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Bird Family Trilogy #1
Three Day Road
The nephew of a Canadian Oji-Cree who is the last of a line of healers and diviners, Cree reserve student Xavier enlists in the military during World War I, a conflict throughout which he and his friend, Elijah, are marginalized for their appearances, their culturally enhanced marksmanship, and their disparate views of the war.
354 pages, Hardcover
First published March 17, 2005
623 people are currently reading
21470 people want to read
About the author
Joseph Boyden
31 books1,322 followersJoseph Boyden is a Canadian novelist and short story writer.
He grew up in Willowdale, North York, Ontario and attended the Jesuit-run Brebeuf College School. Boyden's father Raymond Wilfrid Boyden was a medical officer renowned for his bravery, who was awarded the Distinguished Service Order and was the highest-decorated medical officer of World War II.
Boyden, of Irish, Scottish and Métis heritage, writes about First Nations heritage and culture. Three Day Road, a novel about two Cree soldiers serving in the Canadian military during World War I, is inspired by Ojibwa Francis Pegahmagabow, the legendary First World War sniper. Boyden's second novel, Through Black Spruce follows the story of Will, son of one of the characters in Three Day Road. He has indicated in interviews that the titles are part of a planned trilogy, the third of which is forthcoming.
He studied creative writing at York University and the University of New Orleans, and subsequently taught in the Aboriginal Student Program at Northern College. He divides his time between Louisiana, where he and his wife, Amanda Boyden, are writers in residence, and Northern Ontario.
He grew up in Willowdale, North York, Ontario and attended the Jesuit-run Brebeuf College School. Boyden's father Raymond Wilfrid Boyden was a medical officer renowned for his bravery, who was awarded the Distinguished Service Order and was the highest-decorated medical officer of World War II.
Boyden, of Irish, Scottish and Métis heritage, writes about First Nations heritage and culture. Three Day Road, a novel about two Cree soldiers serving in the Canadian military during World War I, is inspired by Ojibwa Francis Pegahmagabow, the legendary First World War sniper. Boyden's second novel, Through Black Spruce follows the story of Will, son of one of the characters in Three Day Road. He has indicated in interviews that the titles are part of a planned trilogy, the third of which is forthcoming.
He studied creative writing at York University and the University of New Orleans, and subsequently taught in the Aboriginal Student Program at Northern College. He divides his time between Louisiana, where he and his wife, Amanda Boyden, are writers in residence, and Northern Ontario.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,975 reviews
February 16, 2019
"My body hums with Nephew’s pain and with the realization that he has come home only to die."
Xavier Bird has returned to northern Ontario after living through the hell of the fighting and trenches of WWI. He is wounded, dispirited, and addicted to morphine. The one soul who still cares for him in this world will journey several days to meet him at the train station and bring him home. Niska, or ‘Auntie’, is the last of the Ojibwa-Cree awawatuks, those that have rejected the ways of the white man by living apart from the ways of civilization. She also has the power of visions, of divining, a gift that has been passed down to her from her father. It is a three day journey back down the river, and as Xavier’s supply of morphine dwindles away, Niska has little time to save this broken young man from the three day road and certain death. "Their morphine eats men. It has fed on me for the last months, and when it is all gone I will be the one to starve to death. I will not be able to live without it."
What struck me about this novel was that the Native American tradition of storytelling is very compelling here. Author Joseph Boyden weaves together the first-person narratives of both Niska and Xavier. Xavier’s story is unfolded through a series of flashbacks during his drug-induced state. Niska’s history is shared with us as she recounts to Xavier the stories of her childhood and of her life as an isolated woman. We learn of Xavier’s best friend, Elijah Whiskeyjack. Growing up together and learning from one another, these two later set out for the European front. Here the horror and violence of the war is brutally but honestly depicted. War will change a man. You are forced to make choices that will ensure your survival. But even in wartime, is there not a line that should not be crossed? Can one go too far? At what point does the instinct for survival turn to something worse perhaps… savagery, madness? Memories haunt and torment Xavier. A striking similarity is made between the killing fields of war with Niska’s stories of the windigo. A windigo is one that has turned to consuming human flesh in order to satisfy his or her hunger as a result of desperation followed by insanity. Can the absurdity of war be likened to the windigo? Niska shares a vision she once had:
"I knew even as a young woman that destruction bred on the horizon. In my early visions, numbers of men, higher than any of us could count, were cut down. They lived in the mud like rats and lived only to think of new ways to kill one another. No one is safe in such times, not even the Cree of Mushkegowuk. War touches everyone, and windigos spring from the earth."
We are left to consider where that line exists between survival and madness, senselessness. Boyden will not necessarily give you the answers; instead he will leave you with much to ponder. I found this to be very powerfully written, with the strength being in the shared storytelling. If anything was lacking for me personally, it was in the writing style itself. The prose is fairly straightforward, which is fine and will suit many readers. I did not find myself reflecting on the beauty of the language in this book. Naturally, a war story depicting atrocities and what is worst in mankind may not necessarily be beautifully expressed. But it could be! Case in point – All Quiet on the Western Front. It is probably not fair to compare this book to that one, but having read the classic WW1 novel this past summer, I certainly could not help it. I use this only to illustrate a point, however, and would not at all hesitate to recommend Three Day Road. In fact, I highly recommend it to anyone that is interested in learning about a piece of The Great War that is rarely covered in literature – that of the Canadian Native American contribution to that war. In his acknowledgements, the author indicates that this book was written to honor those Native American soldiers. In particular, he references what he considers one of the most important heroes of the time, "Francis Pegahmagabow, sniper, scout, and later chief of Wasauksing First Nation." This is not an easy book to read but I am very glad to have done so. From what I understand, this is Boyden’s debut novel, although he did publish a group of short stories prior to this. I can only imagine that his skill will shine even more in later works, and I can’t wait to read more of those on my list.
"I realized then that sadness was at the heart of the windigo, a sadness so pure that it shriveled the human heart and let something else grow in its place."
Xavier Bird has returned to northern Ontario after living through the hell of the fighting and trenches of WWI. He is wounded, dispirited, and addicted to morphine. The one soul who still cares for him in this world will journey several days to meet him at the train station and bring him home. Niska, or ‘Auntie’, is the last of the Ojibwa-Cree awawatuks, those that have rejected the ways of the white man by living apart from the ways of civilization. She also has the power of visions, of divining, a gift that has been passed down to her from her father. It is a three day journey back down the river, and as Xavier’s supply of morphine dwindles away, Niska has little time to save this broken young man from the three day road and certain death. "Their morphine eats men. It has fed on me for the last months, and when it is all gone I will be the one to starve to death. I will not be able to live without it."
What struck me about this novel was that the Native American tradition of storytelling is very compelling here. Author Joseph Boyden weaves together the first-person narratives of both Niska and Xavier. Xavier’s story is unfolded through a series of flashbacks during his drug-induced state. Niska’s history is shared with us as she recounts to Xavier the stories of her childhood and of her life as an isolated woman. We learn of Xavier’s best friend, Elijah Whiskeyjack. Growing up together and learning from one another, these two later set out for the European front. Here the horror and violence of the war is brutally but honestly depicted. War will change a man. You are forced to make choices that will ensure your survival. But even in wartime, is there not a line that should not be crossed? Can one go too far? At what point does the instinct for survival turn to something worse perhaps… savagery, madness? Memories haunt and torment Xavier. A striking similarity is made between the killing fields of war with Niska’s stories of the windigo. A windigo is one that has turned to consuming human flesh in order to satisfy his or her hunger as a result of desperation followed by insanity. Can the absurdity of war be likened to the windigo? Niska shares a vision she once had:
"I knew even as a young woman that destruction bred on the horizon. In my early visions, numbers of men, higher than any of us could count, were cut down. They lived in the mud like rats and lived only to think of new ways to kill one another. No one is safe in such times, not even the Cree of Mushkegowuk. War touches everyone, and windigos spring from the earth."
We are left to consider where that line exists between survival and madness, senselessness. Boyden will not necessarily give you the answers; instead he will leave you with much to ponder. I found this to be very powerfully written, with the strength being in the shared storytelling. If anything was lacking for me personally, it was in the writing style itself. The prose is fairly straightforward, which is fine and will suit many readers. I did not find myself reflecting on the beauty of the language in this book. Naturally, a war story depicting atrocities and what is worst in mankind may not necessarily be beautifully expressed. But it could be! Case in point – All Quiet on the Western Front. It is probably not fair to compare this book to that one, but having read the classic WW1 novel this past summer, I certainly could not help it. I use this only to illustrate a point, however, and would not at all hesitate to recommend Three Day Road. In fact, I highly recommend it to anyone that is interested in learning about a piece of The Great War that is rarely covered in literature – that of the Canadian Native American contribution to that war. In his acknowledgements, the author indicates that this book was written to honor those Native American soldiers. In particular, he references what he considers one of the most important heroes of the time, "Francis Pegahmagabow, sniper, scout, and later chief of Wasauksing First Nation." This is not an easy book to read but I am very glad to have done so. From what I understand, this is Boyden’s debut novel, although he did publish a group of short stories prior to this. I can only imagine that his skill will shine even more in later works, and I can’t wait to read more of those on my list.
"I realized then that sadness was at the heart of the windigo, a sadness so pure that it shriveled the human heart and let something else grow in its place."
September 2, 2008
I found Three Day Road when a notoriously late friend was more than an hour late to meet me and I had time to browse a local bookstore. I didn't pick the book up that day, but i noted it.
Later, while near the bookstore I went back in and grabbed it. The idea of the book crossed a number of vectors of interest for me. War history (wait, don't stop reading yet), snipers (please, keep reading), and early 20th century Natives.
