Les Etoiles s'éteignent à l'aube

by Richard Wagamese, Christine Raguet (Translator)

Franklin Starlight a tout juste seize ans lorsqu’Eldon, son père ravagé par l’alcool, le convoque à son chevet et lui demande de l’emmener au cœur de la montagne, là où, traditionnellement, on enterre les guerriers.
Au cours de leur voyage, le fils affronte un jeune grizzly, ramène poisson ou gibier et construit des abris contre la pluie, tandis qu’Eldon lui raconte comment il a rencontré l’amour de sa vie, pourquoi il a sombré dans l’alcool et d’où vient leur patronyme qui évoque les temps indiens immémoriaux. Pendant ce périple, père et fils répondent, chacun à sa manière, à leur besoin d’apaisement identitaire.

Ce roman au style brut et aux dialogues taiseux est un allé simple pour les terres sauvages du centre du Canada.

Richard Wagamese appartient à la nation ojibwé. Il est le premier lauréat indigène d’un prix de journalisme national canadien et est régulièrement récompensé pour ses travaux. Il vit actuellement à Kamloops, en Colombie britannique. Les Étoiles s’éteignent le matin est son premier roman traduit en français.

Genres: Fiction, Indigenous, Canada, Book Club, Historical Fiction, Native American, Literary Fiction

277 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 4, 2014

About the author

Richard Wagamese was one of Canada's foremost Native authors and storytellers. He worked as a professional writer since 1979. He was a newspaper columnist and reporter, radio and television broadcaster and producer, documentary producer and the author of twelve titles from major Canadian publishers.

Reviews

[Susan's Reviews · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a beautiful, heart-wrenching story! I was awestruck - I absolutely loved this book.



This novel is about resilience as much as it is about finding forgiveness in your heart for the wrongs done to you, as well as the wrongs you have done to others.

Eldon Starlight personified the harsh brutality of addiction, loss of heritage and self-worth that Richard Wagamese himself had experienced in his own life. (Eldon's harrowing life-journey was, in part, based on Wagamese's own troubled youth.)



Franklin Starlight is, to me, the symbol of Wagamese's hopes and dreams for the younger generation of North America's Indigenous people. Young Franklin is being raised by the "Old Man" - who is not a Native Indian. Franklin worked long, hard hours alongside the Old Man, living simply and honourably, respecting and sharing the bounty of Nature. The love and respect the Old Man and young Franklin had for one another had a huge influence on young Franklin's life.



Wagamese's lyrical writing style draws you right into the wilderness as you make the fateful journey with father and son through remote B.C. back country. I read this during the summer several years ago, and at one point I had to wrap a throw around myself when Wagamese described a snowy winter scene - his writing is that vivid.



As the story progresses, you realize that young Franklin possesses a personal strength and wisdom beyond his years - all of which he owes to the "Old Man." Franklin's disreputable, thoroughly unreliable birth father, Eldon, keeps reappearing throughout his life - a stark contrast to the upright and honourable "Old Man." Franklin was raised to find self-worth through hard work and self-sufficiency, and to disregard the prejudices and ignorance of those in his rural community.



Both Franklin and Eldon are missing vital connections to their Indigenous origins. Eldon finally finds the courage, now that he is dying, to tell young Franklin about the soul-destroying events that led to Eldon's life-long escape into alcoholism. The scene where Franklin and Eldon discuss courage - or the lack of it - in one's life, and how one comes to terms with this, is very revealing about the characters of father and son. That heart shattering ending still haunts me. It was so very sad, but left you feeling so proud of young Franklin. Franklin was truly heroic, in every sense of the word.



Finding the courage to face our inner demons and learning to forgive ourselves, and then seeking the forgiveness of those we have wronged - Eldon Franklin was proof that this is not always easy for those who are lost and spiritually alone. Medicine Walk was an incredibly engrossing, beautiful novel. I was so grateful that Richard Wagamese shared, through this story, his feelings of loss of identity, social alienation, and his struggles to overcome drug and alcohol addiction.



