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A staggering, award-winning intergenerational saga that explores how connected we are, even when we're no longer together-even when we're forced apart. Cedar has nearly forgotten what her family looks like. Phoenix has nearly forgotten how freedom feels. And Elsie has nearly given up hope. Nearly. These are the Strangers, each haunted in her own way. After time spent in foster homes, Cedar goes to live with her estranged father. Although she grapples with the pain of being separated from her mother, Elsie, and sister, Phoenix, she's hoping for a new chapter in her life, only to find herself once again in a strange house surrounded by strangers. From a youth detention centre, Phoenix gives birth to a baby she'll never get to raise and tries to forgive herself for all the harm she's caused (while wondering if she even should). Elsie, struggling with addiction and determined to turn her life around, is buoyed by the idea of being reunited with her daughters and strives to be someone they can depend on, unlike her own distant mother. Between flickering moments of warmth and support, the women diverge and reconnect, fighting to survive in a fractured system that pretends to offer success but expects them to fail. Facing the distinct blade of racism from those they trusted most, they urge one another to move through the darkness, all the while wondering if they'll ever emerge safely on the other side. The Strangers is a searing exploration of race, class, inherited trauma, and matrilineal bonds that--despite everything--refuse to be broken.… (more)
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Four females from the Stranger family tell their story in the powerful novel. There's Margaret who is mother to Elsie and grandmother to Phoenix and Cedar-Sage. Margaret showed great promise as a young woman, being accepted in Law School at a time when few women and few Indigenous people made it through the acceptance process. Then she got pregnant by another law student who refused to marry her. Margaret, showing the rage that would become almost constant later in her life, picked up his baseball bat and attacked him. Expelled from school and pregnant she is the first, but not the last, Stranger woman to fail to achieve her potential. Elsie, sensing that Margaret doesn't love her, does find acceptance and love with her Mamere, Annie. Her grandparents big brown house is a place of safety and warmth and love not just for her but for uncles and aunts and cousins. However, Elsie repeats the tradition of becoming pregnant without a partner and has three girls with three different men. She also becomes hooked on street drugs and alcohol. After her Mamere dies and the big brown house is sold by Margaret (and her brothers) Elsie can't cope with the children. All three are apprehended but Phoenix goes to a different foster home than Cedar-Sage and Sparrow. Sparrow becomes ill and the foster mother doesn't realize it until it is too late. Sparrow dies and that completes the breakdown of the family. Phoenix is exceptionally troubled and is jailed for a violent attack that is only hinted at to the reader for most of the book. She is also pregnant and gives birth to a male whom she names Sparrow. This baby is taken from her almost at birth. Phoenix has no one on her side of the family to look after him while she is in jail so he goes to the baby's father's family and she signs papers for his adoption. Cedar-Sage is perhaps the one person who could be said to have a better life. Her father with his new wife comes back into her life and takes her to live with him. This is a man she hardly knows but he turns out to be decent and loving to her. His wife is a bit of a hard pill to swallow but Cedar learns to adapt.
The ending hints at a better future for all of the women but this is no happily-ever-after tale. It will take a lot of hard work for all of them to overcome their disadvantaged life. I know that I am rooting for them.
Once again, we have a story about a Metis family focusing on the women: Margaret, her daughter Elsie, and Elsie's daughters Phoenix and Cedar. It is a story of family support and estrangement...sometimes by choice, but mostly because of the way life marginalizes Indigenous peoples and then "saves" or punishes them through the child welfare and penal systems. It is a difficult book to read as the characters are beaten down over and over again, but there is some hope. It is a testament to the importance of family and culture. The writing is sharp, doesn't pull any punches, but also conveys compassion for the characters, even when they are behaving badly.