Walking the Ojibwe Path
A Memoir in Letters to Joshua
Format:Hardback
Publisher:Milkweed Editions
Published:30th Apr '20
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From the celebrated author of Medicine Walk and Indian Horse, a deeply moving self-portrait, in the form of letters to the son from whom he was estranged.
“A wonderful place to start if you’ve never read Wagamese, a must-read if you have, and an indispensable read for everyone.” —LITERARY HUB
“We may not relight the fires that used to burn in our villages, but we can carry the embers from those fires in our hearts and learn to light new fires in a new world.”
Ojibwe tradition calls for fathers to walk their children through the world, sharing the ancient understanding “that we are all, animate and inanimate alike, living on the one pure breath with which the Creator gave life to the Universe.” In this new entry in the Seedbank series, an intimate series of letters to the six-year-old son from whom he was estranged, Richard Wagamese fulfills this traditional duty with grace and humility, describing his own path through life—separation from his family as a boy, substance abuse, incarceration, and ultimately the discovery of books and writing—and braiding this extraordinary story with the teachings of his people, in which animals were the teachers of human beings, until greed and a desire to control the more-than-human world led to anger, fear, and eventually profound alienation.
At once a deeply moving memoir and a fascinating elucidation of a rich indigenous cosmology, Walking the Ojibwe Path is an unforgettable journey.
Praise for Walking the Ojibwe Path
“Richard Wagamese is a born storyteller.”—Louise Erdrich
“The crisp prose shines and readers will be moved by discussions of how the author’s separation from his parents resonated throughout his life, as when he suggests that his drinking ‘always came back to... the fact that I was unlovable.’ Affecting and unflinching, this tugs at the heartstrings.”—Publishers Weekly, starred review
“Wagamese, who authored such classics as Indian Horse and A Quality of Light, was a singular voice in literature whose wisdom, openness, and incredible skill with sentences have lit up the lives of many readers. With For Joshua, Wagamese wrote of internal and external struggles with substance abuse and trauma, and crafted an expansive work about healing, resilience, humanity, respect, inheritance, Indigenous teachings, and most of all, love. This book is a wonderful place to start if you’ve never read Wagamese, a must-read if you have, and an indispensable read for everyone.”—Literary Hub
“Told lyrically and unflinchingly, For Joshua is both a letter of apology and another attempt at self-identification for the writer. A must-read for Wagamese fans, and a good primer for his novels.”—Minneapolis Star Tribune
“Revealing, open, and tragic. It is also a remarkably touching and well-written journey.”—The Globe and Mail
“Wagamese is a writer of rough grace and fathomless humanity who has given so much more to the world than it ever gave to him.”—Literary Hub
“These affecting essays are beautifully written, and his experiences resonate on many levels, from the little boy who is experiencing loneliness to the young adult longing to find his place in the world to the adult he became before his death at age 61. . . . A well-written, introspective book on fatherhood and loss that will especially interest readers and students of First Nations life and literature.”—Library Journal
“Moving back and forth between the past and present, between struggle and insight, [Wagamese] weaves narrative and teaching into a powerful, inspiring whole.”—BookRiot
“Before his death in 2017, Wagamese had earned renown in his native Canada for his memoirs and novels. He had also completed this book for his son, then 6 years old. . . . ‘As Ojibway men, we are taught that it is the father’s responsibility to introduce our children to the world,’ he writes to his son, and this posthumous publication is part of the legacy he passes along. A sturdy book of traditional wisdom and prescriptions for recovery.”—Kirkus
ISBN: 9781571313898
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: unknown
240 pages