I have often wondered if major literary prizes were withheld from him because of Wagamese's very troubled past. This would be a huge miscarriage of justice, considering that he overcame his alcohol and substance abuse problems, changed his life, embraced and celebrated his Indigenous culture and wrote several award-winning books.

See this and many other reviews on my partnered blog: https://crossingthepond.reviews/

[Christine · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one that will stick with me for a long time. Eldon Starlight, a Canadian Ogibwe Indian, is a broken man. He has suffered a number of devastating experiences that will haunt him for life. He has a son, Franklin, a very mature 16-year-old to whom he has not been a father. Eldon is dying; his liver is destroyed from too much alcohol. There are things he has not been able to tell Franklin. It has come to the point where it is now or never. He asks Franklin to take him to particular spot in the backwoods of British Columbia and to bury him as a warrior would be buried. Franklin feels he owes this man nothing, but he can’t say no, and he agrees to do this one thing for his father.

Medicine Walk is a record of that journey to the grave. It’s a fascinating journey as we, along with Franklin, learn about Eldon’s life. Eldon is a storyteller, even in the face of death, and we get a picture-clear view of why he carries so much baggage in his soul. Despite his bitter disappointment in his father, Franklin cannot help but be moved by what he hears. Afterall, he wants to know the history of his life. He NEEDS to know where he came from and why his father has disappointed him so badly. Frank has been raised by “the old man.” “The old man” has raised him well.

This book is a quick read and is entirely character driven. The number of characters is very small, but I was fascinated by each and every one of them. The themes are good ones and include deep love, terrible PTSD, guilt, betrayal, self-destruction, the strength of survival, the need for forgiveness that can be as strong as the need to breathe, the hunger for a sense of self and of belonging.


I came out of this tale all wrung out, but in a good way. It made me feel something profound and if you can find that in a book, consider yourself very fortunate indeed. There is a sequel, an unfinished sequel, called Starlight centering around Franklin years later. Tragically the author died in his sleep at 61 years old as he was close to finishing Starlight. The book is hard to find, and I am paying a lot for a paperback copy, but it’s not one I intend to miss.

Interestingly, Mr. Wagamese wrote this book semi-autobiographically--Eldon’s story is based on Mr. Wagamese’s own life. See Esil’s review for a link to the author’s obituary; it is very moving.

I recommend Medicine Walk to everyone interested in a fast but memorable read that may just touch your soul.

[Angela M · Rating 5 out of 5]

“It’s all we are in the end. Our stories .”

The prose is beautiful, descriptive but not overly, powerful enough to want to read passages over again. It’s not an easy read, though. So many sad moments, but not enough joyful ones to temper the heartbreak. This is a story of a journey of young man and his alcoholic father he has seen only a few times in his life, who has brought him nothing but disappointment. It’s a journey in the last days of the father’s life when he asks his son to take him to the place of his past to be buried. I wondered what right he had to put this burden on this young man. You might think it’s a journey to manhood for sixteen year old Franklin Starlight, but to me, he was already a man, raised by “the old man” who protected him, taught him to survive, to know something of his Ojibway heritage and cared for him like son. Wise beyond his years, skilled at survival, angry at his father, at a loss for any knowledge of who his mother was, why his father left him with the old man and why the old man took him in. Yet, man enough with a generous spirit of responsibility to his father.

This is not just a story of the journey, but a story filled with stories. On their journey to his resting place, Eldon Starlight tells Franklin about the storytellers in his life, the ones that Franklin has not and will never meet. Eldon is himself a story teller of his childhood, his past . I have to admit that I felt nothing less than animosity towards Eldon for the hurt he caused to Franklin over the years until he tells his story. But the stories that Eldon tells of his life were also heartbreaking and there was love in them. Franklin is moved by them as is the reader. I can’t think of another way to describe this novel, other than to say it’s an achingly beautiful story. I’m sorry that it took me so long to read this, but thankful to my Goodreads friend Phyllis for reminding me that this was a book I needed to read . I definitely will read more by Wagamese, an amazing story teller.

