phrases, and is liable to choke any reader with a low tolerance for corniness.

   The author's description of his life with beavers redeems the whole book. He is probably the only person ever to share his home with a family of these animals. (His cabin was built over the edge of a lake, and the beavers built their lodge in the wet end.) In this section of the book the author's overwrought style disappears. He describes his beaver friends' lives with a mixture of dry humor and passionate love that makes them vivid and unforgettable.

2 comments about Mohawk Saint: Catherine Tekakwitha and the Jesuits.

1. This gem of a book approaches all of its subjects with deep humanity and keen intelligence. Some of Greer's conclusions will inevitably be controversial, given the subject matter. But having read dozens of academic history books on natives and Europeans, I know of only a few that unfold with such wisdom and scholarly maturity. Last point -- my college students love this book as well.



2. This is not a biography of the humble young Mohawk woman whose courage, holiness, faith, and purity earned her (as thousands who know and love her truly believe) that place in Heaven. This book, in the author's own paraphrased words, is meant to "bring Tekakwitha down from heaven." (And it is part of a gloomy trend to do just that - to as much as one can to bring one's subject down.) And, thankfully, despite over two hundred pages of trying, he has not succeeded in dragging her down.
   
   There are people who were primarily historic figures and those whose lives are mainly of religious significance. Blessed Kateri (or Catherine, as the author prefers to call her) Tekakwitha was very clearly the latter. But this book approaches her from the former point of view, making her a postmortem pawn in the Jesuit's missionary work among the natives in Canada. The mystical and the supernatural (from a religious view) are ignored. The author seems even unwillingly to use the title of "Blessed" in reference to her.
   
   At one point, the author even seems - in a very subtle way - to imply the Kateri and her closest friend (Marie-Therese Tegaiaguenta)were lovers. If, as he writes, there is "no reason to think they were lovers," why mention it at all? What does it serve?
   
   The author dwells on each and any discrepancy in the original accounts by the two missionaries who knew Kateri during the last years of her life. (Even the Bible - in all its various popular translations - has its discrepancies.) Any story of any person, any account of any event is bound to have differences when told by two different witnesses. That alone is not enough reason to discount the differences.
   
   His grim portrait of Kateri in no way accounts for the great numbers of people (not only Native Americans, but from around the world) who have a profound love for this holy young woman.
   I can speak from my own experiences and observations that she has had a great impact even on people who knew little or nothing of her.
   
   Historians may find this book of interest, but for those who have a devotion to this wonderful saint-to-be, there is little to recommend it.
   
   On a personal level, I have been studying the life of Blessed Kateri for a number of years. My personal collection includes nearly a hundred works of literature on her. These range from reprints of the original biographies by Fathers Chauchetiere and Cholonec to fluffy, sentimentalized (to the point of being quite ridiculous) books for young readers.
   
   I am also the creator of the web site mentioned on page 241 of this new book. I work for and look forward to the day when she is finally declared a saint.
   
   I pre-ordered this book many months ago and read it with an open mind as I am always eager for new details on her life. For me, it was a dull read (the narrative flow seems uneven) with left me unimpressed (not with Catherine Tekakwitha) and with a very unpleasant taste.
   
   Historians, cultural anthropologists, and the politically correct may find something of interest in this dry and dreary book, but for those who have a devotion to this wonderful saint-to-be, there is little to recommend it.
   
   (I gave it one star because there is no lesser option and, well, my site was mentioned in the Notes to Chapter 9. I suppose I owe it something.)

2 comments about In Fond Remembrance of Me: A Memoir of Myth and Uncommon Friendship in the Arctic.

1. This memoir is full of reflections of the time he spent almost thirty years ago in the Arctic where he'd gone to listen to an old man tell "stories," myths, folk tales, some of which I think he made up. It is about a Japanese woman eleven years older (had the ages been reversed, it might (probably would) have made a difference) than he, who is also there to translate the same stories into Japense for a publishing concern. They formed a close relationship and he learned from her and her battle with cancer.
   
