Richard Wagamese

Saul Indian Horse has hit bottom. His last binge almost killed him, and now he's a reluctant resident in a treatment centre for alcoholics, surrounded by people he's sure will never understand him. But Saul wants peace, and he grudgingly comes to see that he'll find it only through telling his story. With him, readers embark on a journey back through the life he's led as a northern Ojibway, with all its joys and sorrows. With compassion and insight, author Richard Wagamese traces through his fictional characters the decline of a culture and a cultural way. For Saul, taken forcibly from the land and his family when he's sent to residential school, salvation comes for a while through his incredible gifts as a hockey player. But in the harsh realities of 1960s Canada, he battles obdurate racism and the spirit-destroying effects of cultural alienation and displacement. Indian Horse unfolds against the bleak loveliness of northern Ontario, all rock, marsh, bog and cedar. Wagamese writes with a spare beauty, penetrating the heart of a remarkable Ojibway man.

A Novel

Indian Horse

Shelby Doherty

"Did you want to hunt that fucker down? Make him feel some of the same pain? Virgil asked. He still couldn't turn away from looking at the ice.

"At first, yeah. Then , the more we got into it at the centre the more I realized it was more than just him. I'd be hunting a long time if I lashed out at everyone. In the end, I learned the only one I could take care of was me."

I stood in the emptiness of another kitchen in another house in another life that only meant to offer me shelter. I couldn't take it. I couldn't run the risk of someone knowing me, because I couldn't take the risk of knowing myself.

There was a part of me that desperately wanted to close the gap I felt between myself and people. But there was a bigger part that I could never understand. It was the part of me that sought separation.

Veronica 

Savindi Jinasena

Cover Gushing Worthiness: The cover of Indian Horse truly captures the essence of this book. I think each image captures a specific point in Saul’s life. As you read the book, the cover starts to make more sense. It literally is so Canadian and in a good way :). 

Review: I first heard about Indian Horse when I was in the car with my dad listening to CBC Radio's  Canada Reads .As I heard an excerpt from the book I knew I wanted to read it. Ever since I was in High School I’ve been interested in the rights and issues surrounding Canada’s First Nations people. Almost all the essays I've written in my High School and University Canadian history classes have been about First Nations people or Immigrants who have faced racism in this country. I've felt strongly about the plight of the First Nations people and I’m so glad Wagamese chose to explore one of the most brutal and appalling parts of Canada’s history because it is a story that needs to be told and heard by all.

The story of Indian Horse is Saul’s story from the Ojibway beginnings to his rediscovery of Hockey. In between is his painful story of losing his family and being taken to St. Jerome’s Residential school which is described as “Hell on earth.” It is also where Saul discovers a safe haven in Hockey, but at a painful price to his own identity. This year the only other book that stirred up so many emotions in me wasBefore I Fall by Lauren Oliver because it dealt with an issue which is very close to my heart, but this book intensified the very same emotions. My heart literally ached when I read some of the passages and it was painful to the point where I had to put the book down and take a deep breath and get back into it. I was so overwhelmed with emotion because of the injustice suffered by the First Nations People in a country which technically belongs to them. What makes me sad is that without stories like Indian Horse future generations will probably never know about the horrors of the Residential School system.

Another aspect of this book which stirred my interest was the way we define our relationship to sport. I don’t watch Hockey, so I’m not familiar with most of the events surrounding players. However I’m familiar with events that take place in the world of Football (Soccer) and last year the sport was plagued with so many issues in regards to racial abuse against players and other plays throwing around racial taunts. Reading Indian Horse reminded me of those issues again, especially this passage when Saul who starts to play for a town hockey team composed of White children and when he goes for a game this is what is being said. It really makes you wonder if people still believe a game belongs to only one group of people.

What I’m the best they got.
I know. That’s why they don’t want you to play. The parents of other players want their kids to play.
They do play.
Yes. But they’re not on the ice as much as you are…
It’s because I’m Indian isn’t it?
Yes.
Do they hate me?
They don’t hate you, Saul.
Well, what then?
They think it’s their game
Is it?
It’s God’s game..

