RaveChicago Review of BooksThese are terrific short stories from a writer who knows how to pull us into them by selectively removing the veils on her characters’ lives, or sometimes by leaving them exactly where they were and getting us to wonder how those lives will unfold after we have turned the page. We learn a lot about her authorial imagination by looking at these many small slices of it in one compact collection, which is an ideal way to get to know her work if you are not already an aficionado.
Richard Wagamese
RaveFiction Writers ReviewWagamese accomplishes a similar bifurcation of perspectives by utilizing both the straightforward Zhaunagush descriptiveness of the journalistic trade (Wagamese received a National Newspaper Award in Canada in 1990) and the more free, lush voice of a man who has visions. His prose is at its best while exploring two opposing poles: Saul’s immersion in the physical world and his despair over his place in Canadian society as an Ojibway. At points these two come together in scenes of marvelous power, particularly his return visits to St. Jerome’s and to the lake where he had lived with his grandmother ... Indian Horse unflinchingly portrays the troubled lives of people trying to protect their identities from eradication. In laying bare Saul’s truth, Wagamese honors those in similar predicaments whose stories remain untold.