   The old man, Frank, tells his myths and how he understood the fable of Noah and the Ark from our HOLY BIBLE. He enjoys Helen's mannerly presence, but there is friction flavored with antimosity toward Howard. He wants to make sure that he will be paid for his knowledge. Both men, young and old, are influenced by her quiet ways and intelligent interpretations. Helen discovers her illness while on this project. Howard is there for research purposes on behalf of a Michigan museum.
   
   In 1998, NORTHERN TALES: STORY FROM NATIVE PEOPLES OF THE ARCTIC AND SUB-ARTIC REGIONS is published and it is the basis of this short tome about his feelings toward the other writer. Helen is his most "unforgettable character." He won't admit that he loved her, only that he held her on a pedestal of sorts. It is sad to read how they interrelated and helped each other to understand the old Eskimo's tales as he transcribed them into English and she in her native Japanese.
   
   He seemed overwhelmed by the fact that they came from opposite ends of the earth and met in the cold Arctic region on a literary job. She types her notes on an old-fashioned Remington typewriter similar to the one on the cover of this book; he kept his in notebooks written in longhand. What he did reveal was the nature of their friendship of an older woman and younger male and how much it meant to him. Had she not died, perhaps fate would have been nicer.
   
   After Helen's death, Howard went on to marry and settle in Vermont but he would never forget this lovely woman who had influenced him in many ways. He has written THE NORTHERN LIGHTS, THE MUSEUM GUARD, and others. Now this Fond Remembrance of Helen, a truly remarkable woman.



2. Although the title may sound like Norman is on an ego trip, he's really talking about another human being, a woman with whom he was once quite close, a woman he met, as Rex Harrison did Kay Kendall, while she was dying. Her name? Helen Tanizaki. Norman was a junior and Tanizaki a senior translator and Arctic analyst, and the two of them had met up in God's own country, Manitoba Canada, to transcribe
   
   Did you know that both Deanna Durbin and Nia Vardalos (MY BIG FAT GREEK WEDDING) are both from Manitoba? Marshall McLuhan and Neil Young are others who hail from this part of the world. In the Inuit legends, Manitoba, about which Norman has written often, is derived from the sound that spirits play while beating on a "drum." Compare the word "manitou."
   
   As Norman was to discover, there were one million filk legends on the Manitoba wind, and they had been so distorted by time and whispers that his informant, a colorful fellow, might tell Norman one version of the same story one afternoon, and that enebing he would have told Helen quite another. Howard Norman, of course, grew up to be one of the world's great story tellers himself, and this book is a bittersweet reflection of a love that didn't really "happen," but it happened nonetheless, and in her conviction of friendship for Norman, Tanizaki's name shall be long remembered, for he has written an astute memoir about her. I loved the part where Norman watches in helpless irritation, while Helen doubles over in laughter by something their Inuit informant is telling them. The truth is that Norman just isn't expert enough in the kanguage to understand Mark's quite ribald native humor. Helen never rubs it in, she merely gives him space enough for him to figure out that he isn't quite the authority his training had left him thinking he was. For out in the field, Norman was often hampered by his own inexperience while Helen, quite a bit older than he, had the benefit of many years of working and thinking and creating with all sorts of people in many cultures. Rather touchingly, as the two become closer, he asks her for a reading list of modern Japanese fiction, and she complies, saying, these books qill keep you for quite awhile (for she knew that she would be dead before he had finished all of the books).
   
   Thus into this cold Canadian paradise crept something of the romantic, renunciatory spirit of Der Rosenkavalier. Though not everyone will enjoy this book, those of us who like a good love story, such as the old chestbnut 84, Charing Cross Road, by Helene Hanff, will find plenty to like here. Norman's understatement can be a bit annoying from time to time, but there is never a moment when we lose sight of the important threads of the story. As Helen says, "Illness tends to turn you inward. It makes you eccentric in ways you ever wanted. It's hard to explain."
   