Saul’s voice in Indian Horse is beautiful and tragic. His narrative just flowed so smooth and eloquently. As a reader you rooted for Saul every step of the way. You experienced his highs, his lows, the injustice and the blatant racism. The most upsetting was his despair. What do you do when everything you know shatters into a million little pieces? The despair came a long because as a reader you wanted Saul to succeed so bad; there was almost a sense of desperation surrounding you as you flipped through Saul’s story. The most heart wrenching part for me during the whole story was when Saul relates his Residential School experience. Its hard sometimes to believe humanity is capable of such despicable acts. It just made you wonder how people can engage in behaviour just in order to destroy a culture of such an ancient people?

The environmental landscape Wagamese painted of Ontario was mesmerizing. The forests, lakes and rivers came alive in way that I had never experienced before. It showed how First Nations People were one in with nature and that to me was truly beautiful. It made you appreciate your surroundings in a way that I can’t really put into words properly.

I really wanted Indian Horse to win Canada Reads 2013 and I was disappointed when it didn’t, but I’m glad it won the People’s Choice poll.

Overall Indian Horse is one of the best books I’ve read so far this year and it has become one of my favourites. It’s a powerful story written beautifully. You will come to treasure Saul Indian Horse’s voice in this book and his brutal honesty in regards to his life. If anyone wants to understand how First Nations people have been treated in Canada, I strongly encourage you to pick up this book. I will definitely pick up other books by Wagamese for sure.

This is one of my favourite quotes from the book. It’s said by Saul’s Grandmother

  We need mystery. Creator in her wisdom knew this. Mystery fills us with awe and wonder. They are the foundations of humility,and humility grandson, is the foundation of all learning.


My Rating: 5/5

Would I recommend it? A Thousand Times Yes

vania vela

“When your innocence is stripped from you, when your people are denigrated, when the family you came from is denounced and your tribal ways and rituals are pronounced backward, primitive, savage, you come to see yourself as less than human. That is hell on earth, that sense of unworthiness. That's what they inflicted on us.”

Indian Horse It is a book that makes you reflect too much on your attitudes and what you know. The book tells the story of Saul, a man who throughout his life has suffered abuse, mistreatment, racism and much more.

This book touches on quite important topics that need to be discussed more often, such as residential schools and the mistreatment that children suffered in them. They were robbed of their culture, of their lives, and they were severely punished to the point of killing many. Too many children died alone and without receiving a dignified funeral; all this and more can be read in Indian Horse.

There is also a lot of talk about hockey and the life Saul had as a result of being a player in this sport. It was his passion, but like everything, life is not easy and he tells us about the difficulties and obstacles that he had on his way.

I cried too many times with this book, the writing is beautiful and it deals with the story in a very interesting way. I really liked the fact that they included such real events and the way they make us aware of it.

If you want to read the book, I recommend reading the TW first as it can be a difficult read for many people!

Maria talarico 

Francine Corry

Maria Ejike

Ashlyn Temple

Saul Indian Horse is a child when his family retreats into the woods. Among the lakes and the cedars, they attempt to reconnect with half-forgotten traditions and hide from the authorities who have been kidnapping Ojibway youth. But when winter approaches, Saul loses everything : his brother, his parents, his beloved grandmother—and then his home itself. Alone in the world and placed in a horrific boarding school, Saul is surrounded by violence and cruelty. At the urging of a priest, he finds a tentative salvation in hockey. Rising at dawn to practice alone, Saul proves determined and gifted. Yet as his victories mount, so do the indignities and the taunts, the racism and the hatred—the harshness of a world that will never welcome him. Spare and compact yet undeniably rich, Indian Horse is at once a heartbreaking account of a dark chapter in our history and a moving coming-of-age story. "Indian Horse distills much of what Wagamese has been writing about for his whole career into a clearer and sharper liquor, both more bitter and more moving than he has managed in the past. He is such a master of empathy - of delineating the experience of time passing, of lessons being learned, of tragedies being endured - that what Saul discovers becomes something the reader learns, as well, shocking and alien, valuable and true."

Indian Horse A Novel

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