[Elyse Walters · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is my second book by Richard Wagamese, from Wabaseemoong Independent Nations....
He was an incredible Ojibway author, who passed away in 2017, lived in Kamloop, British Columbia, Canada...and I’m just now heartbroken for his loss. I’m sorry I didn’t read him years ago.
He was not only an incredible storyteller .....but a master-teacher .....of social justice, human consciousness and interconnectedness.

Emotionally....”Medicine Walk”....deeply affected me.
Even without having read reviews ( that I remembered), and skipping the blurb....
it only took a few minutes into this story to know it’s ending.
Frank Starlight was estranged from his father, and his father, Eldon was dying.

Estrangement stories are particularly a sore spot with me — as I live with estrangement grief. It’s a tough subject to swallow.
However...the heart of “Medicine Man”....lies in the journey and storytelling between father and son.
It’s powerful! It’s moving!
Relationships, reconciliation, hope, heartbreak....are looked at carefully.

Frank —an Ojibway Indian —( often referred to as ‘The Kid’), was raised by a white man, a surrogate known as ‘The Old,Man’.
Robbed from his core heritage....”The Old Man” did as much as he could to infuse Frank with the spiritual and traditional Ojibway ways.... from harvesting picking berries, hunting, and making medicines,and also traditional wisdom:
“In the Ojibway world you go inward in order to express outward”.

Frank was raised with a great balance between protection and freedom.
He also grew up with a great appreciation for the Canadian wilderness.

So....when Eldon - the aging sick alcoholic father - summoned sixteen year old Frank to take him deep into the backcountry....to bury him in the Ojibway tradition.....he reluctantly agreed.

The journey begins: father, son, one horse, lots of walking and talkin.
Out on the road.....
Eldon knew the backcountry well and where the stream was so that they could catch some trout to eat.
Frank spared the trout easily with the knife he’d lashed to a stout sapling with his boot laces.
“Frank gutted and cleaned them and used a hank of willow threaded through their gills to carry them back up the ridge.
His father had sunk the effect of the medicine. The kid set the fish on sticks leaned over the fire to cook. Then he walked and stooped through the trees to scout mushrooms. When everything was cooked he polished off the trout and most of the mushrooms. His father would never eat. The shakes were on him hard and sweat poured down his face. Even when his shakes stopped he quivered and his breath was raspy in his throat. The kid could see eyeballs rolling crazily under their lids”.

“Medicine Walk”, is under 300 pages....it reads easily with seamless gorgeous native wit storytelling.
The dialogue is very enjoyable, the energy is ‘alive’, the surroundings of the countryside, are all magnificent....

The depth of Frank’s feelings towards his father were not sugarcoated, giving the reader an opportunity to reflect his situation....his pain....his growth...his understandings...along with a few of our own.

“It’s a spiritual biography that transcends time and place, history and heritage to speak to all with hearts to hear”
—Guelph Mercury

ABSOLUTELY WONDERFUL!!!!

[Esil · Rating 4 out of 5]

Medicine Walk was hard to get into, but once immersed it was well worth the read. The story focused on the relationship between three men. Sixteen year old Frank lives with the “old man”. He doesn’t know his mother, and only knows that his father is an unreliable alcoholic he has seen a few times in his life. The book begins when Frank’s father calls on his son to help him get to the place he wants to be to die. Along the way, Frank learns about his father’s past and his own past.

Medicine Walk is stark, raw, slow and emotional. It engages deeply with the pain and history of Canada’s indigenous people. As I say, it took me a while to get into the story, but by the end I had tears streaming down my face. Unfortunately and sadly, the story is based on author Wagamese’s own life. Wagamese is not the model for Frank but for the father. He died last year, apparently still estranged from his own sons.

I read Medicine Walk for a book club. At our meeting, one of the members of the group read this obituary published in the Globe and Mail out loud:

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/...

There were no dry eyes by the time she finished.

[Diane S ☔ · Rating 5 out of 5]

In this heartbreaking story about redemption, forgiveness and past regrets, Wagamese writes a magnificent story. His descriptions of the lives of Franklin, his father and the old man are poignant, at times heartbreaking but show a deep and abiding love that though not always shown, was always there. There are very few characters in this story but the characters that are there are more than enough to fill these pages.

