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Indian Horse [Paperback]

Richard Wagamese
4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
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Book Description

Jan 27 2012

A Canada Reads 2013 Contender

A Globe and Mail top 100 book of 2012

Saul Indian Horse is dying. Tucked away in a hospice high above the clash and clang of a big city, he embarks on a marvellous journey of imagination back through the life he led as a northern Ojibway, with all its sorrows and joys.

With compassion and insight, author Richard Wagamese traces through his fictional characters the decline of a culture and a cultural way. For Saul, taken forcibly from the land and his family when he's sent to residential school, salvation comes for a while through his incredible gifts as a hockey player. But in the harsh realities of 1960s Canada, he battles obdurate racism and the spirit-destroying effects of cultural alienation and displacement.

Indian Horse unfolds against the bleak loveliness of northern Ontario, all rock, marsh, bog and cedar. Wagamese writes with a spare beauty, penetrating the heart of a remarkable Ojibway man. Evaluated and Approved by ERAC


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Review

"Wagamese has written one of the rarest sorts of books: a novel which is both important and a heart-in-throat pleasure." (Robert Wiersema Edmonton Journal 2012-04-21)

"...Wagamese alternates between horror and Hockey Night in Canada, like he's an all-star centre flawlessly firing backhand shots." (Telegraph Journal 2012-02-25)

"Richard Wagamese's writing is exceptional not only for its sensitivity but for a warmth that extends beyond the page. With a finely calibrated hand, he explores heritage, identity, nature, salvation, and gratitude in works that quietly celebrate storytellingís vitality and power to transcend." (David Chau Georgia Straight 2012-02-22)

"Wagamese writes with brutal clarity... [and] finds alleviating balance through magical legend." (Globe & Mail 2011-11-30)

"Wagamese is capable of true grace on the page." (Winnipeg Free Press 2011-11-30)

"Richard Wagamese is a born storyteller." (Louise Erdrich, author of Shadow Tag 2011-11-30)

"Richard Wagamese is a national treasure." (Joseph Boyden, author of Through Black Spruce 2011-11-30)

"Richard Wagamese's writing is sweet medicine for the soul." (Richard Van Camp, author of The Lesser Blessed 2011-11-30)

"Wagamese captures the beauty of hockey as few sportswriters could hope to match." (Rob Kirbyson Winnipeg Free Press 2012-02-11)

"This book is so many things; it is a mystical tale; it is an ode to the good old hockey game and its power to lift players above their situations; it is a story of a system that fails and fails its children in horrifying ways; it is a story of healing...This is ultimately a hopeful and beautiful book and I recommend it heartily." (Susan Fish Guelph Mercury 2012-06-01)

"Wagamese's compelling novel harnesses two quintessentially Canadian themes, hockey and colonialism, to create an exhilarating and heart-breaking story. Indian Horse reads like 'powerful medicine, allowing vital teachings to be shared.'" (Yutaka Dirks Briar Patch Magazine 2012-08-15)

Evaluated and Approved (BC ERAC 2012-11-27)

"Indian Horse finds the granite solidity of Wagamese's prose polished to a lustrous sheen; brisk, brief, sharp chapters propel the reader forward. He seamlessly braids together his two traditions: English literary and aboriginal oral. So audible is Saul's voice, that I heard him stop speaking whenever I closed the book...Wagamese crafts an unforgettable work of art." (Donna Bailey Nurse National Post 2012-03-09)

"Wagamese pulls off a fine balancing act: exposing the horrors of the country's residential schools while also celebrating Canada's national game." (James Grainger Quill & Quire 2012-01-15)

"Indian Horse distills much of what Wagamese has been writing about for his whole career into a clearer and sharper liquor, both more bitter and more moving than he has managed in the past. He is such a master of empathy -- of delineating the experience of time passing, of lessons being learned, of tragedies being endured -- that what Saul discovers becomes something the reader learns, as well, shocking and alien, valuable and true. " (Jane Smiley Globe & Mail 2012-02-17)

"...raw and authentic." (Vancouver Weekly 2012-02-29)

"Richard Wagamese is a master storyteller, who blends the throb of life with spiritual links to the land, hard work, and culture to find success, his words take you into the soul of Indian Horse, to experience his pain, his growing resentments, his depression, and his fear which has to be faced if he is to regain the joy of life. This book is meant for youth, adults, and elders, to be shared, to be lived, and to be treasured for the clear message of hope and the need to go the distance." (Wawatey News 2012-03-01)

"Saul Indian Horse is a tough Ojibway boy whose life seems doomed until he discovers hockey and becomes a brilliant skater with a killer wrist shot. But the star of the northern Ontario Indian tournament circuit -- even scouted by the Toronto Maple Leafs -- is goaded by racism into violence and booze and has to come to terms with the painful facts of his childhood. Indian Horse is a taut, closely observed character study with fabulous writing about our beloved sport. " (Marian Botsford Fraser More Magazine 2012-03-22)

"...The hockey chapters are compelling; they evoke Sherman Alexie's fiction that examines contemporary life on American Indian reservations through the lens of basketball. But it is as a story of reconciliation that this novel reveals Wagamese's masterful subtly...In a single image, Wagamese complicates in blinding ways the entire narrative; in a single page, Indian Horse deepens from an enjoyable read to a gripping critique of Canada." (Kyle Carsten Wyatt The Walrus 2012-06-01)

"Indian Horse is a force for healing in our beautiful, broken world." (Kathleen Winter, author of "Annabel" 2011-12-08)

About the Author

Richard Wagamese is an Ojibway from the Wabaseemoong First Nation in northwestern Ontario. He is the author of four novels, including the award-winning Dream Wheels. His autobiographical book For Joshua was published to critical acclaim, and One Native Life was selected as one of the Globe & Mail's Top 100 Books of the Year. He lives outside Kamloops, British Columbia.