   Hard indeed, but Norman does his level best and that should be enough.

4 comments about Halfbreed.

1. The way Maria Campbell literally bears her entire being onto paper is absolutely amazing. As Canadian citizens, it is important to still recognize the issues that plague our society. Campbell's book does just that, offering insight and a hope for something better.



2. The novel, "Half-breed" is based on the biography of Maria Campbell, a Metis woman who was born in northern Saskatchewan. Maria Campbell's family was a mixture of Scottish, French, Cree, English, and Irish. They spoke a language completely different from the people around them. The half-breeds lost their land when the authorities reclaimed it to offer to immigrants. Thus half-breeds settled down along the road lines and crown lands where they built cabins and bars, giving them the title of "Road Allowance people". Maria was born in a home where Cheecum, her father's Cree grandmother, taught ancient Cree rituals and legends. Maria's struggle for existence was strengthened by the Cree traditions and by Cheecum's wisdom. However, this was weakened by extreme discrimination and poverty.When she was fifteen, she tried to escape from poverty and discrimination by marrying a white person. However, soon after she broke up with him and found herself alone in the slums of Vancouver where she faced drug addiction, prostitution and depression. After many years of hardship and struggle, Maria made new friends who helped her to remember Cheechum's lessons, advice and her heritage. Eventually she returned to her own people and decided to work with native organisations all across Canada. The text is mainly concerned with the frequent discrimination, its negative impact and the extreme poverty in which the Metis- Indians had to live under. The narrator of the book, Maria Campbell, conveys her sorrows and frustrations by emphasising what it is like to be a Half-breed woman and grows up between two opposing worlds: white and native. The text clearly demonstrates the existing problems regarding race within the pluralistic Canadian society. The narrator develops the argument by describing her experiences. Through her experiences, she explains how badly whites treated her and her people. She grew up as a social outcast and was constantly teased and mistreated by other school children. Throughout the novel, Maria Campbell provides many examples to show the white society's mistrust and rejection of her people. The examples show the Indians' isolation on every level of society, including the church. Not only were she and her family excluded and driven out of church, but they also had to suffer verbal insult. Whenever the Half-breeds went downtown, the town's people would yell "Half-breeds are in town, hide your valuables." If they walked into stores, other white women and their children would leave while the shopkeepers'wives and children would watch to prevent the Half-breeds from stealing. The text discusses three important sociological concepts: discrimination, poverty and injustice. Defining these concepts in "cause-effect" context, one can see the interconnection among the three. Unjust government policies causes poverty, which in effect contributes to society's enhanced discrimination and mistrust of the Indians. While the Half-breeds represent a subculture, characterised by certain cultural traits that differs from others in the society, whites represent the dominant class who hold the power and influence. The Half-breeds were homeless because the Canadian government had unfairly taken their land away from them, so they have remained poor and unable to establish their own social institutions such as church and school. Consequently, the Half-breeds were subordinated and forced to speak the dominant language, behave the way whites do, and go to schools and churches that were built by the white society. Thus, the cultural diversity, different physical appearance, economical scarcity and a disordered life style, greatly influenced the discrimination against the Half-breeds. In the first fourteen chapters, the narrator relates the life style of half-breed families, their relationship with the white society, their traits, traditions, and their history. Through her experiences, she explains how badly whites treated her and her