Monkey Beach by Eden Robinson begins at the end and opens up to take you on a spirally path of a few days' journey that stretches over a child's lifetime. Before you know it, you are connected to the family and the village of Haisla people, and you get a first-hand observation of this family and their tangled lives. The language Robinson uses, skillfully raw, but always making its point felt, gives you an intimate sense of the culture of the book's inhabitants. It is a story well-told, deeply moving, highly absorbing, and alive every moment. It is a treat to those of us who grew up in a different world to learn about a culture, not so unlike the rest of North America, yet with its own… Read more
