Status
Checked out
Call number
Call number
FIC GOO c. 2
Collection
Description
Taken from their families when they are very small and sent to a remote, church-run residential school, Kenny, Lucy, Clara, Howie and Maisie are barely out of childhood when they are finally released after years of detention. Alone and without any skills, support or families, the teens find their way to the seedy and foreign world of Downtown Eastside Vancouver, where they cling together, striving to find a place of safety and belonging in a world that doesn't want them. The paths of the five friends cross and crisscross over the decades as they struggle to overcome, or at least forget, the trauma they endured during their years at the Mission. Fuelled by rage and furious with God, Clara finds her way into the dangerous, highly charged world of the American Indian Movement. Maisie internalizes her pain and continually places herself in dangerous situations. Famous for his daring escapes from the school, Kenny can't stop running and moves restlessly from job to job - through fishing grounds, orchards, and logging camps - trying to outrun his memories and his addiction. Lucy finds peace in motherhood and nurtures a secret compulsive disorder as she waits for Kenny to return to the life they once hoped to share together. After almost beating one of his tormentors to death, Howie serves time in prison, then tries once again to re-enter society and begin life anew. With compassion and insight, Five Little Indians chronicles the desperate quest of these residential school survivors to come to terms with their past and, ultimately, find a way forward.… (more)
Publication
Harper Perennial (2020), 304 pages
Original language
English
Language
User reviews
LibraryThing member fiverivers
It is important to begin this review with the fact I'm Caucasian, first generation Italian, third generation Irish, born in Canada, live a life which many would call privileged, but would do so without understanding of family background, struggle, trauma. I do understand being a victim. But I do
Given that preface then, allow me to comment on the literary merit, not the humanitarian merit, of Michelle Good's novel. It is an important novel, if for no other reason than the fact it is one more very strong, intimate and authoritative indictment of residential schools, of religious zeal, and human cruelty.
As a literary work, however, I found the prose simplistic and without the impact great writing can cement to a great story. I also found the characterization a bit Archie-comics, a bit wooden, and because of this I very much felt, from a purely writers' craft perspective, that Good could have done better if she had editors who cared as much about good writing as they did about the importance of her story.
Good chooses to tell the story of five different people who all came out of the same horrific residential school, how their lives intersected after they emerged, and how their lives either dissipated and shattered, or found cohesion and resolution. She does manage the different timelines and perspectives very well. There is no confusion, and so the story moves along quite well.
But is it a brilliantly told story? When you compare this story to Boyden's Wenjack or The Orenda, for which he was unjustly vilified in my view, there is no comparison. Boyden tears emotion out of your throat, leaves you breathless and hurting, transported into the pain and horror of the characters he lifts off the page. Good, on the other hand, tells stories ABOUT people. She doesn't create people who tell us their story. There is a profound difference.
Let it not be thought, however, that Good's novel isn't worthy of your time. It is. Read it. It's important.
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not have an understanding of residential school trauma. Having said all that, I do very much find compassion for, and empathy and solidarity with, my First Nations people. I hear your struggle. I champion your cause. Let us leave no one in the darkness of despair, victimization, and oppression. Let us move into the light, into healing, into a positive state.Given that preface then, allow me to comment on the literary merit, not the humanitarian merit, of Michelle Good's novel. It is an important novel, if for no other reason than the fact it is one more very strong, intimate and authoritative indictment of residential schools, of religious zeal, and human cruelty.
As a literary work, however, I found the prose simplistic and without the impact great writing can cement to a great story. I also found the characterization a bit Archie-comics, a bit wooden, and because of this I very much felt, from a purely writers' craft perspective, that Good could have done better if she had editors who cared as much about good writing as they did about the importance of her story.
Good chooses to tell the story of five different people who all came out of the same horrific residential school, how their lives intersected after they emerged, and how their lives either dissipated and shattered, or found cohesion and resolution. She does manage the different timelines and perspectives very well. There is no confusion, and so the story moves along quite well.
But is it a brilliantly told story? When you compare this story to Boyden's Wenjack or The Orenda, for which he was unjustly vilified in my view, there is no comparison. Boyden tears emotion out of your throat, leaves you breathless and hurting, transported into the pain and horror of the characters he lifts off the page. Good, on the other hand, tells stories ABOUT people. She doesn't create people who tell us their story. There is a profound difference.
Let it not be thought, however, that Good's novel isn't worthy of your time. It is. Read it. It's important.
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LibraryThing member sriddell
This book details the life of 5 native children who lived through the Indian School movement. This book takes place in Canada, but similar (and shockingly widespread) systems were in place in the US, Australia and New Zealand.