people. She grew up as a social ou, the Half-breeds remained relatively poorer and powerless. As the narrator states, due to poverty and lack of housing the Half-breeds had to move to "road-allowance-houses" (which are like shacks). The pages of these chapters also uncover the main cultural differences between whites and half-breeds by describing their family structure, distinct traditions and conception. These differences can be the structural elements that contribute to the uniqueness of Indian's situation. Firstly, unlike whites', half-breeds have extended family type in which two or more generations of the family members live together. Secondly, the half-breed families and other Indians live in a community where they practise their spiritual rituals, traditions and transmit their distinct cultural elements to the coming generation. It is also evident in the novel that Maria's family included her extended family and the Cheemchum taught Maria and her siblings their heritage, legends as well as cultural values and norms. Finally, the most important characteristic that sets the Indians apart from whites lies in their spiritual conception of the world. While the Indians are highly spiritual and believe in the interpretation of the natural and the supernatural, the whites strongly believe in subduing and dominating nature in order to create nature in men's image. With respect to such differences, in regards to family and community structure Indians try to sustain their distinct conception of the world as well as their distinct culture. Hence, their struggles to protect and sustain their uniqueness make them more distinct and marginal in the society. Maintaining these distinct elements also causes the Indians to remain economically weak in the contemporary industrialised Canadian society, since their belief is based on rationality rather than spirituality and the supernatural. The rest of the chapters are about Maria Campbell's life in Vancouver. The book mostly focuses on the realities of urban racism, prostitution, drug addiction and violence. Maria's husband left her without any money, which forced her to face prostitution. Within functional perspective, which is based on consensus and harmony for the benefit of society, prostitution seemed to be the only way for Maria to survive. Therefore she had to get involved in prostitution in order to survive and have enough money to raise her daughter; thus she carried out her function in society. In this process she also became addicted to drug and alcohol, because all the terrible circumstances that she faced were against her moral understanding and distinct (Half-breeds') conception of the world. So she lost her self-esteem and found herself in depression with the trap of drug addiction and alcoholism. At the end, she recovered from her addictions through the help of her own people. They helped her to regain her identity and dignity hence she started to work within "Native people" organisations throughout Canada.Campbell's experiences with discrimination, poverty, and other unfavourable things are realistic and persuasive. The examples that she gives in the novel strongly support her argument: the hardship of being "a half-breed woman in the white dominated Canadian society". Yet, at times her narrative tends to be biased since she conveys her story in a subjective manner. Especially, her easy and quick involvement in prostitution and drug addiction is questionable and difficult to understand since she was raised in a conservative and traditional Cree family. Nevertheless, The book "Half-breed" basically reflects an outstanding aspect of native people's difficulty in assimilating into the pluralistic Canadian society. It also provides a brief knowledge about how native people's distinct culture and subordinated economical or political weakness contribute their marginal and isolated position in the society. Overall, I personally think this book is useful for understanding the sociological concepts such as inequality, discrimination and poverty through the eyes of the distinct people who are discriminated against. The text offers an aspect of native people's lives in northern Saskatchewan through a half-breeds woman's experiences. The simple language and fascinating narrative makes the book more interesting and easy to read.