He uses words in a way that few can, his portrayal of the woods, and the trip Franklin undertakes in a last effort, out of duty to a father who was mostly absent, I found beyond compare. My feelings at the end of this book were certainly melancholy but also glad that Franklin had someone who loved him throughout his life. Though this is the first book I have read by this author, it certainly will not be my last.

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've started and stopped writing this review 3 times and have been unable to find the words, so I'll keep it simple. Wagamese has given me a story that is warm, intimate, raw and completely satisfying while simultaneously breaking my heart.

Don't miss this one.

Publication 2014

[Maxwell · Rating 5 out of 5]

WOW. Okay, I was not expecting to love this so much and for it to be added to my favorites shelf. But I'm so happy to say this was one of my favorite 'new-to-me' books I've read in ages! It was my first time reading Wagamese and will absolutely not be my last; in fact, I now plan to read everything he's ever written after this.

The story follows Franklin Starlight, a 16 year old Ojibwe and Cree boy who lives with an older white man in a rural farm in British Columbia. As the novel begins, Frank is on his way to a small milltown to visit his dying, alcoholic father. From there, they set out on a journey that will force them both to face the past and share things they've never said before.

I am a sucker for a father/son story and a western. So this really brought everything together into one of the best books I've read in a long time. The characters felt so real to me. Frank's sadness was palpable, and while Eldon, his father, is a flawed person who makes many bad decisions, there's a sort of grace in Wagamese's writing for this man. Throughout the novel there is a quiet beauty, something almost tangible in the feelings of these characters that jumped off the page.

The descriptions of the natural surroundings, from the creeks and rivers to the spruces and pines, deer, elk and bears, and the manual labor the characters perform—it's all so gorgeously written. It's not flowery or overwritten, however. The novel is not even 250 pages but Wagamese takes us on a full journey across time and into the deepest, most secret parts of these characters' lives. His economy of language is astounding, like a poet or journalist who doesn't beat around the bush but gets right to the heart of the matter.

I tried to savor this book because it wasn't long and I knew I'd be sad when it was over. That's the best feeling when you read a book, and though it's done now, I know I'll revisit it again in the future and have many more of Wagamese's books to look forward to! Obviously, I can't recommend this one highly enough.

[Margitte · Rating 4 out of 5]

A sixteen-year-old young man, wise before his time, accompanies his estranged father on his last journey to the grave. They travel physically, mentally and emotionally through the landscape of the Canadian mountains in the 1950s. His father, Eldon Starlight, request to be buried as an Indian warrior, while Frank, his young son, is not convinced of his father's warrior status. As their journey continues, a tale of heartbreak, bitterness, endurance and love enfolds, while a picturesque world opens up for them.

I loved this beautifully written book. Most of all, I enjoyed the gentle souls of honorable men who handled the hands dealt to them the best way they could and made the best of everything.

Recommended.

[Wendy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have just added Richard Wagamese to my list of favorite authors.
His descriptiveness and the way he tells a story is like he is creating a painting. He is brutally honest and tender and had me choking back the tears more than once.
Franklin's journey was heartbreaking yet inspiring. The selflessness of love was deeply moving!
Thank you goes out to my dear friend Sandy who introduced me to this author.
A Beautiful Read!

[PattyMacDotComma · Rating 5 out of 5]

5★
“ ‘He’s gonna be sick. You know that, don’tcha?’ The old man fixed him with a stern look and pressed the billfold back into the bib of his overalls.

‘I seen him sick before.’

‘Not like this.’

‘I can deal with it.’

‘Gonna have to. Don’t expect it to be pretty.’

‘“Never is. Still, he’s my dad.’

The old man shook his head and bent to retrieve the bucket and when he stood again he looked the kid square. ‘Call him what you like. Just be careful. He lies when he’s sick.’

‘Lies when he ain’t.’ ”

The kid has lived with the old man, known as Bunky, all his life. He has met his father only a handful of times and always been disappointed. His dad is a drunk, and the old man has hated seeing the kid get his hopes up over the years only to have them flattened when the dad doesn’t even remember he’s coming.