Many of these "schools" were little more than prisons, and extremely
As expected, this is a dark and difficult book to read. The majority of the book traces the lives of these children after leaving the Indian School - either escaping or aging out. Their childhood experiences shape their entire lives and across multiple generations - including the anguish of their parents and longer term effects on their own children.
I was shocked that this story was set in the 1960's. I don't tend to think of these events taking place so recently, but it was only in 1978 that the US passed laws giving Native parents the legal right to refuse placement in these schools. In Canada, the last residential school was closed in 1996!
This book does end on a hopeful note, but I'm left feeling extremely angry that this was allowed to happen at all, and that it went on for so long.
Many of these "schools" were little more than prisons, and extremely
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abusive. Children were taken away from their parents with no legal recourse. As expected, this is a dark and difficult book to read. The majority of the book traces the lives of these children after leaving the Indian School - either escaping or aging out. Their childhood experiences shape their entire lives and across multiple generations - including the anguish of their parents and longer term effects on their own children.
I was shocked that this story was set in the 1960's. I don't tend to think of these events taking place so recently, but it was only in 1978 that the US passed laws giving Native parents the legal right to refuse placement in these schools. In Canada, the last residential school was closed in 1996!
This book does end on a hopeful note, but I'm left feeling extremely angry that this was allowed to happen at all, and that it went on for so long.
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LibraryThing member MaggieFlo
Five little Indians
This story is about what happens to five Indigenous people who survived the Canadian residential school system. It is about Kenny, Maisie, Lucy, Howie and Carla and the permanent scars inflicted on them as children as young as five by a Catholic religious order. One dies by
Although the story speaks of cruelty, starvation, deprivation and various forms of abuse, it is also a hopeful story of the power of friends, family, community and resilience.
The characters are very well developed and the device of using the past and the present creates an impact on the outcome. The future is hopeful as members of the various indigenous communities begin to demand justice for the lives that were permanently impacted by a public policy that was poorly designed and badly administered.
Recommended
This story is about what happens to five Indigenous people who survived the Canadian residential school system. It is about Kenny, Maisie, Lucy, Howie and Carla and the permanent scars inflicted on them as children as young as five by a Catholic religious order. One dies by
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suicide, one of alcoholism, one spends time in jail and two do well because of support from friends and their communityAlthough the story speaks of cruelty, starvation, deprivation and various forms of abuse, it is also a hopeful story of the power of friends, family, community and resilience.
The characters are very well developed and the device of using the past and the present creates an impact on the outcome. The future is hopeful as members of the various indigenous communities begin to demand justice for the lives that were permanently impacted by a public policy that was poorly designed and badly administered.
Recommended
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LibraryThing member LynnB
A difficult book to read because of the subject matter. It made me both sad and angry. Very well written, this story of five young adults who were raised in Residential School shows how the system wronged them in so many ways, leaving them unprepared for life back in their communities or in the
I sometimes (rarely) read novels about dystopian futures. What struck me reading this book is that these characters lived in a dystopia -- a foreign culture that they were ill equipped to navigate.
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city. What struck me was how fiction can, as the author has said, sometimes get at the truth better than nonfiction. It certainly gets at the deep emotional impacts of Residential Schools -- emotions readers can relate to. I sometimes (rarely) read novels about dystopian futures. What struck me reading this book is that these characters lived in a dystopia -- a foreign culture that they were ill equipped to navigate.
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LibraryThing member streamsong
This is the story of five First Nations kids, seized by the Canadian authorities and forced to go to an Indian residential school run by Catholic missionaries on Victoria Island. Unlike some residential schools, these kids didn’t even get to go home to their families on school vacations. Instead,
Not all made it through the ordeal, as the surrounding graveyards attest. A few managed to escape, but found their families broken by having their children stolen from them.
The kids that lasted until they were sixteen were turned out with a bus ticket to Vancouver. Lacking any skills, they fell into the lowest unskilled jobs. Occasionally they came together for short times, but they lacked the ability to form long term bonds. One found her anger by taking part in protests.
Author Michelle Good is a member of Saskatchewan’s Red Pheasant Cree Nation and is a writer and lawyer. Her parents and grandparents had been school residents. Goode wrote this book saying it is the answer to the question “Why didn’t these kids just get over it?”
Not an easy read, but one I will remember for a long time.
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they remained in a culture of racism, physical, mental and emotional abuse with a side of sexual abuse thrown in.Not all made it through the ordeal, as the surrounding graveyards attest. A few managed to escape, but found their families broken by having their children stolen from them.
