Rudy Wiebe

This book has been in my TBR pile for at least 15 years, and I finally got around to reading it. I hesitate to write a review because the book description on the main page is so thorough, but I'll try to add some of my own impressions here. The blurb on the back cover of my edition is also an excellent description: "Rudy Wiebe's celebrated first novel about religious intolerance, and the problems that can be caused by rigid adherence to traditions of non-violence . . ." It's interesting that show more this novel created such a hub-bub when it was first published. Rather than make statements, all it does is question "why do we behave this way?" I guess some found that question threatening. I expected this novel to be an apology of pacifism, so I was surprised that it wasn't at all. Instead it was a philosophical questioning of pacifism that left answers up to the reader. Other themes explored in the novel are traditionalism, isolationism and the immigrant experience. All those -isms sound very dry, but the novel tells a story of a group of unique characters who grapple with these issues as they go about their day to day lives. I think it helps to have some knowledge of Mennonite culture to properly appreciate this book. Overall, an interesting novel that makes you think. show less

Hal Wiens, a retired professor, is mourning the sudden death of his loving wife, Yo. To get through each day, he relies on the bare comfort of routine and regular phone calls to his children Dennis and Miriam, who live in distant cities with their families. One snowy April morning, while drinking coffee with his Dené friend Owl in south-side Edmonton, he sees a tall man in an orange downfill jacket walk past on the sidewalk. The jacket, the posture, the head and hair are unmistakable: it's show more his beloved oldest son, Gabriel. But it can't be--Gabriel killed himself 25 years ago. The sighting throws Hal's inert life into tumult. While trying to track down the man, he is irresistibly compelled to revisit the diaries, journals and pictures Gabe left behind, to unfold the mystery of his son's death. Through Gabe's own eyes we begin to understand the covert sensibilities that corroded the hope and light his family knew in him. As he becomes absorbed in his son's life, lost on a tide of "relentless memory," Hal's grief--and guilt--is portrayed with a stunning immediacy, drawing us into a powerful emotional and spiritual journey. show less

There are so many things to unpack in this novel. Nurture vs nature, the beliefs of the father and the son, acceptance of change, racism and so much more.

Thom is becoming a man. One who, as all of us must, is questioning his place in the world. He asks those deep questions about God and the practice of his religion by his elders. We're follow him in his daily life learning about his community and it's practices. Seeing through his eyes the descrepencies between their teachings and their actions.

Rudy Wiebe's writing is careful but not cautious, dense but almost painfully clear, sensual and never explicit. I loved this book: the ways Wiebe juxtaposed the Tsot'sine and British perspectives, acknowledging the arrogance of early Canadian explorers and yet allowing them their humanity. He writes people in all their complexity, their strengths, their poor choices, their assumptions and limitations.

A key theme is the specificity and limits of cultural knowledge, depicted through the show more metaphor of eating and the eventual death by starvation of many in Franklin's expedition. One scene that particularly stands out is that of the Dene character Greenstockings feeding caribou stomach to Robert Hood, her British lover; probably the most erotic depiction of eating I have ever read. show less