3. though her stories are not exclusive to the life of a Metis woman, the imagery is haunting. poverty, addiction, motherhood and the will of a society forced to make it on their own are all exposed. these themes are explored by other authors but not from this perspective. I would recommend this to every mother and/or women thinking of starting a family. this is a must read. for a guys perspective on similar themes check out alexie sherman's "the lone ranger and tanto fist fight in heaven". you won't be disappointed.



4. Maria Campbell tells a story of courageous survival from the perspective of a Metis woman. The reader becomes a part of Maria's journey through life, which begins amongst the Road Allowance People of Northern Saskatchewan. Her story describes a life dominated by basic survival. Hunting, trapping, poaching - if need be - and roasted gophers for a young school child's lunch. Her odyssey leads her through many dark places, one of them the Vancouver skids and a life as a junkie. Yet througout Maria Campbell manages to convey a sense of beauty, and her story, though often tragic, will become vivid in front of the reader's inner eyes. Half-Breed is a story of triumph over racial oppression. After reading this book, one can feel this woman's willingness to continue the fight that her great-grandmother's people began long ago in Riel country.

5 comments about It Stops with Me: Memoir of a Canuck Girl.

1. "This book is incredible." Louise Erdrich
   "beautiful book." Lawrence Ferlinghetti
   "Tough, evocative, border-crossing, honest, unflinching...large enough so it can embrace its readers. Margaret Randall, Author. PEN NM Lifetime Achievement Awardee 2005
   "An emotion-charged story of initial struggle and ultimate success...a must in any library collection." Book Wire
   "magnificent in its courage and decency." Sam Ballen Author Without Reservations.
   
   Great Reads - New Mexico Magazine, April 2005 p. 45.
   Personal Journeys: More Than Just Survival by Michelle Miller Allen
   "Our girlhood years, formed in various cultures and family configurations-from the most abusive to the most loving-and tempered by the social prejudices and taboos of one's time-are where we begin our journeys into adulthood. These factors have much to do with whether we will just survive or become empowered by the most demanding, even devastating, events on our individual paths.
   It Stops with Me: Memoir of a Canuck Girl by Charleen Touchette (TouchArt Books 2004) Touchette's memoir opens the doors into the lives of women who shaped her childhood into adulthood-the healers, storytellers, homemakers, and artists. This most compelling book includes fascinating color and black and white reproductions of the author's artwork over three decades. The book charts Touchette's journey from a French Canadian/RhodeIsland childhood at the hands of an abusive alcoholic father, to Wellesley College, to New York City's culture of arts, to Minnesota and Indian Country.
   Touchette combines the voice of the reminiscing adult writer/artist with that of a child obsessed with "making things" as a survival mechanism. Abusive parents seem to bank on the false assumption that their children, as adults, will not remember abuse. Yet anyone who doubts the intelligence and level of awareness in a young, abused human being should read the end of Chapter "Forsythia Blossoms": "I do not know when I started fighting back. I do not have a memory of when Daddy started hitting me. I was too young. But I do remember clearly the moment when I looked up at my dad's face, and realized he was a fool. I was seven."



2. December 14, 2005
   
   Woonsocket Harris Public Library Board of Trustees
   Diane Rivers, Chair
   Dorian Parker, Vice-Chair
   Lisa Sparks, Secretary
   John Pellizzari
   Ernest "Buddy" DiSpirito
   303 Clinton Street
   Woonsocket, RI 02895-3214
   Fax: 401-767-4140
   
   Dear Members of the Woonsocket Harris Public Library Board of Trustees,
   
   On behalf of the 2,900 members of PEN American Center, an international organization of writers dedicated to protecting freedom of expression wherever it is threatened, we are writing to express our deep concern over the fact that the Woonsocket Public Library Trustees are considering a request to ban It Stops with Me: Memoir of a Canuck Girl written by native Woonsocket author-artist Charleen Touchette.
   
   We understand that a citizen request to ban the book was made at the Library Trustees' September meeting. The Library Trustees removed the book from the Woonsocket Harris Public Library shelves after the September meeting pending a decision.
   
   It Stops with Me: Memoir of a Canuck Girl, the latest work by author-artist Charleen Touchette, invites you into the provincial world of a French Canadian girl in Rhode Island who cannot tell anybody her family secrets. Years later when she has her first daughter she must relive her childhood to heal the future generations of her family. It is a story of survival and triumph as a victim of childhood abuse and was written for an adult audience. The novel tells a realistic story with complex figures. Such books help readers approach sensitive topics and figure out how to deal with them. Even if the novel's themes are too mature for some, they will be meaningful to others. No book is right for everyone, and the role of the library is to allow community members to make choices according to their own interests, experiences, and family values.
   
   Author Charleen Touchette, a member of our colleague organizations PEN USA and the Author's Guild, advocates for the freedom to write worldwide. It Stops with Me has been praised by authors Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Louise Erdrich, Margaret Randall, Ana Pacheco, and Winona LaDuke, and received a Foreword Book of the Year 2004 Finalist Award.
   
   PEN American Center respectfully asks you to deny the request to ban It Stops with Me: Memoir of a Canuck Girl and to return it to library shelves. By doing so, you will be upholding a fundamental principle of freedom: the right of all Americans to read, inquire, question, and think for themselves.
   