Wagamese describes young Franklin Starlight.

“He was big for his age, raw-boned and angular, and he had a serious look that seemed culled from sullenness, and he was quiet, so that some called him moody, pensive, and deep. He was none of those. Instead, he’d grown comfortable with aloneness and he bore an economy with words that was blunt, direct, more a man’s talk than a kid’s. So that people found his silence odd and they avoided him, the obdurate Indian look of him unnerving even for a sixteen-year-old. The old man had taught him the value of work early and he was content to labour, finding his satisfaction in farm work and his joy in horses and the untrammelled open of the high country. He’d left school as soon as he was legal.”

Now he has been summoned to his father’s bedside, such as it is, because Eldon has things he needs to say, to share, to explain, but not here. Not in the hovel he’s living in and not in front of the woman who is currently in his bed.

“His father’s face was slack, the skin hanging off the bones like a loose tent, and there were lines and creases deep with shadow.
. . .
the hand large with long, splayed fingers that told of the size he once owned, gone now to a desiccated boniness.
. . .
His father slid out of bed and the kid could see the gauntness of him, his buttocks like small lumps of dough and the rest of him all juts and pokes and seams of bone under sallow skin.”

Eldon asks his son to take him cross-country, through the mountains to the place he wants to be buried, warrior-style, sitting up, facing East. In spite of the kid’s resistance, he claims he was a warrior once and promises to tell the kid more about their background along the way.

Franklin feels obliged, somehow, and the hard trek begins, with Eldon often tied onto the only horse as the kid walks with the pack and does everything that needs doing to camp, hunt, fish, cook, and care for the dying man.

As they travel and Eldon is reminded of his past, his stories emerge. The narrative outside of his storytelling reveals more of their origins and how the men crossed paths. Eldon’s childhood was horrific but his young adult life was something like the kid’s - hard work and little money.

Eldon and his best pal, Jimmy, worked in the logging camps and rode the logs down the river, dancing atop them and fooling around like the kids they were.

The wars – WWII and Korea – affected lives in ways that left men shell-shocked with little or no understanding or help. In Eldon’s case, he had more than a war or two to deal with.

On the trek, his father tells Franklin something about what he was taught.

“ ‘Our people just followed the work but most places wouldn’t hire a skin or a breed. Not regular, least ways. Get a day here, a day there sometimes, but there was never nothing fixed. So I scavenged wood. It’s all I learned to hunt when I was kid.’

His father shook a smoke out of the pack and lit up and smoked a moment. ‘Your grandparents were both halfbreeds. We weren’t Metis like the French Indians are called. We were just half-breeds. Ojibway. Mixed with Scot. Mcjibs. That’s what they called us. No one wanted us around.’ ”

When the kid shows that he has a lot of skills, his father asks if the old man taught him. Yes, says Franklin. Everything Franklin knows, which is considerable, is from the old man.

“‘At first he brung me out all the time when I was small. Showed me plants and how to gather them. Everything a guy would need is here if you want it and know how to look for it, he said. You gotta spend time gatherin’ what you need. What you need to keep you strong. He called it a medicine walk.’ ”

His dad understands, but he was not taught these things.

“ ‘All’s I’m tryin’ to say is that we never had the time for learnin’ about how to get by out here. None of us did. White man things was what we needed to learn if we was gonna eat regular. Indian stuff just kinda got left behind on accounta we were busy gettin’ by in that world.’ ”

It’s a long time before Eldon can get the courage to unburden himself of guilt and reveal the real story of who their people are and why the kid has grown up with the old man.

This is harsh and unforgiving but tender and poignant. There are no right answers. Just because something is understandable doesn’t make it acceptable.

This takes place in the Canadian wilderness of British Columbia, but the essence of this story of heritage lost and somewhat reclaimed is echoed in First Nations around the world. I hope more can be saved.

Ojibway author Wagamese died in 2017, too young, but he left a good body of work for me to catch up on.