I expected it to at least titillate my love of snipers, and war and the romantic ideal of Canada's native people.
What happened in fact is I was reminded that the medium of the novel is meant for many things, but of all those things, first is and always will be story-telling.
There are always messages, and lessons, and commentary in all human thought, and likely all stories. But its so easy to become consumed by the desire to share an ideal, an idea, a view of the world--we lose sight of the greater need.
That greater need is to be captivated, carried, led into another world entirely. To be entertained and touched. To be free of our reality and it's annoyances, stresses and even sometimes joys. And, in very rare cases, we need to find a safe place to feel more fully than the concrete world might permit.
And it is through great story-telling we are reminded how we can love characters in books. Be stirred and impassioned by simple words. be felt fully human-confusingly-through our emotional range and capacity to feel.
This book while not the benchmark upon which to measure storytelling, was still strong enough to remind me of this need. It's the first book I can recall in some time where I could turn off my analytical mind and just go with the characters.
perhaps the last was A Fine Balance.
Even if you care nothing for war history, snipers, or native idealism you should read this book for its great characters and ability to bring you somewhere else for 400 pages.
Later, while near the bookstore I went back in and grabbed it. The idea of the book crossed a number of vectors of interest for me. War history (wait, don't stop reading yet), snipers (please, keep reading), and early 20th century Natives.
I expected it to at least titillate my love of snipers, and war and the romantic ideal of Canada's native people.
What happened in fact is I was reminded that the medium of the novel is meant for many things, but of all those things, first is and always will be story-telling.
There are always messages, and lessons, and commentary in all human thought, and likely all stories. But its so easy to become consumed by the desire to share an ideal, an idea, a view of the world--we lose sight of the greater need.
That greater need is to be captivated, carried, led into another world entirely. To be entertained and touched. To be free of our reality and it's annoyances, stresses and even sometimes joys. And, in very rare cases, we need to find a safe place to feel more fully than the concrete world might permit.
And it is through great story-telling we are reminded how we can love characters in books. Be stirred and impassioned by simple words. be felt fully human-confusingly-through our emotional range and capacity to feel.
This book while not the benchmark upon which to measure storytelling, was still strong enough to remind me of this need. It's the first book I can recall in some time where I could turn off my analytical mind and just go with the characters.
perhaps the last was A Fine Balance.
Even if you care nothing for war history, snipers, or native idealism you should read this book for its great characters and ability to bring you somewhere else for 400 pages.
June 3, 2021
I loved this book! I read it several years ago, but the overall story's message still haunts me. It's a story about WWI but from the perspective of two Canadian Indigenous young men.
Highly recommend!
Highly recommend!
February 10, 2017
A novel that begins at the end, and ends with a beginning. Three Day Road is a stunning debut from one of Canada’s foremost writers, Joseph Boyden. When Xavier Bird returns from WWI addicted to morphine and wounded, his aunt Niska embarks with him on a three-day journey towards their home in the Northern Ontario bush. As Niska paddles along towards their home, the reader slides seamlessly between Xavier’s remembrances of his time at war and Niska’s account of Xavier as a boy. Central to the novel is the uncertain fate of Xavier’s childhood friend and fellow soldier, Elijah Whiskeyjack. As Xavier and Niska make their way closer to their home, so too does a stunning revelation about Elijah and Xavier’s acts creep closer.
From its opening chapter, Three Day Road sets itself up as a book that would put me through the wringer. The novel’s descriptive passages are evocative and powerful. As Elijah and Xavier traipse through the mud, muck, and murder of various WWI killing-fields, I could vividly imagine their struggles and the horrific scope of the world in which they were forced to survive. This is sharply contrasted with the expressive and majestic way in which Boyden paints the wild of Northern Ontario. As alluded to earlier, scenes in which Xavier shoots morphine in the canoe allow for him to slip seamlessly back to the past. The experience was much the same for me as there are never any hiccups as the novel shifts between alternate stories.
The book also resonates with authenticity: the aboriginal themes, thoughts, and practices ring true and never feel forced. Indeed, the three Cree leads are strong, fully developed and interesting characters whose cultural experiences deeply influence their world-view. Elijah and Xavier both fall victim to the torrid world of residential schools, and are enticed up by the promise of glory and adventure that the war will provide. As Niska details her own life, we also see how government has smothered her culture as she clings on to her way of life. Cree mythology also plays a central part in the structure of the novel and the Bird family legacy returns time and again to drive home a powerful theme.
There is so much contained in this novel that it is impossible to do it justice in a 500-word review. The story swept me away, and though it does read slowly, it never felt as if I was putting in work to finish. Xavier’s childhood innocence, his devolution in Europe, and his attempted rehabilitation by his aunt are all told in tandem to make for a staggeringly ambitious first novel. The writing is rich and illustrative, the story neatly tucked into place at its conclusion, and the characters are all compelling. Though a challenging read in content, writing, and emotion, Three Day Road is essential reading for those in Canada and beyond.
From its opening chapter, Three Day Road sets itself up as a book that would put me through the wringer. The novel’s descriptive passages are evocative and powerful. As Elijah and Xavier traipse through the mud, muck, and murder of various WWI killing-fields, I could vividly imagine their struggles and the horrific scope of the world in which they were forced to survive. This is sharply contrasted with the expressive and majestic way in which Boyden paints the wild of Northern Ontario. As alluded to earlier, scenes in which Xavier shoots morphine in the canoe allow for him to slip seamlessly back to the past. The experience was much the same for me as there are never any hiccups as the novel shifts between alternate stories.
The book also resonates with authenticity: the aboriginal themes, thoughts, and practices ring true and never feel forced. Indeed, the three Cree leads are strong, fully developed and interesting characters whose cultural experiences deeply influence their world-view. Elijah and Xavier both fall victim to the torrid world of residential schools, and are enticed up by the promise of glory and adventure that the war will provide. As Niska details her own life, we also see how government has smothered her culture as she clings on to her way of life. Cree mythology also plays a central part in the structure of the novel and the Bird family legacy returns time and again to drive home a powerful theme.
There is so much contained in this novel that it is impossible to do it justice in a 500-word review. The story swept me away, and though it does read slowly, it never felt as if I was putting in work to finish. Xavier’s childhood innocence, his devolution in Europe, and his attempted rehabilitation by his aunt are all told in tandem to make for a staggeringly ambitious first novel. The writing is rich and illustrative, the story neatly tucked into place at its conclusion, and the characters are all compelling. Though a challenging read in content, writing, and emotion, Three Day Road is essential reading for those in Canada and beyond.
April 25, 2015
This seemed like a serendipitous discovery when I stumbled on it in an Ontario bookshop last week. Not literally stumbled – although, come to think of it, there were several piles of books on the floor there which gave browsing something of a parkour flavour. But I had negotiated those hazards successfully. No, I meant stumbled on in the metaphorical sense that I found it by chance. Anyway, can we move on? I have a review to write.
So yes, I hadn't heard of Boyden before, but clearly he's something of a literary darling north of the 49th parallel (in Canada – less sure about Kazakhstan) and this novel, his first, begins with what seems to be an entire chapter's worth of adulatory press cuttings to whet your appetite for what follows. Apparently every critic and literary prize in Canada welcomed this one with open arms and legs. By the time you have crawled out of Roman numerals and made it to the start of the story at page 1, you have been primed to be disappointed by anything less than a new Ulysses written on the Stone Tablets of Sinai, with jokes by the ghost of Lenny Bruce.
It is easy to see why critics got excited about it. This story of two Cree boys from northern Ontario who become snipers in the First World War shines a light on an aspect of 1914–18 that most readers will know little about, and it does so in the uncomplicated, present-tense, flashback-heavy style that is so wildly popular these days.
Sure enough, there was a lot here I responded to and that filled a gap untouched by my other First World War reading. It is inspired in part by the real-life Ojibwe sniper Francis Pegahmagabow, the most lethal sniper of the war and one of Canada's most decorated (who, as ‘Peggy’, hovers just off-stage at several points in the novel). But the scenes of chaos and misery from the Western Front are never allowed to take over, and they are always interspersed with chapters describing Elijah and Xavier's Cree childhood and family, juxtapositions that offer the reader a range of unusual and productive comparisons that can be made at his or her leisure. This cross-cutting between industrialised slaughter in Europe and the very different ritualised violence of ‘native’ communities reminded me of what Pat Barker attempted with Melanesian islanders in The Ghost Road, though here the conceit is built much more fundamentally into the book's structure.
This is one of those books that goes for full-on immersive storytelling: it is all about spending plenty of time with these characters, seeing the trenches and the carnage of Ypres and Passchendaele through their eyes, learning, through Xavier's medicine-woman aunt, about how the boys ended up in this place so far away from home.
Perhaps the overriding motif is the windigo, that figure of Algonquian mythology associated with cannibalism and insanity. Just as First Nations communities sometimes suffered outbreaks of internal violence that saw people turning in desperation to eating human flesh, so too (we are encouraged to consider) have developed nations in 1914 begun to cannibalise their own population through what seems to be nothing other than collective madness.
Much as I enjoyed the story and the general idea, I must admit there was something about the prose style that stopped me from ever loving this book the way I'm sure many others will love it. The prose isn't bad – it just doesn't display much intelligence or wit; there's a kind of flat, undemonstrative quality to it that, perhaps, is appropriate given its narrators but that left me slightly cold. I couldn't shake off a vague sense of Creative Writing courses, reinforced not only by the present-tense narration but by the alternating narrators in different chapters, and the metaphors that tried, I thought, a little too hard to show off their cultural background (‘His skin is the colour of cedar ash in the setting sun’). There is also a certain amount of ‘magic Indian’ stuff going on – a face-value acceptance of some of the Cree mythology and ritual – that sits very uneasily with me.