The kids that lasted until they were sixteen were turned out with a bus ticket to Vancouver. Lacking any skills, they fell into the lowest unskilled jobs. Occasionally they came together for short times, but they lacked the ability to form long term bonds. One found her anger by taking part in protests.
Author Michelle Good is a member of Saskatchewan’s Red Pheasant Cree Nation and is a writer and lawyer. Her parents and grandparents had been school residents. Goode wrote this book saying it is the answer to the question “Why didn’t these kids just get over it?”
Not an easy read, but one I will remember for a long time.
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LibraryThing member ParadisePorch
I have two words about this book: READ IT.
It was the obvious choice for the Governor-General's Award for Literature, and not just because residential schools are a timely topic. There's nothing spell-binding about the writing itself, but the subject matter will stay with you for a long time, even
It was the obvious choice for the Governor-General's Award for Literature, and not just because residential schools are a timely topic. There's nothing spell-binding about the writing itself, but the subject matter will stay with you for a long time, even
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if you have read other books on the same subject. This one focuses more on the re-entry problems of the children who reached their 18th birthday and were sent out into the world. It's very sobering and thought-provoking. Show Less
LibraryThing member Hccpsk
Like the US, Canada struggles with its own difficult history of forced residential schools for indigenous children that continued into the late 20th century. Five Little Indians by Cree author Michelle Good focuses on the damage done by one school, The Mission, to five different characters whose
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lives intersect in the years following their time at the school. Good brings in some historical details, and manages to add just enough spiritualism and hope to these difficult stories to make them not completely depressing. Show Less
LibraryThing member DidIReallyReadThat
This book is heartbreaking and made me angry to think that this kind of abuse went on in Canada. Super development of characters and how they dealt with the abuse that they suffered. I found myself rooting for everyone hoping that they would end up with better lives than they started with. Highly
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recommended. Show Less
LibraryThing member Lindsay_W
The experiences of these five residential school survivors should help people understand the devastating effects of these schools and leave no doubt that their sole intention was to destroy Indigenous culture. The people you see on the streets of the DTES in Vancouver today carry this trauma with
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them. A must read for all Canadians to sit with the truth of residential schools and an awareness of their intergenerational impacts. Show Less
LibraryThing member gypsysmom
I've been meaning to read this book ever since it won the Governor General's Award for English literature in 2020. It took the impetus of Canada Reads to bring that intention to fact and then, of course, everyone else also wanted to read it. The waiting list for library copies was huge but
I don't think anyone living in Canada today is unaware of the abuse and trauma caused by the residential school system. But somehow a fictional treatment of the effects on five young children who were "students" in a residential school in British Columbia makes me mourn for all those who went through the system. I put students in quotation marks because they were certainly not being taught the subjects I and all the other non-aboriginal students took in school. And then there was the physical and sexual abuse they were subject to. Is it any wonder that years later they were unable to love, trust, care for others?
Kenny, Lucy, Clara, Howie and Maisie are the title characters. Kenny escaped from the school by stealing a boat and getting to the mainland. Howie also escaped from the school after his mother managed to get there and take him away to the US. The girls were sent away when they reached 18 and they ended up living in Vancouver working as maids in a skid row hotel. In the ensuing years all of them had contact with each other. Kenny and Lucy fulfilled their school crush on each other and Lucy had Kenny's child. But Kenny could never stay in one place for long so Lucy raised Kendra almost as a single mother. Howie spent many years in prison. He had to go back to BC to sort out his identification and when he saw the priest who had abused him he lashed out and beat him to a pulp. Clara got involved with Indian rights groups and almost got arrested in the US. Injured badly friends got her to a native healer living in the back woods in Saskatchewan. Mariah healed not just Clara's body but also her spirit. When Clara got back to Vancouver she started advocating for natives in the court system. One of her clients was Howie. And what about Maisie you ask? Maisie's story is just too sad to repeat but hers is the one that really haunts me.
I'm predicting that this book will be the winner in Canada Reads 2022. Only a few more days to see if I'm right.
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fortunately my good friend, Pooker3, had a copy that she was willing to pass on to me once she had read it. Thanks Pooker and thanks for the personal delivery to my home.I don't think anyone living in Canada today is unaware of the abuse and trauma caused by the residential school system. But somehow a fictional treatment of the effects on five young children who were "students" in a residential school in British Columbia makes me mourn for all those who went through the system. I put students in quotation marks because they were certainly not being taught the subjects I and all the other non-aboriginal students took in school. And then there was the physical and sexual abuse they were subject to. Is it any wonder that years later they were unable to love, trust, care for others?
