Name: Heart Berries
Rating: 4 (66 reviews)
ISBN: 9781619023345

Terese Marie Mailhot

Guileless and refreshingly honest, Terese Mailhot's debut memoir chronicles her struggle to balance the beauty of her Native heritage with the often desperate and chaotic reality of life on the reservation

A Memoir

Heart Berries

Gillian Rose

It was short but somewhat uncomfortable and hard to read. She has a beautiful way with words and her life sounds so difficult so it was kind of like reading a private diary. Also, as she is a Native American, this brought some insight into that world while it still felt guarded.

*Canada Reads 2019 Longlist *National Bestseller *New York Times Bestseller *Finalist for the 2018 Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize for Nonfiction *Finalist for the 2018 Governor General's Literary Awards *Longlisted for the 2019 RBC Taylor Prize *Winner of the Blue Metropolis First Peoples Prize *Winner of the Spalding Prize for the Promotion of Peace and Justice in Literature *Winner of the 2019 Whiting Award for Nonfiction *Shortlisted for the 2019 Kobo Emerging Writer Prize *A New York Times Editor's Choice *A Globe and Mail Best Book of 2018 *A CBC Best Book of 2018 *A Toronto Star Best Book of 2018 *A Walrus Best Book of 2018 *An NPR Best Book of 2018 *A Chatelaine Best Book of 2018 *A Bustle Best Book of 2018 *A GQ Best Book of 2018 *A Thrillist Best Book of 2018 *A Book Riot Best Book of 2018 *An Electric Lit Best Book of 2018 *An Entropy Best Book of 2018 *A Hill Times Best Book of 2018 *A BookPage Best Book of 2018 *A Library Journal Best Book of 2018 *A Goodreads Best Book of 2018 *A New York Public Library Best Book of 2018 *Named one of the most anticipated books of 2018 by: Chatelaine, Entertainment Weekly, ELLE, Cosmopolitan, Esquire, Huffington Post, B*tch, NYLON, BuzzFeed, Bustle, The Rumpus and Goodreads *Selected by Emma Watson as the Our Shared Shelf Book Club Pick for March/April 2018 Guileless and refreshingly honest, Terese Mailhot's debut memoir chronicles her struggle to balance the beauty of her Native heritage with the often desperate and chaotic reality of life on the reservation. Heart Berries is a powerful, poetic memoir of a woman's coming of age on the Seabird Island Indian Reservation in British Columbia. Having survived a profoundly dysfunctional upbringing only to find herself hospitalized and facing a dual diagnosis of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and Bipolar II, Terese Mailhot is given a notebook and begins to write her way out of trauma. The triumphant result is Heart Berries, a memorial for Mailhot's mother, a social worker and activist who had a thing for prisoners; a story of reconciliation with her father--an abusive drunk and a brilliant artist--who was murdered under mysterious circumstances; and an elegy on how difficult it is to love someone while dragging the long shadows of shame. Mailhot "trusts the reader to understand that memory isn't exact, but melded to imagination, pain and what we can bring ourselves to accept." Her unique and at times unsettling voice graphically illustrates her mental state. As she writes, she discovers her own true voice, seizes control of her story and, in so doing, reestablishes her connection to her family, to her people and to her place in the world.

Jeannette Ordas

A slim, messy memoir from an indigenous woman with bipolar that spills its pain, beauty and rage over each and every page.

A powerful, poetic memoir of an Indigenous woman's coming of age on the Seabird Island Band in the Pacific Northwest—this New York Times bestseller and Emma Watson Book Club pick is “an illuminating account of grief, abuse and the complex nature of the Native experience . . . at once raw and achingly beautiful (NPR) Having survived a profoundly dysfunctional upbringing only to find herself hospitalized and facing a dual diagnosis of post traumatic stress disorder and bipolar II disorder, Terese Marie Mailhot is given a notebook and begins to write her way out of trauma. The triumphant result is Heart Berries, a memorial for Mailhot's mother, a social worker and activist who had a thing for prisoners; a story of reconciliation with her father―an abusive drunk and a brilliant artist―who was murdered under mysterious circumstances; and an elegy on how difficult it is to love someone while dragging the long shadows of shame. Mailhot trusts the reader to understand that memory isn't exact, but melded to imagination, pain, and what we can bring ourselves to accept. Her unique and at times unsettling voice graphically illustrates her mental state. As she writes, she discovers her own true voice, seizes control of her story, and, in so doing, reestablishes her connection to her family, to her people, and to her place in the world.

Fraser Simons

CW many forms of physical and emotional abuse/trauma to adults and children. 

While in the same vein as other indigenous memoirs, this is unapologetic and couched to be palatable to a particular (white) consumer base/audience, which really does make it feel different from similar texts. 

It also is extremely well written and feels extremely present in previous events in a way I’ve rarely read. I am not sure I’ve ever interrogated any events in my past the way every moment is in this. There is a willingness to reflect on the complexities of interactions where abuse is playing out by multiple parties. 

Ultimately, it is unlike anything I’ve read and hard to explain. I definitely recommend it but make sure you’re in the right headspace.

“Nothing is too ugly for this world, I think. It’s just that people pretend not to see.” 

I read this in one sitting and it feels like I held my breath the whole time. This will wreck and dazzle you. It's a memoir in the form of connected essays, some more love letter, some confessional prose poem. It is about trauma as the living thing that we grapple with, that becomes a part of our bones and informs the choices and lives to follow. Mailhot is unapologetic for any part of who she is and it's witnessing this true synthesis of grief and joy come together.