Still, this is a book I'd recommend. If you want to know more about Canada's involvement in the war, and First Nations participation in particular, it's a brilliant introduction – and you'd have to be a hard-hearted reader indeed to resist the melodrama of violence and insanity that Boyden skilfully builds up for his climax.
So yes, I hadn't heard of Boyden before, but clearly he's something of a literary darling north of the 49th parallel (in Canada – less sure about Kazakhstan) and this novel, his first, begins with what seems to be an entire chapter's worth of adulatory press cuttings to whet your appetite for what follows. Apparently every critic and literary prize in Canada welcomed this one with open arms and legs. By the time you have crawled out of Roman numerals and made it to the start of the story at page 1, you have been primed to be disappointed by anything less than a new Ulysses written on the Stone Tablets of Sinai, with jokes by the ghost of Lenny Bruce.
It is easy to see why critics got excited about it. This story of two Cree boys from northern Ontario who become snipers in the First World War shines a light on an aspect of 1914–18 that most readers will know little about, and it does so in the uncomplicated, present-tense, flashback-heavy style that is so wildly popular these days.
Sure enough, there was a lot here I responded to and that filled a gap untouched by my other First World War reading. It is inspired in part by the real-life Ojibwe sniper Francis Pegahmagabow, the most lethal sniper of the war and one of Canada's most decorated (who, as ‘Peggy’, hovers just off-stage at several points in the novel). But the scenes of chaos and misery from the Western Front are never allowed to take over, and they are always interspersed with chapters describing Elijah and Xavier's Cree childhood and family, juxtapositions that offer the reader a range of unusual and productive comparisons that can be made at his or her leisure. This cross-cutting between industrialised slaughter in Europe and the very different ritualised violence of ‘native’ communities reminded me of what Pat Barker attempted with Melanesian islanders in The Ghost Road, though here the conceit is built much more fundamentally into the book's structure.
This is one of those books that goes for full-on immersive storytelling: it is all about spending plenty of time with these characters, seeing the trenches and the carnage of Ypres and Passchendaele through their eyes, learning, through Xavier's medicine-woman aunt, about how the boys ended up in this place so far away from home.
Perhaps the overriding motif is the windigo, that figure of Algonquian mythology associated with cannibalism and insanity. Just as First Nations communities sometimes suffered outbreaks of internal violence that saw people turning in desperation to eating human flesh, so too (we are encouraged to consider) have developed nations in 1914 begun to cannibalise their own population through what seems to be nothing other than collective madness.
I realized then that sadness was at the heart of the windigo, a sadness so pure that it shrivelled the human heart and let something else grow in its place. To know that you have desecrated the ones you love, that you have done something so damning out of a greed for life that you have been exiled from your people forever is a hard meal to swallow, much harder to swallow than that first bite of human flesh.
Much as I enjoyed the story and the general idea, I must admit there was something about the prose style that stopped me from ever loving this book the way I'm sure many others will love it. The prose isn't bad – it just doesn't display much intelligence or wit; there's a kind of flat, undemonstrative quality to it that, perhaps, is appropriate given its narrators but that left me slightly cold. I couldn't shake off a vague sense of Creative Writing courses, reinforced not only by the present-tense narration but by the alternating narrators in different chapters, and the metaphors that tried, I thought, a little too hard to show off their cultural background (‘His skin is the colour of cedar ash in the setting sun’). There is also a certain amount of ‘magic Indian’ stuff going on – a face-value acceptance of some of the Cree mythology and ritual – that sits very uneasily with me.
Still, this is a book I'd recommend. If you want to know more about Canada's involvement in the war, and First Nations participation in particular, it's a brilliant introduction – and you'd have to be a hard-hearted reader indeed to resist the melodrama of violence and insanity that Boyden skilfully builds up for his climax.
March 27, 2025
“We all fight on two fronts, the one facing the enemy, the one facing what we do to the enemy.”
THREE DAY ROAD opens in 1919 when Xavier Bird, Niska’s nephew and sole living relative, returns from the war, a badly wounded amputee addicted to morphine, with the news that his friend was gone, left behind in the trenches and killing fields of Ypres and the Somme in war-torn France. The difficult story is told through a series of retrospectives from the three different points of view – Niska, Xavier Bird and Elijah Whiskeyjack – until it ultimately reaches a real-time finale at the end of Niska’s and Xavier’s lives. And what a story it is! Breathtaking, frightening, disgusting, horrifying, heartwarming, saddening, gut-wrenching, beautiful – the gamut of emotions that a reader will experience in the reading of THREE DAY ROAD and its first person tale of trench warfare in World War I is quite beyond description.
Unlike so many of their contemporaries at the turn of the 20th century, Xavier and Elijah were brought up by their aunt in the northern Ontario bush in order to protect and hide them from the de facto cultural genocide and abusive sexual ministrations of the nuns and priests in the Roman Catholic residential schools. It is this difficult life which hones their tracking and shooting skills to a razor sharp edge and ensures that, when they reach the decision to enlist in the Canadian Army to wage war against the Huns, they will be assigned the dangerous and critical role of snipers. THREE DAY ROAD is the story of their youth as wilderness refugees from the residential schools, their return to the white man’s world of the army, their experiences through World War I in France and, ultimately, Elijah’s death in France and Xavier’s return to Canada with the burden of morphine addiction and (it probably goes without saying) the nightmare of PTSD.
As a Canadian reader especially interested in the history of aboriginals in Canada, I found Boyden’s treatment of the importance of story-telling and language in Cree culture to be a wonderful addition to the overall atmosphere in the story and a helpful addition to understanding Niska’s, Xavier’s and Elijah’s motivations and decision-making.
Highly recommended with the added hope that wemistikoshiw non-native white folks like me will take the story to heart supporting the efforts of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in their bettering of the position of aboriginal people in today’s world. Someday – sooner than later it is to be hoped – we may be able to accurately describe ourselves as a post-racial society.
Paul Weiss
THREE DAY ROAD opens in 1919 when Xavier Bird, Niska’s nephew and sole living relative, returns from the war, a badly wounded amputee addicted to morphine, with the news that his friend was gone, left behind in the trenches and killing fields of Ypres and the Somme in war-torn France. The difficult story is told through a series of retrospectives from the three different points of view – Niska, Xavier Bird and Elijah Whiskeyjack – until it ultimately reaches a real-time finale at the end of Niska’s and Xavier’s lives. And what a story it is! Breathtaking, frightening, disgusting, horrifying, heartwarming, saddening, gut-wrenching, beautiful – the gamut of emotions that a reader will experience in the reading of THREE DAY ROAD and its first person tale of trench warfare in World War I is quite beyond description.
Unlike so many of their contemporaries at the turn of the 20th century, Xavier and Elijah were brought up by their aunt in the northern Ontario bush in order to protect and hide them from the de facto cultural genocide and abusive sexual ministrations of the nuns and priests in the Roman Catholic residential schools. It is this difficult life which hones their tracking and shooting skills to a razor sharp edge and ensures that, when they reach the decision to enlist in the Canadian Army to wage war against the Huns, they will be assigned the dangerous and critical role of snipers. THREE DAY ROAD is the story of their youth as wilderness refugees from the residential schools, their return to the white man’s world of the army, their experiences through World War I in France and, ultimately, Elijah’s death in France and Xavier’s return to Canada with the burden of morphine addiction and (it probably goes without saying) the nightmare of PTSD.
As a Canadian reader especially interested in the history of aboriginals in Canada, I found Boyden’s treatment of the importance of story-telling and language in Cree culture to be a wonderful addition to the overall atmosphere in the story and a helpful addition to understanding Niska’s, Xavier’s and Elijah’s motivations and decision-making.
Highly recommended with the added hope that wemistikoshiw non-native white folks like me will take the story to heart supporting the efforts of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in their bettering of the position of aboriginal people in today’s world. Someday – sooner than later it is to be hoped – we may be able to accurately describe ourselves as a post-racial society.
Paul Weiss
June 27, 2017
The gold standard for novels about combat in World War I has always been All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque, first published in 1929. I first read it many years ago and have since re-read it a couple of times.
There are a number of fabulous goodreads reviews of this classic novel, reviews by Ted, Kemper, Larry Bassett, and Diane Barnes. If you haven't read the book, you should read these reviews and then you may want to.
But I also wish to express my gratitude to several goodreads friends, who, through their outstanding reviews, led me to two WWI novels of which I was not aware.
Fear: A Novel of World War I by Gabriel Chevalier was originally published in 1930. It was the fascinating reviews of Mike and Sue that led me to a book that I was not aware of, but should have been. It deserves to have the kind of recognition and praise that is accorded All Quiet on the Western Front. It is that good.
And so is Three Day Road by Joseph Boyden, published in 2005. Thanks to the great (I'm running out of superlatives) reviews of this book by Michael and Tony. I might not have found it otherwise.
The interesting thing for me about the three books is that the authors are writing from three perspectives in that the first is German, the second is French, and the third is Canadian. And yet, the stories they tell about young men from three different nations fighting in the trenches in France are almost interchangeable.
The leadership, civilian and military, might have differed in the three countries, but the soldiers who did the fighting were much more alike than they differed.
There is a moral there.
There are a number of fabulous goodreads reviews of this classic novel, reviews by Ted, Kemper, Larry Bassett, and Diane Barnes. If you haven't read the book, you should read these reviews and then you may want to.
But I also wish to express my gratitude to several goodreads friends, who, through their outstanding reviews, led me to two WWI novels of which I was not aware.
