I Once Knew an Indian Woman
by Ebbitt Cutler | Children's Books | This book has not been rated.
ISBN: 0887760686 Global Overview for this book
ISBN: 0887760686 Global Overview for this book
This Book is Currently in the Wild!
1 journaler for this copy...
Purchased from my local grocery store's used book sale for charity. I'll read this soon and then it will be released for gypsysmom's Canada Day release challenge.
This book, first published in 1967, won first prize in the Canadian Centennial Literary Awards and was originally entitled "The Last Noble Savage". It was written by May Ebbitt Cutler who opened the publishing house, Tundra Books of Montreal that year.
The story is told from the perspective of a young girl from Montreal, now middle-aged, but who spent her summers during the Depression years in a small resort town in the Laurentians. While she was there she saw the interaction of the English, the French and the Native people - both the regular residents and the people like her who only vacationed there.
One of those residents is an illiterate native woman, Madame Dey. The girl and her mother befriend Madame Dey but she is otherwise held in disdain by her community. She earns her living by taking in laundry. Tragic things happen to her. Her son leaves and dies; she's turfed from her home. Throughout it all though she lives with a certain dignity and grace, and performs in the girl's last summer an act of such decency and respect that, according to the narrator, "her dimensions have grown, until now, out of all the summers of my childhood, she emerges to stand in the foreground."
I suppose the writing reflects the style and attitudes of the sixties and perhaps is more than a little trite and condescending, but nevertheless the story is so gently and respectfully told that I found it quite appealing.
I'll release this book later this month for gypsysmom's Canada Day release challenge.
The story is told from the perspective of a young girl from Montreal, now middle-aged, but who spent her summers during the Depression years in a small resort town in the Laurentians. While she was there she saw the interaction of the English, the French and the Native people - both the regular residents and the people like her who only vacationed there.
One of those residents is an illiterate native woman, Madame Dey. The girl and her mother befriend Madame Dey but she is otherwise held in disdain by her community. She earns her living by taking in laundry. Tragic things happen to her. Her son leaves and dies; she's turfed from her home. Throughout it all though she lives with a certain dignity and grace, and performs in the girl's last summer an act of such decency and respect that, according to the narrator, "her dimensions have grown, until now, out of all the summers of my childhood, she emerges to stand in the foreground."
I suppose the writing reflects the style and attitudes of the sixties and perhaps is more than a little trite and condescending, but nevertheless the story is so gently and respectfully told that I found it quite appealing.
I'll release this book later this month for gypsysmom's Canada Day release challenge.
Journal Entry 3 by Pooker3 at The Forks - see release note for details in Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada on Sunday, June 21, 2009
Released 14 yrs ago (6/21/2009 UTC) at The Forks - see release note for details in Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada
WILD RELEASE NOTES:
WILD RELEASE NOTES:
There's a little sharing circle just east of the skateboard park. You'll find this book propped against a pretty flower pot there.
This book was released in celebration of Aboriginal Day today and as part of the Canada Day release challenge running from June 20 to July 1st this year. I hope the finder enjoys this book. Happy Aboriginal Day today and Happy Canada Day on the 1st!
There's a little sharing circle just east of the skateboard park. You'll find this book propped against a pretty flower pot there.
This book was released in celebration of Aboriginal Day today and as part of the Canada Day release challenge running from June 20 to July 1st this year. I hope the finder enjoys this book. Happy Aboriginal Day today and Happy Canada Day on the 1st!