   Thank you for your attention to this matter.
   
   Sincerely,
   
   Hannah Pakula
   
   Larry Siems
   Chair, Freedom to Write Committee Director, Freedom to Write
   and International Programs



3. Reviewer Jennifer Lefkowitz chose "It Stops with Me" as the Book Special for "Girlfriends Magazine" November 2005 issue, p. 58 with two color photos of Touchette's art.
   
   "It Stops with Me: Memoir of a Cannuck Girl"
   
   "Charleen Touchette's memoir is healing and cathartic, a story of survival and triumph as a victim of childhood abuse. The author is an artist, and throughout the book she showcases her paintings, which resemble the work of painter Frida Kahlo. Like Kahlo, Touchette survived vehicle collisions; after a spine injury she is able to connect her past to her present. This compelling memoir dives into the dark trenches of that past, confronting memories with ancient practices. "I learned it is the task of all human beings to cut through the fog and illusion of maya, and reconnect with the light." A - Jennifer Lefkowitz
   
   "Water Illumination" (top) and "Boom Boom Boom" are two of the many paintings which illustrate the author's journey."



4. An autobiography of a spunky Franco-American woman from Woonsocket, Rhode Island gives cultural storytelling multi-generational appeal. Too many Franco-Americans (with ancestral roots in French-Canada) are quickly amalgamating into the mainstream of American culture without writing their special family stories. Fortunately, Charleen Touchette, a Woonsocket, Rhode Island writer and artist now living in New Mexico, puts both of her pleasingly creative talents together in "It Stops With Me: Memoir of a Cannuck Girl".
   Touchette writes about her Franco-American roots by relating simple, often bittersweet and even brutal experiences growing up as a typical French Catholic girl in Woonsocket and later as an accomplished artist.
   Moreover, Touchette energizes her autobiography's prose with a series of original black, and white and color print blocks. In other words, "It Stops With Me" expresses Touchette's Franco-American creativity using prose accentuated by her surprisingly cutting edge original art describing absorbing coming of age experiences. Her journey from a parochial Franco-American into her adult life is fraught with opportunities, along with unexpected harsh challenges. Her life is ordinary in some ways but hardly a nostalgic cake walk.
   "It Stops With Me" is at its best when Touchette looks back and elevates normal Franco-American experiences to familiarities we can identify with. For example, she describes cooking with her "Ma Tantes" or getting ready to receive First Holy Communion at Woonsocket's Eglise Précieux-Sang (Church of Precious Blood).
   Discord arises at a young age. Growing up as a French Roman Catholic girl is an underlying theme. Touchette's typical childhood is without the benefit of feeling safe at home, as she depicts in one of her portraits of a "Not a Picture Perfect Family".
   Rather, Touchette's absorbing life story endures familial stress, social and personal conflicts, even leading to physical ailments, which haunt her into adult years.
   Touchette's hard hitting narrative is set apart from others of the modern autobiographic genre by the intimate and complicated relationships she shares with her family. Delving even deeper into her private spiral are the intense personal investigations Touchette undertakes with regard to her sad relationship with her father.
   Nevertheless, in spite of the particular circumstances, it's typical of Franco-Americans to harbor deep attachments for their relatives and parents regardless of obvious flaws, shortcomings or even family violence. Female family role models are especially strong in Touchette's life. "Although my Maman was a devout Catholic, she was a strong supporter of my right to freedom of expression," writes Touchette. In fact, her female relatives were outraged when Touchette even considered not going to college after high school. In her Woonsocket Franco-Americans world, Touchette writes about how curious it was to be singled out for college when no other woman in her family ever went beyond a high school education.
   Throughout the autobiography, her French heritage is front and center, even when she embraces the peace of Judaism.
   Many of the book's chapters are charmingly led by simple French titles.
   Touchette's talent as a creative writer moves the reader beyond the dark side of her autobiography. Using the power of words, she inspires us to learn more about her as an individual woman with a spellbinding story to tell. Touchette does a good job explaining the pros and cons of the personal contrasts she inherited from her religious and ethnic roots. This is a well written autobiography, nominated for book awards, with a progressive social focus.