Fear: A Novel of World War I by Gabriel Chevalier was originally published in 1930. It was the fascinating reviews of Mike and Sue that led me to a book that I was not aware of, but should have been. It deserves to have the kind of recognition and praise that is accorded All Quiet on the Western Front. It is that good.
And so is Three Day Road by Joseph Boyden, published in 2005. Thanks to the great (I'm running out of superlatives) reviews of this book by Michael and Tony. I might not have found it otherwise.
The interesting thing for me about the three books is that the authors are writing from three perspectives in that the first is German, the second is French, and the third is Canadian. And yet, the stories they tell about young men from three different nations fighting in the trenches in France are almost interchangeable.
The leadership, civilian and military, might have differed in the three countries, but the soldiers who did the fighting were much more alike than they differed.
There is a moral there.
August 27, 2016
Xavier Bird struggles on crutches as he descends from the train in northern Canada in 1919. He is in terrible pain and addicted to morphine since a war injury resulted in the amputation of his leg. The relentless horror in the trenches of the Western Front have also taken their toll emotionally. His aunt Niska, an Oji-Cree medicine woman, takes Kavier home in a three day journey in her canoe.
The Canadian government had a forced residential education program, attempting to eradicate the First Nation's culture, but Niska had escaped into the bush as a teenager. She later rescued her nephew Xavier, and his friend Elijah from the harsh environment of the school. They were taught the skills of tracking and hunting game, and both became skilled marksmen. The two young men volunteered for service in the Canadian Army, mostly because Elijah had a taste for adventure. Their skill with rifles is soon recognized, and they become an expert sniper and scout team. The taking of lives has a different cumulative effect on each of the two friends. While one becomes repelled by the bloodshed, the other turns into an obsessive killer.
The First Nation has a long tradition of storytelling. As Niska paddles her canoe, she tells Xavier stories from her youth to distract him from his pain. In flashbacks, Xavier relives the years on the Western Front in morphine-induced memories. Xavier's supply of morphine is running low. Will Niska be able to heal her troubled, broken nephew?
The Canadian Second Division fought bravely in Flanders, the Nord-Pas-de-Calais, and the Somme. Joseph Boyden has melded history, First Nation culture, and good storytelling to create an absorbing tale. The author's family background is part Ojibwa, and includes military men. Boyden's World War I story pulled me down into the trenches, and into the sniper's nest. I'm looking forward to the next two books in the trilogy.
The Canadian government had a forced residential education program, attempting to eradicate the First Nation's culture, but Niska had escaped into the bush as a teenager. She later rescued her nephew Xavier, and his friend Elijah from the harsh environment of the school. They were taught the skills of tracking and hunting game, and both became skilled marksmen. The two young men volunteered for service in the Canadian Army, mostly because Elijah had a taste for adventure. Their skill with rifles is soon recognized, and they become an expert sniper and scout team. The taking of lives has a different cumulative effect on each of the two friends. While one becomes repelled by the bloodshed, the other turns into an obsessive killer.
The First Nation has a long tradition of storytelling. As Niska paddles her canoe, she tells Xavier stories from her youth to distract him from his pain. In flashbacks, Xavier relives the years on the Western Front in morphine-induced memories. Xavier's supply of morphine is running low. Will Niska be able to heal her troubled, broken nephew?
The Canadian Second Division fought bravely in Flanders, the Nord-Pas-de-Calais, and the Somme. Joseph Boyden has melded history, First Nation culture, and good storytelling to create an absorbing tale. The author's family background is part Ojibwa, and includes military men. Boyden's World War I story pulled me down into the trenches, and into the sniper's nest. I'm looking forward to the next two books in the trilogy.
October 21, 2017
edit: it’s been about a month since i’ve read this and i’m increasing my rating to 5 stars. the plot of this book and the main character’s thoughts have just stuck with me so much, and after finishing an 8 page paper about this book it just made me fully comprehend how genius it all flows together. highly recommend.
4.5 Stars.
My war literature professor is just out here trying to make me cry, huh?
This book was beautiful. It's gruesome and explicit, and at times highly uncomfortable, but it's not just a book about raw killing with no message. The main character has such a fleshed out backstory and inner conflict and I was rooting for him throughout the entire book and just had so much empathy for him even though we're two completely different ethnicities and I've never had to be in a war. I'm usually not a fan of a book being told through flashbacks, but this integrated it nicely and kept me interested enough in knowing what was going on in the past so that they end up where they are.
It's a tragic book, but I totally guessed the ending. The reason I took off half a star is because I think I wanted more finality in the ending, and there's still a few things I have questions about that went under-explained. Also, there were so many different flashbacks that sometimes the locations and experiences got muddled since all the trenches were very similar. Also, almost every character in this that I liked died, so it's fINE.
4.5 Stars.
My war literature professor is just out here trying to make me cry, huh?
This book was beautiful. It's gruesome and explicit, and at times highly uncomfortable, but it's not just a book about raw killing with no message. The main character has such a fleshed out backstory and inner conflict and I was rooting for him throughout the entire book and just had so much empathy for him even though we're two completely different ethnicities and I've never had to be in a war. I'm usually not a fan of a book being told through flashbacks, but this integrated it nicely and kept me interested enough in knowing what was going on in the past so that they end up where they are.
It's a tragic book, but I totally guessed the ending. The reason I took off half a star is because I think I wanted more finality in the ending, and there's still a few things I have questions about that went under-explained. Also, there were so many different flashbacks that sometimes the locations and experiences got muddled since all the trenches were very similar. Also, almost every character in this that I liked died, so it's fINE.
July 23, 2022
Three Day Road (Bird Family Trilogy), by Joseph Boyden
Hardcover: 358 pages, 143k words
Release date: March 17, 2005
Estimated reading time: 11 to 12 hours
Audiobook: 16 hours, narrated by Robert Ramirez and Ruth Ann Phimister
Setting: 1919
Locations: the wilderness of Northern Ontario, Canada, and on the battlefields of France and Belgium.
This book, the author’s debut, was inspired in part by real-life World War I Ojibwe hero Francis Pegahmagabow. It brought an interesting perspective on an aspect of the WWI that I wasn’t familiar. I did not know that people from First Nations volunteered to fight that war.
Here, we are introduced to 2 young indigenous boys, who, because of their hunting skills, became snipers. There is no explanation as to why they decided to volunteer (one of them could hardly speak English), except in the section “About the book” where it says they were looking for a thrilling adventure.
This was my 4th book by this author, and once again I was mesmerized by his writing skills.
The first book that I read was “The Orenda”, an excellent book but, unfortunately, extremely violent (I had to read it in small doses).
I am aware of the controversy over the author’s identification with the First Nation, which happened years after the publication of this book. Boyden now admitted he had erroneously identified himself as Mi'kmaq in the past. He continued to identify as a "white kid with native roots", Ojibway on his mother's side and Nipmuc on his father's side.
There are plenty of gory and disturbing scenes and some very heartbreaking moments.
My favourite parts, although very sad, were the ones narrated the aunt, Niska, an Oji-Cree medicine woman. I wished that the book was all about her.
I thought that the book could have been shorter. The scenes in the battlefield, although very evocative, were too long.
It’s a pity that, unfortunately, the main characters became stereotypical (substance abuse, violence, mental health).
The book does not give hints about the tittle, or, if it did, I was oblivious. A reviewer asked about the connection and I found this interesting information on Wikipedia:
The significance of the title
… the number three is especially relevant not only to Indigenous cultures but Europeans alike. It would appear to Xavier (one of the main characters) that the number three can be found everywhere. There is the front line, the support line, and the reserve line, for example. There is the infantry, the cavalry, and the artillery. In moments off battle, there is food, then rest, then women. In church, the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. There is even superstition about lighting three cigarettes with one match. Xavier remembers specifically though, about what his aunt Niska told him about those ready for death having to walk the Three Day Road. In the novel, we accompany Xavier on what would seem to be his Three Day Road; his journey back to his home with Niska and her stories trying to heal him.
PS. I read this book while simultaneously listening to the audiobook. The advantage was hearing the pronunciation of the indigenous language (each chapter had a title that I could not pronounce). I thought that the narrators did a good job, although some times I did have to increase the speed from normal to 1.75.
Regardless of my ratings, I can’t say that I loved this book. I really did not care about Xavier and Elijah, and, although the book is only 358 pages, it did feel longer than that.
Hardcover: 358 pages, 143k words
Release date: March 17, 2005
Estimated reading time: 11 to 12 hours
Audiobook: 16 hours, narrated by Robert Ramirez and Ruth Ann Phimister
Setting: 1919
Locations: the wilderness of Northern Ontario, Canada, and on the battlefields of France and Belgium.
This book, the author’s debut, was inspired in part by real-life World War I Ojibwe hero Francis Pegahmagabow. It brought an interesting perspective on an aspect of the WWI that I wasn’t familiar. I did not know that people from First Nations volunteered to fight that war.
Here, we are introduced to 2 young indigenous boys, who, because of their hunting skills, became snipers. There is no explanation as to why they decided to volunteer (one of them could hardly speak English), except in the section “About the book” where it says they were looking for a thrilling adventure.
This was my 4th book by this author, and once again I was mesmerized by his writing skills.
The first book that I read was “The Orenda”, an excellent book but, unfortunately, extremely violent (I had to read it in small doses).
I am aware of the controversy over the author’s identification with the First Nation, which happened years after the publication of this book. Boyden now admitted he had erroneously identified himself as Mi'kmaq in the past. He continued to identify as a "white kid with native roots", Ojibway on his mother's side and Nipmuc on his father's side.
There are plenty of gory and disturbing scenes and some very heartbreaking moments.
My favourite parts, although very sad, were the ones narrated the aunt, Niska, an Oji-Cree medicine woman. I wished that the book was all about her.
