(I know, it’s arbitrary, but this is one of the ways people define what is and is not “for” younger readers.

For most of the novel we are reading about Saul’s childhood and young adult life, which is one of the reasons I categorized this one as having crossover appeal. We start with Saul in his thirties at a treatment centre–dealing with his alcoholism, and the trauma that fuelled it–relating the story of how he came to be where he is and, of course, where he goes next. The novel is structured in a way that moves the narrative from older Saul to younger Saul and then back again. To be completely honest, I only picked hockey as the starting point of this post because the book has mostly left me incoherent. And though those sentences seem contradictory, I assure you, they are not. Unlike Check Please! hockey is not just the thread that connects characters together in Indian Horse, hockey is living, breathing, and life-giving. Like Check Please! Wagamese’s novel does not require you to know or even like hockey.

Richard Wagamese*’s Indian Horse was recommended to me by Jay–friend and subscriber who once suggested we do a month of posts for reluctant readers, yes, that Jay–when I admitted to being somewhat taken *cough-obsessed-cough* with hockey since I started reading Check Please! by Ngozi Ukazu. In Indian Horse, author Richard Wagamese has crafted a wise and magical novel about love, family and the power of spirit. As he journeys back through his life as a northern Ojibway, from the horrors of residential school to his triumphs on the hockey rink, he must question everything he knows. 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.Saul Indian Horse is in trouble, and there seems to be only one way out. Yet as Saul’s victories mount, so do the indignities and the taunts, the racism, and the hatred―the harshness of a world that will never welcome him, tied inexorably to the sport he loves. Together they open doors for him: away from the school, into an all-Ojibway amateur circuit, and finally within grasp of a professional career. Rising at dawn to practice alone, Saul proves determined and undeniably gifted. At the urging of a priest, he finds a tentative salvation in hockey.

But when winter approaches, Saul loses everything: his brother, his parents, his beloved grandmother―and then his home itself.Īlone in the world and placed in a horrific boarding school, Saul is surrounded by violence and cruelty. 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. Saul Indian Horse is a child when his family retreats into the woods.

Indian Horse by Richard Wagamese