5. Charleen Touchette's story "The Pie Religion" is online in the May issue of Késsinnimek - Roots - Racines
   
   "What a loving, touching article! I could see, smell, hear everything, thanks to your beautiful descriptions. And what memories of my own childhood you brought back; we, too, had a pie religion among the women in our large family. My mother even had a modest business of making pies for the restaurants and the hotel in our little Northern Vermont town.
   Indeed, the secret to pie-making is passed on from mother to daughter to daughter as a sacred tradition.
   Thanks for a great read!
   I've recommended your article to several people, with my comment that if I could write as well as you, I'd give up quilting and stitching...and making pies!"
   Louise Dubrule

No comments about The People Who Own Themselves: Aboriginal Ethnogenesis in a Canadian Family, 1660-1900.

5 comments about The Truth About Stories: A Native Narrative (Indigenous Americas).

1. The simple truth about stories is that they impart who we are. Whether telling tales or reading/listening to what others have to say. King suggests that not only do stories explain us to ourselves and others, there are often deeper implications - sometimes dangerous ones. In this series of essays derived from the CBC's Massey Lecture series, this talented novelist and social commentator brings a fresh view to telling stories - a Native American outlook. This compelling overview is long overdue, and King manages to cover a great deal of territory in six essays. The questions he raises are a combination of long-standing viewpoints along with modern shifts of emphasis.
   
   King starts by contrasting two mythologies - one probably wholly unknown to you and one familiar. The first is the story of the Woman Who Fell From the Sky. Tumbling from the depths of space, "Charm" [for such is her name] arrives on a world completely covered in water. After several attempts, Charm convinces Otter to bring mud from the sea bottom so that there may be land for creatures to walk on. Not all wanted to be on the new land, so the animals divided the world into water creatures and land creatures with the birds able to cope with both. Thus the world was founded on a spirit of cooperation.
   
   The other myth is called "Genesis", the Judeo-Christian version of similar events, but with a very different frame of reference. The humans are restricted by One Rule - break it and you will die. The Rule is broken, of course, and King is at pains to avoid pointing the finger of guilt. The point of this comparison is that the Judeo-Christian myth contains the absolute condition of the One Rule, and the vengeful deity that imposed it. Charm would never have laid down such a stricture and King suggests that the Genesis story need not have done so either. Native American spirits have little need for such single-mindedness, as he explains in the following lectures. Why does Judeo-Christianity need it?
   
   King intertwines a number of personal accounts with his Aboriginal stories, and these are hardly intrusive in the narrative. He follows his mother's attempts to gain employment equity in an industry she's well-qualified to excel in. Looking for some adventure, he travels to New Zealand taking up various roles - one of which lasts but a day. Throughout his journeys, his origins become a question of increasing importance. In the European ["white"] world, the image of "the Indian" is in a constant state of flux. Ignorant on the one hand, but devious and cunning on the other. The Indian as Entertainer takes up much of one essay, and you are made aware that you likely hold that view without being aware of it. When the white world finally realised that neither extermination nor assimilation was going to define the fate of Aboriginal people, forms of "protection" were introduced in both the US and Canada. The "protection" must rest on defining just what an Indian is, and the long-term impact of the legislation is closely examined by King in the lecture "What is it about us that you don't like?" and that title proves symptomatic. The Indians don't know and the whites haven't even asked the question. It must be asked and clearly answered.
   