I thought that the book could have been shorter. The scenes in the battlefield, although very evocative, were too long.
It’s a pity that, unfortunately, the main characters became stereotypical (substance abuse, violence, mental health).
The book does not give hints about the tittle, or, if it did, I was oblivious. A reviewer asked about the connection and I found this interesting information on Wikipedia:
The significance of the title
… the number three is especially relevant not only to Indigenous cultures but Europeans alike. It would appear to Xavier (one of the main characters) that the number three can be found everywhere. There is the front line, the support line, and the reserve line, for example. There is the infantry, the cavalry, and the artillery. In moments off battle, there is food, then rest, then women. In church, the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. There is even superstition about lighting three cigarettes with one match. Xavier remembers specifically though, about what his aunt Niska told him about those ready for death having to walk the Three Day Road. In the novel, we accompany Xavier on what would seem to be his Three Day Road; his journey back to his home with Niska and her stories trying to heal him.
PS. I read this book while simultaneously listening to the audiobook. The advantage was hearing the pronunciation of the indigenous language (each chapter had a title that I could not pronounce). I thought that the narrators did a good job, although some times I did have to increase the speed from normal to 1.75.
Regardless of my ratings, I can’t say that I loved this book. I really did not care about Xavier and Elijah, and, although the book is only 358 pages, it did feel longer than that.
July 16, 2012
Book Review: Three Day Road
Joseph Boyden
Viking Canada Penguin 2005
ISBN 0-670-06362-2
Once in a long while one reads a book that you cannot put down and the overall beauty of it leaves one gasping. Three Day Road, is such a book. It tells the story of Two Cree young men who find themselves in WW I fighting in the trenches of France as snipers using their hunting and shooting skills they learned in the bush growing up near James Bay.
The story begins with the protagonist, Xavier Bird, has returned from the war minus his leg and addicted to morphine. Aunt Niska, Xavier’s only living relative has paddled five days against the river current to bring him home. Niska is a Cree woman who has lived in traditional ways alone in the bush much of her life except for a brief stay in a residential school as a child. The story takes place during their three day return to James Bay. Flashbacks to the battlefields of France, vividly told, and to each of their childhoods occur during times when Xavier is asleep, or drugged by the morphine that controls the phantom pain in his leg. We learn Xavier is on borrowed time as his morphine cache is nearly gone. The title Three Day Road has a truly layered meaning in the story.
We learn a lot about the traditional native way of life as well as the isolation natives must endure in the world of the wemistikoshiw (the Cree word for white man).
We gain a certain insight into a residential school where Cree children are taken from their homes and fat Nuns abuse little boys and punish them severely if they speak in native tongues.
The historically accurate description of life in the trenches in France is excellent – on par with the likes of Pierre Berton’s Vimy.
Boyden’s descriptive and narrative skill is terrific and a lot is included in the books 350 pages. The book is a Writers Trust Award winner and one can easily see why.
I give it five stars (but would give six if I could)
Malcolm Watts BA MSW
Novelist Reflections from Shadow
www.authorsden.com/malcolmwatts
Joseph Boyden
Viking Canada Penguin 2005
ISBN 0-670-06362-2
Once in a long while one reads a book that you cannot put down and the overall beauty of it leaves one gasping. Three Day Road, is such a book. It tells the story of Two Cree young men who find themselves in WW I fighting in the trenches of France as snipers using their hunting and shooting skills they learned in the bush growing up near James Bay.
The story begins with the protagonist, Xavier Bird, has returned from the war minus his leg and addicted to morphine. Aunt Niska, Xavier’s only living relative has paddled five days against the river current to bring him home. Niska is a Cree woman who has lived in traditional ways alone in the bush much of her life except for a brief stay in a residential school as a child. The story takes place during their three day return to James Bay. Flashbacks to the battlefields of France, vividly told, and to each of their childhoods occur during times when Xavier is asleep, or drugged by the morphine that controls the phantom pain in his leg. We learn Xavier is on borrowed time as his morphine cache is nearly gone. The title Three Day Road has a truly layered meaning in the story.
We learn a lot about the traditional native way of life as well as the isolation natives must endure in the world of the wemistikoshiw (the Cree word for white man).
We gain a certain insight into a residential school where Cree children are taken from their homes and fat Nuns abuse little boys and punish them severely if they speak in native tongues.
The historically accurate description of life in the trenches in France is excellent – on par with the likes of Pierre Berton’s Vimy.
Boyden’s descriptive and narrative skill is terrific and a lot is included in the books 350 pages. The book is a Writers Trust Award winner and one can easily see why.
I give it five stars (but would give six if I could)
Malcolm Watts BA MSW
Novelist Reflections from Shadow
www.authorsden.com/malcolmwatts
March 13, 2016
The time setting is 1919, and at a train station in Northern Ontario a Native Canadian woman, Niska, meets her nephew, Xavier Bird, on his return from active service in WWI. Xavier returns from the war a broken man in every sense. One leg has been amputated below the knee, he is addicted to morphine, and he is suffering from severe post traumatic stress. The two make a three day canoe journey back to Niska's camp, and during the journey the story of Xavier's wartime experiences is told in flashback style, interspersed with the story of Niska's life and Xavier's pre-war childhood. The novel's central relationship is between Xavier and his childhood friend Elijah Whiskeyjack, who is also his comrade in the trenches, but who undergoes a progressive brutalisation as the war itself progresses.
The author has written another novel "Through Black Spruce", featuring Xavier's children and grandchildren, which I had previously read and which I thought was excellent. That gave me high expectations of "Three Day Road" which I would have to say were not fully realised. There are plenty of plus points. The quality of writing is good, and the novel has a strong culture clash theme as well as the inherent pathos of a WWI setting. In some ways it also challenged my own sense of morality, and it is no bad thing when a novel gets you thinking in that way. At the same time, I never found myself emotionally engaged with either the main characters or the plot as a whole. It probably didn't help that from early chapters I started to anticipate the broad outline of the plot, and it did turn out much as I had thought. For me, the plot also incorporated too much magic and mysticism. I have no overriding objections to including those kind of elements in a novel, but in this one too much was resolved simply by the summoning or exorcism of spirits, a plot device I found very unconvincing.
Glancing at the other reviews, my view seems to be a minority one, and most other people have rated this much more highly. I can only say what my honest reaction was.
The author has written another novel "Through Black Spruce", featuring Xavier's children and grandchildren, which I had previously read and which I thought was excellent. That gave me high expectations of "Three Day Road" which I would have to say were not fully realised. There are plenty of plus points. The quality of writing is good, and the novel has a strong culture clash theme as well as the inherent pathos of a WWI setting. In some ways it also challenged my own sense of morality, and it is no bad thing when a novel gets you thinking in that way. At the same time, I never found myself emotionally engaged with either the main characters or the plot as a whole. It probably didn't help that from early chapters I started to anticipate the broad outline of the plot, and it did turn out much as I had thought. For me, the plot also incorporated too much magic and mysticism. I have no overriding objections to including those kind of elements in a novel, but in this one too much was resolved simply by the summoning or exorcism of spirits, a plot device I found very unconvincing.
Glancing at the other reviews, my view seems to be a minority one, and most other people have rated this much more highly. I can only say what my honest reaction was.
March 11, 2021
I'm a huge fan of Boyden's work. I was really impressed by The Orenda and Through Black Spruce, and loved his stories in Born with a Tooth. When I finally got around to his debut novel, I think it proved to be a bit underwhelming.
Stylistically, Boyden is as strong as ever in this one; his writing is sharp, observant, and transportive. The ways in which he weaves together both Niska and Xavier's stories is excellent. And the tension that builds throughout between Elijah and Xavier is palpable. I thought all the elements where there for a fantastic story, but it just didn't quite reach its full potential. Maybe it's one of those 'it's not you, it's me' stories? Admittedly I'm not the biggest fan of WWI narratives. I thought many of the battle sequences and depictions of the European frontlines were redundant and did little to move the story forward. I was most fascinated hearing about Xavier's childhood and Niska's recollection of the boys' friendship.
Nonetheless, I love Boyden's ability to write from multiple perspectives—as he does in most of his books—and create vivid settings. If only it hadn't dragged so much in the middle this would've been a better book for me.
Stylistically, Boyden is as strong as ever in this one; his writing is sharp, observant, and transportive. The ways in which he weaves together both Niska and Xavier's stories is excellent. And the tension that builds throughout between Elijah and Xavier is palpable. I thought all the elements where there for a fantastic story, but it just didn't quite reach its full potential. Maybe it's one of those 'it's not you, it's me' stories? Admittedly I'm not the biggest fan of WWI narratives. I thought many of the battle sequences and depictions of the European frontlines were redundant and did little to move the story forward. I was most fascinated hearing about Xavier's childhood and Niska's recollection of the boys' friendship.
Nonetheless, I love Boyden's ability to write from multiple perspectives—as he does in most of his books—and create vivid settings. If only it hadn't dragged so much in the middle this would've been a better book for me.
March 13, 2009
5 stars
I'm not sure I've read any other books inspired by the First World War, but I am sure Joseph's story is different than anything else ever written.
Agreed, I was slow to get TO it (heard him read first chapter in Whistler 2007), and to really get into it, but oh -- when I did, I couldn't turn the pages fast enough!
I read this, for the most part, on the beach while vacationing in Mexico. I couldn't help but react out loud: his battle scenes, e.g., are so vivid, chilling. But saying that simplifies what is really a gripping, epic tale; storytelling at its best.
It won the 2005 McNally Robinson Aboriginal Book of the Year; was shortlisted for the Governor General's Literary Award, and went on to become a #1 National Bestseller.
