12/07/2015
Lindberg's debut novel is a twisting, darkly funny, heartbreaking, sometimes brilliant and sometimes incoherent tale situated in the complicated inner life of Bernice "Birdie" Meetos. Bernice is a Cree woman who was born and spent her childhoood on a reserve in northern Alberta. From there, she is sent to a Christian school, foster care, and a psychiatric hospital, and eventually ends up living on the streets of Edmonton, Alta. Finally, she moves from Alberta to Gibsons, B.C., ostensibly in hopes of meeting a native actor whom she idolized as a teen. Throughout much of the book Birdie has taken to her bed in her room above Lola's Little Slice of Heaven, the bakery in Gibsons where she works. There, in waking dreams, she begins to deal with the emotional and sexual abuse she endured as a child as well as the death of her mother. The novel's timeline and plot are difficult to follow as they move between Bernice's past and present, waking and dreaming, concrete reality and spirit world. The book's strength lies not in its larger story but in its small moments, particularly when Birdie is reflecting on her childhood. Lindberg is a Cree and Métis lawyer and a professor of law and indigenous studies at two universities. If her next work of fiction has better structure and a more coherent narrative, she will also be an important voice in Canadian literature. Agent: Carolyn Swayze, Carolyn Swayze Literary Agency (Canada). (June)
Bernice Meetoos will not be broken. A big, beautiful Cree woman with a dark secret in her past, Bernice ("Birdie") has left her home in northern Alberta to travel to Gibsons, B.C. She is on something of a vision quest, looking for family, for home, for understanding. She is also driven by the leftover teenaged desire to meet Pat Johns--Jesse from The Beachcombers--because he is, as she says, a working, healthy Indian man. Birdie heads for Molly's Reach to find answers, but they are not the ones she expected. With the arrival in Gibsons of her Auntie Val and her cousin Skinny Freda, Birdie begins to draw from her dreams the lessons she was never fully taught in life. Informed by the lore and knowledge of Cree traditions, Birdie is a darkly comic and moving first novel about the universal experience of recovering from tragedy. At heart, it is the story of an extraordinary woman who travels to the deepest part of herself to find the strength to face the past and to build a new life.
"1120871970"
Birdie
Bernice Meetoos will not be broken. A big, beautiful Cree woman with a dark secret in her past, Bernice ("Birdie") has left her home in northern Alberta to travel to Gibsons, B.C. She is on something of a vision quest, looking for family, for home, for understanding. She is also driven by the leftover teenaged desire to meet Pat Johns--Jesse from The Beachcombers--because he is, as she says, a working, healthy Indian man. Birdie heads for Molly's Reach to find answers, but they are not the ones she expected. With the arrival in Gibsons of her Auntie Val and her cousin Skinny Freda, Birdie begins to draw from her dreams the lessons she was never fully taught in life. Informed by the lore and knowledge of Cree traditions, Birdie is a darkly comic and moving first novel about the universal experience of recovering from tragedy. At heart, it is the story of an extraordinary woman who travels to the deepest part of herself to find the strength to face the past and to build a new life.
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Editorial Reviews
Product Details
| BN ID: | 2940171141769 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Recorded Books, LLC |
| Publication date: | 06/23/2017 |
| Edition description: | Unabridged |
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