   King concludes the series with an essay on "Private stories". While those might seem out of place here, the author shows how small, personal tales have long-reaching implications. A "private story" almost certainly carries elements that have meaning to each of us. He concludes each story by asking whether you think your life might have followed a different path if you'd only heard this story earlier. "You've heard it now" he says, throwing down the gauntlet to challenge the reader to consider what changes in your life to make now. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]



2. The Truth about Stories, a Native Narrative,
   
   By Thomas King. U of Minn. Press
   
   The Truth about Stories by Thomas King is the prestigious Massey Lectures on culture produced on Canada Broadcasting Corporation Radio. King is the writer of many of my favorite works including the very funny Medicine River that was made into a TV movie with Graham Greene.
   
   This book is another honor added to this Cherokee writer's portfolio. I found the book beautifully written and enjoyable as a interweaving of stories both from traditional sources and his personal life.
   
   King has a deft way of making fun of himself that resembles the lead character in Medicine River. At the same time he is as obvious in his manipulation of the reader as that character was in creating the situation that trapped the Graham Greene character into coming home.
   
   The book is laid out in five sections that begins with the story of "The Girl who fell to earth." King then proceeds through the comparison between native literature that stresses the interconnectedness of life and the authoritarian structure as experienced in the "Alpha Male" version of the Biblical Creation. What he doesn't mention is that this also has its parallel in native life in the Alpha character of Wolf society. But that is quibbling.
   
   King takes the listener reader through his life as a non-reservation Indian and as an activist author. He records funny encounters with reporters and journalists who struggle to understand how he could be "Indian." Or even what being Indian entails.
   
   He speaks to the problem of suicide amongst a people who are not afraid of death but can't find a reason for living and ends the book with the problem of his failure with a friend and the issue of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome.
   
   If there is a problem in the lectures I would say that it doesn't really draw upon our strengths but more on the observations of Indians by outsiders eyes. Indian people had a full rich societal life with all that entailed prior to the plagues that destroyed us. I would like our story tellers to show us how these metaphorical myths opened up the depths of our spirits. How we had a science, art, economics, public health, laws and spirituality. How the stories walk lightly through these structures instead of with the steel tipped boots of the tyrant. Now that is a book about stories that I would enjoy even more than I enjoyed this one. And I enjoyed this one a great deal.
   
   
   Ray Evans Harrell (this is a review that i wrote for the nuyagi keetoowah newsletter for november 2005. )



3. This book is fantastic! The first chapter alone is a must read for everyone you know, and could change your life. About how the kinds of stories we tell can be paradigm-shifting. Deals with the romanticized notion of native americans (see also Edward Said's book ORIENTALISM), how an invented idea of "indian" has been used and abused by the u.s. in hypocritical ways, and how the stories we hear and tell about ourselves shape our identity. Lots of very sad facts about native american history in its relationship with the US government. The book is set up in a kind of spiral with a recurring story told in different ways at the beginning of each chapter. This book is really for everyone - not just those with an interest in native americans. The stories we are telling in America today are globally destructive and negative - let's start fresh with some positive stories to turn this country around - we are all on this planet together.



4. ...make it this one. I have thousands of books, I'm a chronic reader....this book is Special. Written with warm heart and acute intelligence, wit and reserve, pathos and philosophy, the book is an absolute jewel. With a spoon full of sugar, the pages turn easily; and without ever once taking the podium, Thomas King makes each one of his readers a smarter, richer person. A Mozart with words.... may he live long and write continuously!



5. I am a New Zealander and I heard Thomas King on the radio as he presented the Massey lectures this year. His words resonated with me even though his stories are not from my land. The pain of indigienous people and the stories of suffering that continues long after colonisation are heard in many countries of the world. King's stories express pain, but also hope, grief, but also joy. He is an extraordinary storyteller and as I read I can hear his voice reaching out, asking for a greater understanding and respect for the lives of people, and the well-being of the planet.

No comments about Comock: The True Story Of An Eskimo Hunger.

No comments about Terry Fox: A Story of Hope.

No comments about Stones, Bones and Stitches: Storytelling through Inuit Art (A Lord Museum Book).