Steffi

*Canada Reads 2019 Longlist *National Bestseller *New York Times Bestseller *Finalist for the 2018 Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize for Nonfiction *Finalist for the 2018 Governor General's Literary Awards *Longlisted for the 2019 RBC Taylor Prize *Winner of the Blue Metropolis First Peoples Prize *Winner of the Spalding Prize for the Promotion of Peace and Justice in Literature *Winner of the 2019 Whiting Award for Nonfiction *Shortlisted for the 2019 Kobo Emerging Writer Prize *Shortlisted for the 2019 Edna Staebler Award for Creative Nonfiction *A New York Times Editors' Choice *A Globe and Mail Best Book of 2018 *A CBC Best Book of 2018 *A Toronto Star Best Book of 2018 *A Walrus Best Book of 2018 *An NPR Best Book of 2018 *A Chatelaine Best Book of 2018 *A Bustle Best Book of 2018 *A GQ Best Book of 2018 *A Thrillist Best Book of 2018 *A Book Riot Best Book of 2018 *An Electric Lit Best Book of 2018 *An Entropy Best Book of 2018 *A Hill Times Best Book of 2018 *A BookPage Best Book of 2018 *A Library Journal Best Book of 2018 *A Goodreads Best Book of 2018 *A New York Public Library Best Book of 2018 *Named one of the most anticipated books of 2018 by: Chatelaine, Entertainment Weekly, ELLE, Cosmopolitan, Esquire, Huffington Post, B*tch, NYLON, BuzzFeed, Bustle, The Rumpus and Goodreads *Selected by Emma Watson as the Our Shared Shelf Book Club Pick for March/April 2018 Guileless and refreshingly honest, Terese Mailhot's debut memoir chronicles her struggle to balance the beauty of her Native heritage with the often desperate and chaotic reality of life on the reservation. Heart Berries is a powerful, poetic memoir of a woman's coming of age on the Seabird Island Indian Reservation in British Columbia. Having survived a profoundly dysfunctional upbringing only to find herself hospitalized and facing a dual diagnosis of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and Bipolar II, Terese Mailhot is given a notebook and begins to write her way out of trauma. The triumphant result is Heart Berries, a memorial for Mailhot's mother, a social worker and activist who had a thing for prisoners; a story of reconciliation with her father--an abusive drunk and a brilliant artist--who was murdered under mysterious circumstances; and an elegy on how difficult it is to love someone while dragging the long shadows of shame. Mailhot "trusts the reader to understand that memory isn't exact, but melded to imagination, pain and what we can bring ourselves to accept." Her unique and at times unsettling voice graphically illustrates her mental state. As she writes, she discovers her own true voice, seizes control of her story and, in so doing, reestablishes her connection to her family, to her people and to her place in the world.

Georgia Carr

Oh this was good. Very nearly a five star for me, except it flitted around Therese's timeline and I lost where I was here and there. The writing though, it's gorgeous. Evocative, visceral and melodic. I often felt I was reading fiction, and to make one's life read like a made up story is a talent.

Laura Springall

2.5 stars

I'm a little torn about this one. On the one hand, the writing is absolutely stunning and the way it's written gives you a good idea about what her mind is like; it was erratic and all over the place and didn't make a lot of sense half the time, which in a way was brilliantly done. But on the other hand, that is exactly what I didn't like about it. There was no sense of order whatsoever and it made it pretty difficult to read. I feel like I have no idea what I just read. One sentence she would be recounting a childhood memory and then the next she would be talking about being pregnant and then the one after that she would talk about when her mother died. It was hard to follow what was going on. The other reason I'm rating this so low is because it felt like she only talked about men. Every paragraph was either talking about past or current boyfriends, or she would relate it back to that. Talking about when her mother died, she would then go on to say how that affected her relationships. She would talk about being in school but then only mention the men she dated in school. Every single thing was about men, all of it, and it got both tedious and frustrating very quickly.

Overall, it wasn't a bad read but I wouldn't necessarily say that I liked it. It is a very quick read, but there isn't a whole lot to it if I'm honest.

Les Reynolds

Raw, haunting. Makes you reconsider pain, and ends in hope.

kate

A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER Winner of the Whiting Award for Non-Fiction Selected by Emma Watson as an Our Shared Shelf Book Club Pick 'I loved it' Kate Tempest 'Astounding' Roxane Gay 'A sledgehammer' New York Times Heart Berries is a powerful, poetic memoir of a woman's coming of age on an Indian Reservation in the Pacific Northwest. Having survived a profoundly dysfunctional upbringing only to find herself hospitalised and facing a dual diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder and bipolar II disorder, Terese Marie Mailhot is given a notebook and begins to write her way out of trauma. The triumphant result is Heart Berries, a memorial for Mailhot's mother, a social worker and activist who had a thing for prisoners; a story of reconciliation with her father – an abusive drunk and a brilliant artist – who was murdered under mysterious circumstances; and an elegy on how difficult it is to love someone while dragging the long shadows of shame. Memory isn't exact, but melded to imagination. In Heart Berries, Mailhot discovers her own true voice, seizes control of her story, and, in so doing, re-establishes her connection to her family, to her people, and to her place in the world.

Heart Berries A Memoir

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