I don't want to spoil the story, so I will simply say:"highly recommended". But, if you plan to read Through Black Spruce (Winner of the ScotiaGiller Prize), hold off, and read this book first. "You'll be glad you did." :)
I'm not sure I've read any other books inspired by the First World War, but I am sure Joseph's story is different than anything else ever written.
Agreed, I was slow to get TO it (heard him read first chapter in Whistler 2007), and to really get into it, but oh -- when I did, I couldn't turn the pages fast enough!
I read this, for the most part, on the beach while vacationing in Mexico. I couldn't help but react out loud: his battle scenes, e.g., are so vivid, chilling. But saying that simplifies what is really a gripping, epic tale; storytelling at its best.
It won the 2005 McNally Robinson Aboriginal Book of the Year; was shortlisted for the Governor General's Literary Award, and went on to become a #1 National Bestseller.
I don't want to spoil the story, so I will simply say:"highly recommended". But, if you plan to read Through Black Spruce (Winner of the ScotiaGiller Prize), hold off, and read this book first. "You'll be glad you did." :)
June 13, 2018
Truly heroic characters in terrible circumstances. I've read most of this author's books. Couldn't finish the Orenda - waaaaay too violent for me, but the fair chunk of it that I did read was very well written. Through Black Spruce was my favourite of all of Boyden's books.
July 30, 2012
I love Erdrich's blurb for the book: "a devastatingly truthful work of fiction, and a masterful account of hell and healing. This is a grave, grand, and passionate book." This is the story of a three-day canoe journey home for Cree Indian Xavier Bird, who arrives by train in northern Ontario severely damaged from his experience as an infantry soldier in World War 1. He has lost a leg and is addicted to morphine. He is accompanied by his only family member, his aunt Niska, a medicine woman who raised him in remote bush after liberating him at age 5 from a residential school. A pervasive mystery for Niska is the fate of Xavier's friend and effective brother Elijah, whom she helped raise from an older age and went off to war with Xavier. The narrative skillfully alternates between Xavier's upbringing and his experience in war with Elijah, where they became snipers in the trench warfare in France and Belgium. The account of the common foot soldier's perspective on the fighting is to me on a par with "All Quiet on the Western Front". At the same time, the novel provides a timeless fresh vision of alienation associated the human failure of 20th century civilization through the lens of Native American culture. The transformation of his friend Elijah into an amoral killing machine epitomizes the corruption, insanity, and evils of the whole enterprise, which represents a big challenge for Niska to help Xavier recover from.
October 4, 2019
A most staggering depiction of World War I centering on two Canadian Indians who were utilized most effectively as snipers. The story moves back and forth between battles and the men's early life in the Canadian wilderness. A raw and brutal telling which is at once beautiful and memorable.
December 22, 2014
This is two of my favourite reads: a "futility-of-war" novel by a Native Canadian writer, and with a unique Native Canadian angle.
Xavier and Elijah are Ojibwe-Cree from "the North Country" (which in this case means James Bay area) who sign up for WW I, and - because of their hunting prowess - make for excellent warriors. Niska - X's auntie - welcomes a deeply changed X home, and does what she can to help X cope with all he has seen, suffered and lost.
The novel is about killing and healing and incredible, profound, spirit-driven love. Of the boys for each other; of Niska for her would-be sons, and for X in particular. Love and bonds that are forged in one kind of trauma and tested in another kind of hell. Of a way of life that is lost to all kinds of wemistikishiw slaughter and madness; of transition between one way of life and another, physical, cultural, spiritual.
Though I am not a masochist, both types of novels - the war novel, the Native Canadian novel - cause great pain and therefore they often feel cathartic, cleansing in some way. But more: like an atonement for my privileged whiteness and the luck of the draw time and place-wise.
This idea of privilege - and how it factors into reading choices - is an interesting one to me these days (as I look at my bookshelves stacked to the brim with female authors; goodreads having made me more acutely aware of gender aspects of writing and reading).
Boyden, with his sensitivity; his writing that contains such depth of raw emotion; his male-femaleness/female-maleness (as Woolf would say) - has pride of place next to Erdrich, Thomas King and Richard Wagamese; and novels like Marlantes' Matterhorn, Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five, Findley's The Wars and Wright's Meditations In Green.
Xavier and Elijah are Ojibwe-Cree from "the North Country" (which in this case means James Bay area) who sign up for WW I, and - because of their hunting prowess - make for excellent warriors. Niska - X's auntie - welcomes a deeply changed X home, and does what she can to help X cope with all he has seen, suffered and lost.
The novel is about killing and healing and incredible, profound, spirit-driven love. Of the boys for each other; of Niska for her would-be sons, and for X in particular. Love and bonds that are forged in one kind of trauma and tested in another kind of hell. Of a way of life that is lost to all kinds of wemistikishiw slaughter and madness; of transition between one way of life and another, physical, cultural, spiritual.
Though I am not a masochist, both types of novels - the war novel, the Native Canadian novel - cause great pain and therefore they often feel cathartic, cleansing in some way. But more: like an atonement for my privileged whiteness and the luck of the draw time and place-wise.
This idea of privilege - and how it factors into reading choices - is an interesting one to me these days (as I look at my bookshelves stacked to the brim with female authors; goodreads having made me more acutely aware of gender aspects of writing and reading).
Boyden, with his sensitivity; his writing that contains such depth of raw emotion; his male-femaleness/female-maleness (as Woolf would say) - has pride of place next to Erdrich, Thomas King and Richard Wagamese; and novels like Marlantes' Matterhorn, Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five, Findley's The Wars and Wright's Meditations In Green.
May 17, 2016
This is a phenomenal and haunting book. Loved the story despite most of it being set in the WWI. Maybe because it not the traditional stories told of WWI. The characters are deep and complex. So powerfully written that it makes you stop and wonder what hell is going on with society. It's like a stab to the heart. It will make you very uncomfortable.
The story follows Xavier Bird, a young First Nations Canadian, journey through leaving the bush, enlisting in and serving as a sniper in WWI, then through his the healing process of not only his body but his mind and spirit by returning to his home in the bush. It also of his aunt, Niska, who as been able to evade the assimilation into residential schools and the destruction of her traditional knowledge and spared the young Xavier Bird from the same.
It's very Canadiana. Joseph Boyden has an amazing ability of being able to share stories of Native First Nation Canadians experiences in a honest and true form. The school children of North America, and particularly of Canada, should be reading this in their English classes.
The story follows Xavier Bird, a young First Nations Canadian, journey through leaving the bush, enlisting in and serving as a sniper in WWI, then through his the healing process of not only his body but his mind and spirit by returning to his home in the bush. It also of his aunt, Niska, who as been able to evade the assimilation into residential schools and the destruction of her traditional knowledge and spared the young Xavier Bird from the same.
It's very Canadiana. Joseph Boyden has an amazing ability of being able to share stories of Native First Nation Canadians experiences in a honest and true form. The school children of North America, and particularly of Canada, should be reading this in their English classes.
March 28, 2019
Word is that the French lost 150,000 men in the fighting here, and the British 60,000. Those numbers are impossible to keep secret. They are impossible for me to understand. I ask Elijah. “How many does that mean?”
He smiles. “A very difficult question to answer,” he says.
I can see that he has the medicine in him. His lips curl at the edges in a slight smile and his eyes shine. When he is taking the morphine he forgets all about his British accent.
“Think of all the trees we passed canoeing to the town. Think of how many trees the fire ate. That many, maybe.”
Three Day Road is the sixty-eighth book in my project to read the best books about the WW1 era. This book was written by Joseph Boyden and published in 2005 and is most notable for its portrayal of Canada’s First Peoples who fought in the Great War. The book is also notable for its realistic portrayal of snipers and the human costs of morphine addiction. A powerful read with trench warfare realism and flashbacks to keep the story rolling along.
This is essentially a tale of a Cree boy, Xavier, from the far reaches of northern Ontario and his boyhood friend Elijah. They become a sniper team on the Western Front fighting for Canada. For more than a year on the front lines and through three major battles they kill more than a hundred Germans. As one might expect, their racist lieutenant rarely gives them credit.
Earlier in the story we learn that Elijah is bilingual and assigns Xavier his English name. Later Elijah interprets for Xavier in communicating with the officers and infantrymen. Elijah also saves an AWOL Xavier from being court-martialed by concocting a story that Xavier was away looking for food for the men when in fact he had given up on the war.
Throughout the book we see a steady decline in Elijah’s mental state as he continues killing Germans and taking excessive risks. He even jumps into German trenches, usually at night for surprise where he then brutalizes and often scalps them. Xavier has long since become tired of the killing and is clearly suffering from post traumatic stress disorder himself. He is often distraught by his friend’s behavior.
Interwoven in the drama around their experience as snipers is the story of Xavier’s Aunt Niska who lives alone. I would categorize her as a spiritual woman. She knows both boys intimately before they are sent off to the war. Niska has lived a hard life and she is both revered, by some, but ostracized by the others in her community near Moose Factory. She is the one who paddles Xavier home after the War in her canoe. At this point Xavier is badly damaged physically and also heavily addicted to morphine. It is not entirely clear if he will survive the three day ‘road’ or canoe trip back to the wilds of Moose Factory Ontario.
In the final scene back in France the two friends are taking heavy artillery fire while hunkered down in a crater in no-man’s land as they attempt to take out an opposing German machine gun nest. In the crater there is a tragic confrontation between the two men that helps to piece together the rest of the story.
The dialogue used by the author was consistent with modern books and there was occasional usage of Cree and Ojibwa terms and explanations for their meaning. I think some of the authenticity was lost but I acknowledge it is easier to follow the story by not hybridizing the vernacular.
