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Indian Horse : Richard Wagamese: Interviews & Reviews

Reviews and Resources on the 2018-2019 Common Hour Book

RIchard Wagamese on Canada Reads

Richard Wagamese sits down with Canada Reads as he discusses his book Indian Horse and reads aloud an excerpt of his novel that was involved in their Battle of the Books debate in 2013.

Reviews on the Novel

Richard Wagamese is visited at his home near Kamloops, B.C., by The Next Chapter host Shelagh Rogers and they talk about living and writing. He tells her about his novel, Indian Horse, which he describes as being "about hockey, residential schools and redemption, but in the end I think it’s about Canada."  He talks about his own family historys, about being a foster child as a result of  the Sixties Scoop, and how playing hockey gave him a feeling of community.

Read more here.

Richard Wagamese on his novel Indian Horse - CBC Archives. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.cbc.ca/archives/entry/richard-wagamese-on-his-novel-indian-horse
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" Saul chronicles his life story as a means of identifying the source of his addiction. His autobiography is a familiar vehicle for conveying the novel’s plot. At the same time, it demonstrates how knowing your own story can heal a broken spirit." - Reviewed by Donna Bailey Nurse for the National Post 

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" In spare, poetic language, Wagamese wrestles with trauma and its fallout, and charts the long, lonely walk to survival." - Reviewed by Publishers weekly

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"The novel is about racism in its rawest form, brutally expressed by the residential school, and generally supported by the larger culture." Reviewed by Ron Kirbyson of the Winnipeg Free Press.

Read more here.

Kirbyson, R. (2012, February 11). Hockey helps aboriginal boy escape racism. Retrieved from https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/arts-and-life/entertainment/books/hockey-helps-aboriginal-boy-escape-racism-139144964.html
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" Wagamese excels at this most important task of the novelist, which is to detail the "how" of something: How it feels to be a "rounder," living on the streets, how it feels to experience horrifying events, or, in Indian Horse, how it feels to skate, to move the puck and to understand the dynamics of the game. He shows how it feels to uncover in oneself unexpected power and also to acknowledge amazing betrayal." Reviewed by Jane Smiley

Read more here.

Indian Horse, by Richard Wagamese. (2012, February 17). Retrieved from https://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/indian-horse-by-richard-wagamese/article548905/