Islands of Decolonial Love

by Leanne Simpson

Paperback, 2013

Status

Available

Call number

813.6

Genres

Description

In her debut collection of short stories, Islands of Decolonial Love, renowned writer and activist Leanne Simpson vividly explores the lives of contemporary Indigenous Peoples and communities, especially those of her own Nishnaabeg nation. Found on reserves, in cities and small towns, in bars and curling rinks, canoes and community centres, doctors offices and pickup trucks, Simpson's characters confront the often heartbreaking challenge of pairing the desire to live loving and observant lives with a constant struggle to simply survive the historical and ongoing injustices of racism and colonialism. Told with voices that are rarely recorded but need to be heard, and incorporating the language and history of her people, Leanne Simpson's Islands of Decolonial Love is a profound, important, and beautiful book of fiction. Bespeak Audio Editions brings Canadian voices to the world with audiobook editions of some of the country�??s greatest works of literature, performed by Canadian acto… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member b.masonjudy
Simpson's collection balances a delicate line between self-aware academic ideology and insightful prose. I would have killed for a more sustained piece, but she captures so much in this collection of multi-genre pieces.
LibraryThing member NeedMoreShelves
This collection was fantastic. Each story was such a complete and perfect world unto itself - but taken as a whole, it became a beautiful testimony and love story to a place and a way of life that sometimes seems to have been vanished by colonizers. I was able to find a copy of both the audiobook
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(read by the amazing Tantoo Cardinal) and the ebook, and I would find myself listening to a story, and then immediately going to the ebook to read it again. Each way of experiencing these stories was so rich and offered its own nuances and insights together. I absolutely savored the reading of this collection.

All the stories were so strong, but some standouts for me include:

birds in a cage
lost in a world where he was always the only one
jiimaanag
jiibay or aandizooke
she told him 10,000 years of everything
it takes an ocean not to break
caged
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LibraryThing member Castlelass
Collection of contemporary short stories written in poetic prose and focused on the Anishinaabe, indigenous people of North America located in the northern US and Canada. The author examines many forms of love, related to land, traditions, and, of course, people. Carefully selected epigraphs
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introduce each story. The prose includes words from the Anishinaabe language, not always translated. The stories are told from various perspectives, even from the spirit world.

The characters in these stories explore the ways they try to repair relationships with other people and with nature, attempting to overcome colonial damage that has been done in the past. I liked that it is optimistically oriented, not dwelling on prior tragedies, but not ignoring them either. It is nontraditional, creative, and moving. I listened to the audio book, read by Tantoo Cardinal. It lends itself well to audio since it is already poetic in nature and the narrators are storytellers.
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Publication

Arbeiter Ring Publishing (2013), 112 pages

Language

Original language

English

Physical description

112 p.; 5.5 inches

ISBN

189403788X / 9781894037884
Page: 0.3728 seconds