4.5 stars. One of the better war stories that I’ve read with a unique perspective. One minor fault that I had with the story is that Xavier and Elijah appeared largely unsupervised as evidenced by their usual night time raids. I have read elsewhere that the Canadian Army was one of the strictest of any nation in the war and officers were known to mete out some harsh punishment for even minor transgressions.
He smiles. “A very difficult question to answer,” he says.
I can see that he has the medicine in him. His lips curl at the edges in a slight smile and his eyes shine. When he is taking the morphine he forgets all about his British accent.
“Think of all the trees we passed canoeing to the town. Think of how many trees the fire ate. That many, maybe.”
Three Day Road is the sixty-eighth book in my project to read the best books about the WW1 era. This book was written by Joseph Boyden and published in 2005 and is most notable for its portrayal of Canada’s First Peoples who fought in the Great War. The book is also notable for its realistic portrayal of snipers and the human costs of morphine addiction. A powerful read with trench warfare realism and flashbacks to keep the story rolling along.
This is essentially a tale of a Cree boy, Xavier, from the far reaches of northern Ontario and his boyhood friend Elijah. They become a sniper team on the Western Front fighting for Canada. For more than a year on the front lines and through three major battles they kill more than a hundred Germans. As one might expect, their racist lieutenant rarely gives them credit.
Earlier in the story we learn that Elijah is bilingual and assigns Xavier his English name. Later Elijah interprets for Xavier in communicating with the officers and infantrymen. Elijah also saves an AWOL Xavier from being court-martialed by concocting a story that Xavier was away looking for food for the men when in fact he had given up on the war.
Throughout the book we see a steady decline in Elijah’s mental state as he continues killing Germans and taking excessive risks. He even jumps into German trenches, usually at night for surprise where he then brutalizes and often scalps them. Xavier has long since become tired of the killing and is clearly suffering from post traumatic stress disorder himself. He is often distraught by his friend’s behavior.
Interwoven in the drama around their experience as snipers is the story of Xavier’s Aunt Niska who lives alone. I would categorize her as a spiritual woman. She knows both boys intimately before they are sent off to the war. Niska has lived a hard life and she is both revered, by some, but ostracized by the others in her community near Moose Factory. She is the one who paddles Xavier home after the War in her canoe. At this point Xavier is badly damaged physically and also heavily addicted to morphine. It is not entirely clear if he will survive the three day ‘road’ or canoe trip back to the wilds of Moose Factory Ontario.
In the final scene back in France the two friends are taking heavy artillery fire while hunkered down in a crater in no-man’s land as they attempt to take out an opposing German machine gun nest. In the crater there is a tragic confrontation between the two men that helps to piece together the rest of the story.
The dialogue used by the author was consistent with modern books and there was occasional usage of Cree and Ojibwa terms and explanations for their meaning. I think some of the authenticity was lost but I acknowledge it is easier to follow the story by not hybridizing the vernacular.
4.5 stars. One of the better war stories that I’ve read with a unique perspective. One minor fault that I had with the story is that Xavier and Elijah appeared largely unsupervised as evidenced by their usual night time raids. I have read elsewhere that the Canadian Army was one of the strictest of any nation in the war and officers were known to mete out some harsh punishment for even minor transgressions.
July 13, 2012
This book is loosely based on the famed Native Canadian WW1 sniper Francis Pegahmagabow. It is about WW1 trench warfare; it is about the role Native Canadians played in this warfare and it is about mystical Cree beliefs. I think this book goes a step deeper. It is about warfare in general and also about taking another person’s life outside of the war setting. I am left very troubled by the ending. I have more questions after reading this book than before. Am I a pacifist? Am I against all wars? This book puts you in the trenches and you see what it is really like there, well how it was fighting in France during WW1. You learn more than just about death and suffering and pain, but also grit and filth and morphine and human bonding. But the real question is: when does killing go over the edge? Isn’t a soldier supposed to kill as many as possible? When is it right? When does it all of a sudden become wrong? It is right here that this book upsets me. I am left with unresolved questions, and, more specifically, do I agree with what the author is suggesting?
Finally, the book is also very much about healing. How does one attain physical, emotional and spiritual healing after living through such war horrors? Here again I have problems with the book. The solutions proffered are too simplistic.
Remember, for me, a three star book is worth reading!
Finally, the book is also very much about healing. How does one attain physical, emotional and spiritual healing after living through such war horrors? Here again I have problems with the book. The solutions proffered are too simplistic.
Remember, for me, a three star book is worth reading!
May 21, 2022
Possible spoilers.
Native Americans, and The First World War.....strange to think that the these two subjects, each exhaustively written about in both Historical Fiction and non fiction, could come together in one book,
I hadn’t previously known that Native Americans had fought alongside our allies in this horrific conflict, but once more, Historical Fiction proved to be enlightening and informative, sending me off to read more about the role these men played in the Great War.
I found lots of further reading, and some photographs that made the story of Xavier and Elijah, Oji- Cree Indians who become snipers in the trenches, seem all the more real.
I’ve read a lot of books about WW1.....the subject draws me back again and again.
These books are always heavy, I think, but I feel they are important, in that it means the sacrifices made by so many in this dreadful war will not be forgotten.
Of the many books I’ve read on the subject, all of which have horrified me in slightly different ways, this one particularly affected me in the way it describes the roll of the sniper, making it seem as though it was in a way, a contest, a kind of sport.....this both shocked and disgusted me....enemy or not, these are fellow human beings that are the target of these sharpshooters.....all the slaughter that occurred in the trenches of The Great War was despicable, but this up close and personal shooting game seemed somehow the worst of all.
The horrors of trench warfare must surely have had a dehumanising effect on some men, as they were pushed to the very edge of endurance.....and beyond.
The two friends had hunted animals, and I feel that they.....one of them in particular....were applying these tactics, plus, treating it as a game of skill and stealth against the enemy, who had become nothing more than targets to them.
I’m going to be honest, and admit that there were several times when I thought I might not finish this book, not because I didn’t like the writing, and certainly not because I didn’t like the main characters, but because it was so difficult to be continually bombarded with such graphic, disturbing, and heart rending descriptions of the horrors of WWI.......but, there is another tale unfolding as the reader faces the horror of the trenches.....two men go to war, but only one comes back, deeply hurt in both body and soul, and he is met by perhaps the book’s best character, Niska, the last Oji-Cree woman to live off the tribes land, a deeply spiritual woman who has inherited the mystical gifts of her forefathers, and who must dig deep on the three day journey she undertakes to try and return Xavier to his home, his health and his sanity.....it’s this wonderful story that definitely kept me reading.
This book went to the very depths of what this conflict could do to a man, and explored some very dark themes.....and to be honest, my feeling is that there was a little more of this than was perhaps totally necessary.....that’s why my rating is four stars, rather than five.
I’m glad I read it, though, it was sometimes difficult to read, but eventually very much worth the emotional effort.
Perhaps the author did slightly overdo his repeated descriptions of the horrors, sometimes a little less can be more, and it’s sad to think that some readers have been put off from finishing this excellent book, but I agree with other members of our group that read this, that this author wanted to do this, it’s how he felt he needed to portray the terrible, desperate, unimaginable conditions these men faced, and the appalling things they found themselves doing.
I’m very glad that I read this book.....not one that’s easily forgotten.
Native Americans, and The First World War.....strange to think that the these two subjects, each exhaustively written about in both Historical Fiction and non fiction, could come together in one book,
I hadn’t previously known that Native Americans had fought alongside our allies in this horrific conflict, but once more, Historical Fiction proved to be enlightening and informative, sending me off to read more about the role these men played in the Great War.
I found lots of further reading, and some photographs that made the story of Xavier and Elijah, Oji- Cree Indians who become snipers in the trenches, seem all the more real.
I’ve read a lot of books about WW1.....the subject draws me back again and again.
These books are always heavy, I think, but I feel they are important, in that it means the sacrifices made by so many in this dreadful war will not be forgotten.
Of the many books I’ve read on the subject, all of which have horrified me in slightly different ways, this one particularly affected me in the way it describes the roll of the sniper, making it seem as though it was in a way, a contest, a kind of sport.....this both shocked and disgusted me....enemy or not, these are fellow human beings that are the target of these sharpshooters.....all the slaughter that occurred in the trenches of The Great War was despicable, but this up close and personal shooting game seemed somehow the worst of all.
The horrors of trench warfare must surely have had a dehumanising effect on some men, as they were pushed to the very edge of endurance.....and beyond.
The two friends had hunted animals, and I feel that they.....one of them in particular....were applying these tactics, plus, treating it as a game of skill and stealth against the enemy, who had become nothing more than targets to them.
I’m going to be honest, and admit that there were several times when I thought I might not finish this book, not because I didn’t like the writing, and certainly not because I didn’t like the main characters, but because it was so difficult to be continually bombarded with such graphic, disturbing, and heart rending descriptions of the horrors of WWI.......but, there is another tale unfolding as the reader faces the horror of the trenches.....two men go to war, but only one comes back, deeply hurt in both body and soul, and he is met by perhaps the book’s best character, Niska, the last Oji-Cree woman to live off the tribes land, a deeply spiritual woman who has inherited the mystical gifts of her forefathers, and who must dig deep on the three day journey she undertakes to try and return Xavier to his home, his health and his sanity.....it’s this wonderful story that definitely kept me reading.
This book went to the very depths of what this conflict could do to a man, and explored some very dark themes.....and to be honest, my feeling is that there was a little more of this than was perhaps totally necessary.....that’s why my rating is four stars, rather than five.
I’m glad I read it, though, it was sometimes difficult to read, but eventually very much worth the emotional effort.