Kenny, Lucy, Clara, Howie and Maisie are the title characters. Kenny escaped from the school by stealing a boat and getting to the mainland. Howie also escaped from the school after his mother managed to get there and take him away to the US. The girls were sent away when they reached 18 and they ended up living in Vancouver working as maids in a skid row hotel. In the ensuing years all of them had contact with each other. Kenny and Lucy fulfilled their school crush on each other and Lucy had Kenny's child. But Kenny could never stay in one place for long so Lucy raised Kendra almost as a single mother. Howie spent many years in prison. He had to go back to BC to sort out his identification and when he saw the priest who had abused him he lashed out and beat him to a pulp. Clara got involved with Indian rights groups and almost got arrested in the US. Injured badly friends got her to a native healer living in the back woods in Saskatchewan. Mariah healed not just Clara's body but also her spirit. When Clara got back to Vancouver she started advocating for natives in the court system. One of her clients was Howie. And what about Maisie you ask? Maisie's story is just too sad to repeat but hers is the one that really haunts me.
I'm predicting that this book will be the winner in Canada Reads 2022. Only a few more days to see if I'm right.
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LibraryThing member LibraryCin
3.5 stars
This book follows a few First Nations people who went to a residential school in B.C. when they were young. It follows them from the school, as they leave, and as they try to make lives for themselves after the traumas they experienced at the school. They wind in and out of each other’s
Lucy is 16 when she is put on a bus to Vancouver from the school; luckily she knows Maisie who left the school a year earlier; unfortunately, she does get into a sticky situation before making it to Maisie’s place. Kenny managed to escape the school when he was younger, but he and Lucy had crushes on each other back then. Carla is a friend of Maisie’s. Howie gets into trouble with the law when he encounters “Brother” from the school as an adult.
I listened to the audio book. It was good. I wasn’t as interested in Carla’s story, so I missed a few things there. I also don’t think I liked Carla very much; she was very pushy. The book jumped between characters, and it often jumped forward large amounts of time, so at the start of some of the chapters I needed to try to figure out how many years later it was (and there was one bit with Carla that felt like the timing was out of sync with her character vs the rest of the story… but I’m not sure – that’s where I lost a bit of interest and missed a few things). And of course, there were memories of the school for all of them. There was at least one event that I think I missed altogether and when it was mentioned later in the book, I wondered what exactly had happened about that, so not sure if I missed it or it just wasn’t detailed or what happened there.
This book follows a few First Nations people who went to a residential school in B.C. when they were young. It follows them from the school, as they leave, and as they try to make lives for themselves after the traumas they experienced at the school. They wind in and out of each other’s
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lives. Lucy is 16 when she is put on a bus to Vancouver from the school; luckily she knows Maisie who left the school a year earlier; unfortunately, she does get into a sticky situation before making it to Maisie’s place. Kenny managed to escape the school when he was younger, but he and Lucy had crushes on each other back then. Carla is a friend of Maisie’s. Howie gets into trouble with the law when he encounters “Brother” from the school as an adult.
I listened to the audio book. It was good. I wasn’t as interested in Carla’s story, so I missed a few things there. I also don’t think I liked Carla very much; she was very pushy. The book jumped between characters, and it often jumped forward large amounts of time, so at the start of some of the chapters I needed to try to figure out how many years later it was (and there was one bit with Carla that felt like the timing was out of sync with her character vs the rest of the story… but I’m not sure – that’s where I lost a bit of interest and missed a few things). And of course, there were memories of the school for all of them. There was at least one event that I think I missed altogether and when it was mentioned later in the book, I wondered what exactly had happened about that, so not sure if I missed it or it just wasn’t detailed or what happened there.
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LibraryThing member janismack
Very disturbing story of 5 aboriginal children forcibly taken from their homes to schools for rehabilitation. Every child was terrorized and abused by priests and nuns while in their care. A blight on our Canadian history. A difficult read but recommended.
LibraryThing member shirleyonn
Powerful! Canada’s shame for sure.
LibraryThing member larryerick
For any American who has read Dee Brown's book, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, or something equivalent, it is readily obvious that the United States did a masterful job of treating its indigenous peoples horribly. But, Canada, Oh, Canada, how creative you were with your own "little Indians".