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Most helpful customer reviews
13 of 13 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Timely and purely marvelous Jan 16 2013
By Cathy
Format:Paperback
As a child of northern Canada, the residential school legacy has been a constant theme in my formative and adult years. It is truly one of the blackest hours in Canadian history; one so shameful, we cannot bear to teach it in our public schools. The complete social upheaval of first nations communities has led to the destruction and near-destruction of so many lives and homes in the north, we despair of it ever being healed.

But healing is coming; in the telling of the stories, in the solidarity of shared experience and in the reclamation of language, culture and spirit. "Indian Horse" is a powerful story; it's voice echoed in the Truth and Reconciliation hearings being held across the country, as everyone who has suffered at the hands of residential schools has the opportunity to tell their own story.

The language of Richard Wagamese is spare and concise, removing any sense of sentimentality; the bits and pieces of the story either too beautiful or horrid to benefit from any embellishment. It is rich and evocative without an extra syllable to be found.

There are several themes running through the book - the wonderful spiritual connection to Saul's ancestors, the land and his own healing, the various communities that surround him at different times, the redemption and salvation found at the hockey rink and the gut-wrenching years at the school; the stories of the small, lost souls of St. Jerome's so powerful, I found myself waking in the night, thinking of them: Arden Little Light, Shane Big Canoe, Sheila Jack. This is where Wagamese has served us so well - by simply acknowledging them, seeing them and helping us to see them too. The small slivers of their stories, told in only a few sentences, gives life to their suffering and tells us all we need to know.

The writing is nearly matter-of-fact; this is what happened with never a whiff of self pity. It is wise, with moments of pure joy, despair, hope and dark evil; the healing power of the land countered by absolute cruelty and ignorance. You will hear the echo of this story long after you finish reading it.
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Best book of 2012 Dec 11 2012
Format:Paperback
I read a lot of books every year, at least 3-5 a week and Indian Horse is, hands down, the best book I've read in 2012.
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars A book that should be read by all hockey players May 11 2012
Format:Paperback
Here is an interview at the blog attheedgeofcanada.blogspot.ca with Richard where he talks about his novel Indian Horse. I would love for this book to gain greater appeal among hockey players and lovers, because it would be a great introduction to residential schools and its terrible period for First Nations, while tying into the story which is linked to Canadian identity of Hockey and the wild.

robert ouellette
Indian Horse
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Most recent customer reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent!
I would recommend this book to other educators, wanting to shed some light into the classroom with an Aboriginal perspective. It is elegantly written. Read more
Published 6 days ago by Shirley Nepinak
4.0 out of 5 stars Harrowing read … for first third and last
Indian Horse by Richard Wagamese was a finalist in 2013's Canada Reads. Having worked for fourteen years on an Ojibway reserve in northern Wisconsin, I was fascinated by the... Read more
Published 14 days ago by Annamarie Beckel
5.0 out of 5 stars page turner
Well written and unique insight from a First Nations perspective about rez schools. Really enjoyed this book a lot. Liked the hockey nostalgia as well.
Published 15 days ago by C.D.
5.0 out of 5 stars Emotional
Opens all your heart strings, well done and congratulations Richard. Takes you on a great journey through many emotions. Recommend for all
Published 18 days ago by William Pettinger
5.0 out of 5 stars Indian Horse, a mustread for Canadians
It was an honour to read “Indian Horse” by Richard Wagamese. As a reader who wants to encourage others to go out and get this important piece of work, I am breaking the rule about... Read more
Published 20 days ago by books rock
4.0 out of 5 stars totally engrossing
I was totally engrossed from the first page. The heart wrenching story of a young boy who was betrayed not only by white society, but by his own family. Read more
Published 27 days ago by Cheryl Wilson
5.0 out of 5 stars WOW!
I loved this book! It should have won 'Canada Reads'. I was reading it while on a hockey tournament with my son in Thunder Bay, ON. Read more
Published 28 days ago by Scarlett
5.0 out of 5 stars Indian Horse is a must read!
Indian Horse Is a beautifully crafted book that taught me, angered me and moved me. Richard Wagamese's wonderfully descriptive writing style takes you through the highs (the joy... Read more
Published 1 month ago by Alison Ogilve
5.0 out of 5 stars awsome
i am french canadian and i loved the book very much, it opened my eyes and i just bought 7 other books from this author :)
Published 2 months ago by Helene
5.0 out of 5 stars Indian Horse
This book is an excellent read. It surprised me somewhat, and moved me to heartbrake, rage and sorrow. It's hard to put it down.
Published 2 months ago by F. Gorosh
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