Perhaps the author did slightly overdo his repeated descriptions of the horrors, sometimes a little less can be more, and it’s sad to think that some readers have been put off from finishing this excellent book, but I agree with other members of our group that read this, that this author wanted to do this, it’s how he felt he needed to portray the terrible, desperate, unimaginable conditions these men faced, and the appalling things they found themselves doing.
I’m very glad that I read this book.....not one that’s easily forgotten.
August 12, 2018
Haunting! Boyden is a true master of writing characters that get under your skin and bore deep into your heart. But here is the amazing thing-he does it in a quiet way. And before you know it you are mesmerized. There are many before me who have shared the plot . Therefore I just want to share my experience. Mr boyden painted vivid pictures that have stayed with me (some more graphic than I would have chosen)however it left me with a deeper compassion for the people who have returned from wars than any book I have read. I finished this book yesterday but, Over and over today this book has kidnapped my attention. And yes, I was haunted. I have thought what makes this book so special ? And after some time I can say that It was not just the action and conflict that was physically happening within the story,it was what was developing within the mind and souls of the characters within the pages that carries this book above so many before it. One of the marks of an artist is to leave your audience changed in some way... I was changed.
misc
July 24, 20257/23/25 edit: I won't be taking this review down, but I will minimize how much it's advertised.
7/16/17 edit: after Boyden's revelation of his extremely shaky claim to indigenous roots, take this review with a bag of salt.
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7/16/17 edit: after Boyden's revelation of his extremely shaky claim to indigenous roots, take this review with a bag of salt.
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July 20, 2009
I love this book. It is definitely in the pack of books I would carry with me from a burning building. I read it 2 years ago or so, and recently browsed through it again for a book club discussion. I feel surprised with myself that a book with so many graphic descriptions of battles and death does not however make me put it on the list of books never to reread. For all the sadness and destruction it describes, still it does not leave me downhearted. I guess I see the characters' struggles as an illustration of the strength of the human spirit, and specifically the strength of the aboriginal community. There are so many layers in this book - aboriginal integration - or not - and its sad consequences; friendship; war; madness - and each one is handled by the author with extreme skill. The language is beautiful, the characters well developed, the research into WWII remarkable. I look forward to reading more books by Boyden and cannot recommend this book enough.
January 8, 2017
"I'm gonna lay down my sword and shield
Down by the riverside
I ain't gonna study war no more"
Three Day Road is presented as the intertwined narratives of two Cree Indians: Xavier Bird (a soldier returning from the battlefields of WWI) and his aunt Niska (a fierce Medicine Woman). Dipping in and out between the past and the present as they paddle homeward in a canoe, their sad stories have a floating quality that matches the river environment and the healing properties of water.
Boyden's writing is strong and I probably would have rated this higher had I not read The Orenda first, but I think the subject matter is even more interesting in that later novel.
3.5 stars
March 27, 2018
آرامش و یکنواختی تپش رنگ های این شفق شبیه ضربان محکم قلب پدرم است. او در تمام طول زندگی در کنارم بوده و هرگز مرا رها نکرده است. سال ها طول کشیده تا این موضوع را بفهمم.
او در آسمان شب است.
* این حقیقت که تنها مشکلم با کتاب، علائم سجاوندیشه نشونه ی خوبیه ولی مشکل اعصاب خرد کنی بود :/
*واقعی و زنده بودن تصاویر تکون دهنده است. آدم گاهی خشکش میزنه توی توصیفات. ازون کتاباییه که توصیفاتش از صحنه های جنگ و غیره، کمک شایانی به ناخودآگاهت واسه کارگردانی شفاف ترین و واضح ترین کابوس هات میکنه. از این بهترم میشه؟ کابوسم میبینی اقلا با کیفیت باشه :)
درهم آمیختن زندگی و آیین سرخپوستی با جنگ و شباهت ها در عین تضادهای شدیدشفوق العاده است. من همیشه عاشق سرخپوست ها بودم
او در آسمان شب است.
* این حقیقت که تنها مشکلم با کتاب، علائم سجاوندیشه نشونه ی خوبیه ولی مشکل اعصاب خرد کنی بود :/
*واقعی و زنده بودن تصاویر تکون دهنده است. آدم گاهی خشکش میزنه توی توصیفات. ازون کتاباییه که توصیفاتش از صحنه های جنگ و غیره، کمک شایانی به ناخودآگاهت واسه کارگردانی شفاف ترین و واضح ترین کابوس هات میکنه. از این بهترم میشه؟ کابوسم میبینی اقلا با کیفیت باشه :)
درهم آمیختن زندگی و آیین سرخپوستی با جنگ و شباهت ها در عین تضادهای شدیدشفوق العاده است. من همیشه عاشق سرخپوست ها بودم
August 2, 2021
Oh gosh. Ok, this may not be a popular review but I feel I need to be honest about my experience with this book.
First of all, Boyden is without a doubt a very talented writer. That is not why there’s only one lonely star up there. I suppose this book turned out to be a good learning experience because, while a Google search told me that this book was by an Indigenous author, after not too much digging it became apparent that this may not be true. Question Google! So let’s start there. Boyden may have very close ties with Indigenous people, he may have been welcomed into a community as one of their own, and truthfully, I don’t even have a problem with him telling stories that may not be his to tell (this is often what writers do). I’m disappointed that he claimed the Indigenous spotlight, claimed Indigenous literary awards, claimed Indigenous financial rewards when they weren’t his to claim. Sometimes he was Cree, other times he was Ojibway or Anishinaabe. His stories didn’t add up, nor did he have the lived experience of an Indigenous person, quite clearly passing for European and lived as such. There are many Indigenous voices and stories, that in my opinion, deserved that space he took up. Have a look at some articles for yourself. Let me know what you think.
Now…the book itself. While very well written, it was also by far the most gruesome book I’ve ever read. Relentlessly, and unnecessarily brutal. He recounted similar bloody scenes over and over. He also sexualized the only main female character, Niska, having her recount her sexual experiences with a French trapper in detail to her semi-conscious nephew. Why was this necessary? He also, sadly, played into some pretty horrible stereotypes that have been pinned to Indigenous people over the years: savage behaviour and substance abuse. His main characters Xavier and Elijah both end up addicted to morphine, although Elijah’s is a more prevalent and intense relationship with the drug. Boyden also has Elijah begin scalping his German kills while at war in WWI. This also felt very unnecessary. Surely there was another way to illustrate Elijah possibly losing his grip. The book could have been 100 pages shorter in my opinion.
Three Day Road is not a book I would suggest you read in order to gain greater insight into the Indigenous experience. There are many other voices and stories that are far more deserving of your time.
Read Johnny Appleseed by Joshua Whitehead, or anything by Richard Wagamese. Read Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Kimmerer.
Short story long, this book, and it’s author, were a disappointment for me.
First of all, Boyden is without a doubt a very talented writer. That is not why there’s only one lonely star up there. I suppose this book turned out to be a good learning experience because, while a Google search told me that this book was by an Indigenous author, after not too much digging it became apparent that this may not be true. Question Google! So let’s start there. Boyden may have very close ties with Indigenous people, he may have been welcomed into a community as one of their own, and truthfully, I don’t even have a problem with him telling stories that may not be his to tell (this is often what writers do). I’m disappointed that he claimed the Indigenous spotlight, claimed Indigenous literary awards, claimed Indigenous financial rewards when they weren’t his to claim. Sometimes he was Cree, other times he was Ojibway or Anishinaabe. His stories didn’t add up, nor did he have the lived experience of an Indigenous person, quite clearly passing for European and lived as such. There are many Indigenous voices and stories, that in my opinion, deserved that space he took up. Have a look at some articles for yourself. Let me know what you think.
Now…the book itself. While very well written, it was also by far the most gruesome book I’ve ever read. Relentlessly, and unnecessarily brutal. He recounted similar bloody scenes over and over. He also sexualized the only main female character, Niska, having her recount her sexual experiences with a French trapper in detail to her semi-conscious nephew. Why was this necessary? He also, sadly, played into some pretty horrible stereotypes that have been pinned to Indigenous people over the years: savage behaviour and substance abuse. His main characters Xavier and Elijah both end up addicted to morphine, although Elijah’s is a more prevalent and intense relationship with the drug. Boyden also has Elijah begin scalping his German kills while at war in WWI. This also felt very unnecessary. Surely there was another way to illustrate Elijah possibly losing his grip. The book could have been 100 pages shorter in my opinion.
Three Day Road is not a book I would suggest you read in order to gain greater insight into the Indigenous experience. There are many other voices and stories that are far more deserving of your time.
Read Johnny Appleseed by Joshua Whitehead, or anything by Richard Wagamese. Read Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Kimmerer.
Short story long, this book, and it’s author, were a disappointment for me.
November 25, 2019
Thoughts soon.
December 3, 2021
if you like this review, i now have website: www.michaelkamakana.com
030811: powerful story weaving together the madness of civilization destroying itself by war, and the end of a way of life, beautifully told by interwoven narratives. it is difficult to imagine any vision of war worse than the slaughter of the great war. it is also an elegy for a way of living that does not ignore its perils, a way of so many generations, disrupted by modernity, by madness, by racism- and there is no escape for the two cree boys who become snipers in the trenches and one goes mad, the other lives to tell the tale...
030811: powerful story weaving together the madness of civilization destroying itself by war, and the end of a way of life, beautifully told by interwoven narratives. it is difficult to imagine any vision of war worse than the slaughter of the great war. it is also an elegy for a way of living that does not ignore its perils, a way of so many generations, disrupted by modernity, by madness, by racism- and there is no escape for the two cree boys who become snipers in the trenches and one goes mad, the other lives to tell the tale...
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