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Imagine if Hitler and his pure Aryan Nazis had decided to round up all the children of those non-Aryan and otherwise "substandard" Aryans in Germany and officially announced that they would be sent to Nazi Youth Camps just for them, for indoctrination to the Nazi Way. No ifs, ands, or buts, about it, you're going. Kidnap-abduction style, if the opportunity is the most convenient one at any given moment. But surely, it would have been just bad luck if those youth camps with a purpose, a.k.a. residential or industrial schools, ended up being more Nazi concentration camp than summer camp. Canada officially had dozens of them. Little kids, in some cases, were literally swept off the street with no word to relatives what had happened to then. For roughly 70 years, kids 6 to 16 were held captive in institutions, until the government finally took over operation from the too often pedophile-infested church orders that ran them up to that point. A few years later they were closed down. There is an actual residential school off Vancouver Island in British Columbia, that may have served as the model for the author's narrative. To give some perspective to its lack of good deeds to indigenous children, in less than 10 years from its beginning, more than a third of the children sent there for indoctrination had died. Not from a horrible communicable disease, a natural disaster, or massive accident. Just general institutional wear and tear, so to speak. Just last year -- after the author finished writing this book -- over 100 unmarked graves were discovered. So much for the very significant events behind this fictional telling of five children who attended such a residential school. The story told touches on both the structure of the abusive institutions and the individual crimes committed in them, but there are dozens of books and videos that do a much better job of making clear how deeply devastating life in those "schools" was. So, the actual abuse was not the key point of the book. Indeed, I have heard the author state plainly that her purpose in writing the book was in answer to the question often asked of the survivors: "Why don't you just get over it?" Very oddly, it is some of the author's own characters, both survivors and offspring of survivors, that incessantly ask that question of other survivors. Again, there are numerous videos of actual survivors of the many schools who make it much more clear than the book does why the survivors don't so easily let it all go. No, I see the point behind this particular book to be: No matter how much you throw at us to break us -- some of us, at least -- will not only survive but thrive. In the meantime, the reader can ignore the many logical and factual contradictions in the narrative, such as the junker car that is purchased to go on a trip, which takes the driver to places she has somehow driven to many times before -- without a car? Or the ACAB border patrol officers who are somehow on just one side of the U.S.-Canada border? Or the trip hundreds of miles long with just one rest stop and that to let her dog run around? If I hadn't lived in and visited many of the areas mentioned in this book, I very likely wouldn't notice these obvious embellishments, but I have and I did. It's my impression that most fans of fiction don't care a whit about facts that contradict the narrative, so count that as only a problem for me. Show Less
LibraryThing member tinkerbellkk
A sad story of Canadian indigenous children who were taken from their families to residential schools. Based on the horrible part of history that is only really just coming to light now. This fictional story follows the life of five children and how their early life experiences shaped their lives.
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They come into contact with each other over several years and each struggles with moving forward from devastating events that stole their childhoods. Show Less
LibraryThing member Dabble58
There are some books that really must be read, especially in the frame of the Pope’s visit and somewhat inadequate apology (what about the $$, sir, and that Doctrine of Discovery?).
It can be easy, as part of the settler culture, to let the stories of abuse wash over you, fill you with sadness,
This book makes you live the stories through the characters, feel their strength despite everything, their need to pull together, the horrible risks so many suffer(ed) under. It’s an uneasy experience, especially if you have your own stories of abuse, but the humanity never slips into gratuitous description, and as the reader you are left to your imagination about much of went on. This, in and of itself, makes the book a high-residue one- I’ll be thinking about it, and these characters, for a long long time.
It’s impossible not to grieve for the decades/centuries of inhumane treatment we have put each other under. I can only pray that we somehow learn our lesson and choose kindness at some point.
Have to admit I’m not overly optimistic about that, though.
Read this book.
It can be easy, as part of the settler culture, to let the stories of abuse wash over you, fill you with sadness,
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brief and ineffectual, and let them slip away.This book makes you live the stories through the characters, feel their strength despite everything, their need to pull together, the horrible risks so many suffer(ed) under. It’s an uneasy experience, especially if you have your own stories of abuse, but the humanity never slips into gratuitous description, and as the reader you are left to your imagination about much of went on. This, in and of itself, makes the book a high-residue one- I’ll be thinking about it, and these characters, for a long long time.
It’s impossible not to grieve for the decades/centuries of inhumane treatment we have put each other under. I can only pray that we somehow learn our lesson and choose kindness at some point.
Have to admit I’m not overly optimistic about that, though.
Read this book.
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LibraryThing member Dorothy2012
A fantastic book. A must-read for every Canadian.
Canada Reads Shortlist 2022
Canada Reads Shortlist 2022
ISBN
1443459186 / 9781443459181