Elizabeth Stewart (1)

I just finished reading Blue Gold, and it's the first time since becoming a book reviewer that a book has left me speechless and made a deep and lasting impression on me.

The book is very well written, and explores the different lives of 3 girls: Fiona in Canada, living some high school drama and cyber bullying, Laiping in China, working (being exploited) in an electronics manufacturing factory, and Sylvie, living in the middle of the war torn DRC, directly affected by rape, murder and show more corruption.

The writing is so vivid that you can picture what each of these girls faces on a daily basis. It's shocking, eye-opening and deeply disturbing. Even though this book is fictional, everything could, and does, happen every day.

I found the afterword very important, and am glad the author added it.

The first thing I did after reading the last page was to download the buycott.com app, and then write this review. show less

"According to the Tuskegee Institute of Alabama, between 1882 and 1968, there were 4,742 lynchings in the United States. In Canada during the same period, there was one - the lynching of Louie Sam."

The Lynching of Louis Sam, although fiction, is based on a true story. Most of the facts in this book are taken from the records and from the documentary of the same name. They are as follows:

In 1884, near Nooksack, in the Washington Territory, a storekeeper named James Bell was murdered and his show more homestead set on fire. A witness claimed to have seen Louis Sam, a young Sto:lo boy of approximately 14 years near the scene and 'there was murder in his eyes'. Sam lived in British Columbia which was only a few kilometers away. The Canadian authorities were notified and Sam was taken into custody. However, they insisted that, before they would extradite Sam, he would be tried in Canada. Instead, a group of men from Nooksack disguised themselves, some in women's clothes, crossed the border and took Sam from where he was being held. Just a few metres from the border but on the Canadian side, Sam was lynched. The Sto:lo tribe threatened revenge and the Canadian government, fearing a border war, demanded the arrest of the mob leaders and even sent agents undercover to to try to find the guilty parties. Eventually, though, no one was ever charged with the lynching. Although the truth of Bell's murder has never been fully discovered, there is a great deal of evidence that Louie Sam was innocent but, due to the racism of the time and the fact that his father was in prison for killing cattle and was suspected of the murder of a settler, he made an easy scapegoat.

Author, Elizabeth Stewart stays very close to the facts. Although she makes it clear she believes Sam was innocent, she deliberately avoids trying to recreate Sam's thoughts or those of the Sto:lo tribe. Instead, the narrator of the story is George Gillies, the 14-year-old son of Scottish immigrants, and one of the children who first spotted the fire at the Bell house. When the lynch mob is being formed, George wants to go but his father, a member of the 'vigilance committee' tells him to stay home. Instead, George and a friend follow the mob and he is present at the lynching. He is surprised by the fact that Sam is just a boy. He also notices other things which make him think Sam is innocent.

He tries to convince others of this and, although his father agrees with him, it becomes very clear that no one else does or, at least, is willing to do anything. Many, in fact, have their own suspicions of who murdered Bell and why but see no purpose served by saying anything. After all, Sam was just an Indian and, anyway, the citizens of Nooksack are seeking statehood and revealing their role in the lynching could jeopardize this.

Although a work of fiction, by staying close to the facts, Stewart has a written a compelling tale of the dark side of both Canadian and American history. Too often, fictional accounts of the 'old west' show it as a period of unbridled freedom, a sort of surreal Star Warsesque time where men were men and the white hats always won. The Lynching of Louie Sam is aimed at a YA audience but, for anyone interested in the truth about frontier life, especially the idea of 'frontier justice', this novel gives an unflinching account of Lynch's Law. show less

Coincidentally, I read this book the same week that people across North America were lining up for the release of the latest smartphone. In Blue Gold, the lives of three teens are inextricably linked to the manufacture and production of these phones. Fiona is the daughter of a mining executive in Vancouver, Sylvie is a Congolese girl living in a Tanzanian refugee camp, and Laiping is a girl from rural China who has come to the city to work in an electronics factory.

Stewart has skillfully show more taken real-world situations and used fictional characters to illuminate the true human costs of the production and use of smartphones. For Sylvie the mining of Coltan in the Congo has cost her her Country and part of her family, and has exposed her to horrendous violence. For Laiping, assembly line work has cost her her right to self-determination as she feels trapped by inhuman employment practices. Back in Canada, Fiona’s family loyalty is tested when she pays the cost of using her smartphone to sext her boyfriend.

Hopefully teens will not find Blue Gold to be too didactic, but instead will be inspired to become conscientious consumers who think about the materials that go into the electronics they covet, and the lives of the people who make them. show less

I just finished reading Blue Gold, and it's the first time since becoming a book reviewer that a book has left me speechless and made a deep and lasting impression on me.

The book is very well written, and explores the different lives of 3 girls: Fiona in Canada, living some high school drama and cyber bullying, Laiping in China, working (being exploited) in an electronics manufacturing factory, and Sylvie, living in the middle of the war torn DRC, directly affected by rape, murder and show more corruption.

The writing is so vivid that you can picture what each of these girls faces on a daily basis. It's shocking, eye-opening and deeply disturbing. Even though this book is fictional, everything could, and does, happen every day.

I found the afterword very important, and am glad the author added it.

The first thing I did after reading the last page was to download the buycott.com app, and then write this review. show less