Empire of Wild

When the Rogaru comes calling, Métis and First Nation peoples are usually well prepared. Prepared by story and memory and equipped with the tools to fight, be those wit or salt bone. Joan’s husband, Victor, has disappeared. For her it seems virtually impossible. How could he leave? And why? It’s been nearly a year. But then, out of the blue, she spots him going under a different name and pretending he is a Reverend calling his flock in a mission tent. And he doesn’t seem to remember her at all. It’s enough to drive you mad. Unless you have elderly aunties who can read these signs and help you prepare for the fight ahead to get your man back.

This is a meaty story of love and commitment set in a world that blends native show more metaphysics with western religion. Joan and her family — mother and brothers — are great characters, but it is her relationship with her Mere and her young nephew that stand out. Throughout, family ties and community provide the bulwark to defend oneself against the many dangers that lie without. The writing is full of enthusiasm, which sometimes overflows into a surfeit of similes. But once the final chase gets underway, the similes drop out and we remain fixed on Joan’s plight. A rollicking read, if sometimes uneven.

And gently recommended. show less

Parties were held in kitchens. Euchre was a sport. And fiddles made the only sound worth dancing to. Any other music was just background noise for storytelling and beer drinking and flirting. Or for providing the cadence for fight choreography when you just had to beat the shit out of your cousin.

Joan has been looking for her husband for almost a year when she finds him preaching in a giant tent in a Walmart parking lot. He looks different, and clearly doesn't know her, but she's sure it's him. Victor and Joan had met in Quebec and she brought him back to her small Métis community of Arcand on Georgian Bay in Ontario, where her family was less than welcoming. Arcand is close-knit and Joan grew up with tales of survival and encounters show more with the rougarou, a werewolf-type of creature that keeps children from wandering or girls from walking home alone at night. So Joan sets out to bring her husband home, armed with the knowledge passed to her from her grandmother and great-aunts, and with the help of her twelve-year-old nephew.

This is a fantastic book, full of warmth and love for the Métis community, imaginative and well-written. Cherie Dimaline is an author to pay attention to. In the world of Empire of Wild the supernatural exists alongside the natural one and it's up to Joan to figure out how to rescue her husband. Joan was a great character to spend time with, she's determined and more than a little reckless and utterly sure that Victor wouldn't leave her. The secondary characters have depth and their own histories. Zeus, Joan's nephew, was so very much a twelve-year-old boy, with all the bravery and vulnerability of that age. Even the bad guys were so understandable and multi-dimensional. Yes, I really liked this one. show less

In the Métis community of Canada, Joan is living the reality of her husband Victor seemingly leaving her a year earlier and gone missing. One day she comes up on a Christian revivalist tent and sees someone who is clearly Victor, but he claims to be Reverend Wolff.

Joan sets out to reclaim her husband, often accompanied by her determined 12-year-old nephew Zeus. The search for Victor also draws Joan closer to her indigenous heritage. Métis elder Ajean teaches her the folklore about the Rogarou, a werewolf-like creature that possess souls.

Dimaline's writing is expressive and rousing and the novel works on multiple levels. It's a supernatural horror story that also reflects the challenges of modern indigenous life, while the Rogarou show more serves as a metaphor for the historical oppression of colonization. show less

EMPIRE OF WILD is contemporary literary fantasy operating at two levels. On one is Joan, whose husband has been missing for a year until she is nearly mad with grief and worry and desperation. She and Victor had one bad fight, but their connection is the strongest she has ever known; she cannot believe he would just up and leave her. No, something happened to him. Her family has about had it, though. Maybe she should just accept the rejection and move on with her life, they suggest in direct and indirect ways. Everything takes a bizarre turn in a Walmart parking lot when she stumbles one morning into a tent revival church led by a charismatic preacher—who turns out to be Victor. The missing husband. Only now he goes by Reverend Wolff, show more is part of an elaborate organization, and has no apparent memory of her.

The other level of this story has to do with Indigenous land rights. Author Cherie Dimaline is Métis, an Indigenous group located in both Canada and the US that traces its ancestry to a blending of Native and European ancestry. The novel opens on a sort of poetic history of the Métis people of the town of Arcand, “the children of French voyageurs and First Nations mothers, and Métis people who had journeyed from Manitoba. The new colonial authorities wanted the land but not the Indians, so the people were bundled onto ships with their second-hand fiddles and worn-soft boots.” Continually pushed to the margins, their resilience is syncretic: “Catholic by habit, they prayed on their knees for the displacement to stop, for the Jesus to step in and draw a line between the halfbreeds and the new people. Those among them who carried medicine also laid down coarse salt as protection against the movement. This salt came from the actual bones of one particular Red River family, who drew their own boundaries when the hand of God did not reach down to do it for them.”

Despite the historical beginning, this book is about modern-day people. Like much of my favorite fantasy, it uses magical elements to tell a relatable, human story. Joan navigates relationships pulled taut between the twin poles of love and frustration as she struggles to work out what has happened to Victor. The flow of the story, while confronting pain, is overall fairly light—the bad guys are clearly marked out (though Dimaline is careful to enhance their stories with detail and purpose), and the supernatural element of the rogarou, a traditional supernatural beast that has served as a threat in the Arcand community for centuries, never ventures into real horror territory. I found EMPIRE OF WILD to be an enjoyable entertainment, but one with some real meat to chew on. I don’t want to explain just how those two levels of story, Joan and the land rights, relate to one another, since that would be a spoiler for a very solid aspect of the book, but I will say that their interplay adds depth and pleasure to the story. show less

Since her husband Victor disappeared almost a year ago, Joan has never given up her search for him. One day she finally spots him -- but he's preaching in a revival tent in a Walmart parking lot and he doesn't seem to remember her at all. But Joan can see that there's something terrifying in his eyes, something that brings to mind the old legends about the rogarou, a werewolf who haunts and preys upon her Metis community. Will she be strong enough to fight an ancient creature and get him back?

I really enjoyed this book and its interesting take on werewolf legends. Joan is a great main character, flawed but also fiercely likeable, and her love for Victor and determination to save their relationship is completely believable. The other show more characters, from Joan's raucous family to her friend and advisor Ajean to the people caught up in the revival group that is secretly hiding an ancient evil, are all wonderful as well. Author Cherie Dimaline's relatable characters helped make the story of possession and recovery genuinely scary at times and a fun read. I'm looking forward to her next book. show less

Dimaline cleverly re-imagines the Rogarou, a native legend of a werewolf-like creature, into modern-day life. Her story is steeped in commentary on how indigenous peoples have been manipulated by government, greed, and religion, and how turning to ancestral stories, family, and love, can help to persevere. I was captivated by the novel, it's characters, and the folklore behind it all. The story is not over, and I look forward to seeing what Dimaline delivers next.

I loved this. It's a blend of Native/First Nations folklore, modern marriage troubles, mystery, thriller, and stunning literary fiction writing. Dimaline is a talented writer. Her turns of phrase are sometimes breathtaking.

Joan is a First Nations woman investigating the disappearance of her husband when she encounters the modern version of the ancient rogarou legend. That's all you need to know to dive in.