I listened to some - the audio by Tom Stechschulte is excellent. It is a haunting story.

[Lisa (NY) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Medicine Walk moves slowly, and amazingly, reading this novel slowed me down. Wagamese writes beautifully about Franklin's quest to learn about his history - and the connection he and his troubled father finally forge. Thankful for the experience.

[Barbara · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am fascinated by the Native American culture and have a partial understanding of the culture due to the fact that I was raised a half a mile from a huge Sioux Reservation. I found Richard Wagamese’s style of writing spot on with regard to the cadence of their dialect. Given that Wagamese is of the Ojibway tribe, it’s understandable that he is familiar and has command of their dialogue. What gives this novel it’s strength, is his prose. The man is remarkable in his ability to sparsely use language, and be poetic and profound at the same time. “He leaned when he walked, canted at a hard angle to the right as though gravity worked with different properties on him, his feet slapping down like wet fish on a plank.”

This is a story of sixteen year old boy who has been raised by “the old man”, has a known dysfunctional and alcoholic father, and has always questioned his identity. The story begins when he is called for assistance by his emotionally abusive father to help his father die with dignity of the warrior way. The boy, named Frank, is conflicted due to his history with his father, but feels it’s his duty to help his father. The two begin a journey, called “the medicine walk” so the father can die as a warrior.

Along the way, Frank learns of his father’s past. Alcoholism is rampant in many Native American communities. Wagamese pulls no punches and exhibits not only the commonality of this problem, but also the devastation it leaves. Poor Frank! At some points in this novel, I was just sick about Frank’s experiences with his father (which are not unusual in these communities). This is brutally realistic fiction. On the other side, Wagamese shows the nobility of the culture. Frank, is wise beyond his years and possess the warrior nobility, despite his father. Through Frank, Wagamese displays the virtues of the culture. Through Eldon, the father, Wagamese reveals the tragic side.

Wagamese is touted as “one of leading indigenous writers in North America”. He deserves the press.

[luce (cry bebè's back from hiatus) · Rating 4 out of 5]

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“In the Ojibway world you go inward in order to express outward. That journey can be harrowing sometimes but it can also be the source of much joy, freedom, and light.”

It is difficult to describe Medicine Walk as a work of fiction as this novel reads like reality. In a gracefully incisive prose Richard Wagamese tells a moving father/son tale. By turns brutally honest and deeply empathetic, Wagamese's narrative explores the many undercurrents of this complex father/son dynamic. He renders with clarity Franklin Starlight's tangled feelings—sorrow, rancour, pity—towards his estranged and alcoholic father.

“He wondered how he would look years on and what effect this history would have on him. He’d expected that it might have filled him but all he felt was emptiness and a fear that there would be nothing that could fill that void.”

Set in Canada during the 1960s Medicine Walk follows sixteen year old Franklin, referred throughout the majority of the novel as 'the kid', who lives on a farm with his guardian, 'the old man'. When his father reaches out to him, Franklin finds himself unable to refuse him. Years of drinking have finally taken their toll on Eldon. Knowing his death is imminent, Eldon asks his son to travel alongside him to the mountains, so that he can be buried in the Ojibway warrior way, facing east. Franklin reluctantly embarks on this journey, and as the two make their way into the mountains, old wounds are reopened. He has few memories of his father, and in most of them Eldon appears as a chaotic and disruptive individual, hell-bent on self-destruction and far more interested in staying drunk than acting like Franklin's father. It is 'the old man' who takes on a father role for Franklin. Still, Franklin has clearly suffered, and his relationship with Eldon is strained. It is perhaps his approaching death that makes Eldon finally open up to Franklin.

“His life was built of the stories of vague ghosts. He wanted desperately to see them fleshed out and vital. History, he supposed, lacked that power. ”

As his body begins to shut down, Eldon finds himself recounting his life to Franklin: his childhood, marked by poverty and loss, fighting alongside his best friend in the Korean War, what led to him to a path of spiralling alcoholism and self-hatred, before finally turning to his relationship with Franklin's mother. Eldon's troubled past brings about questions of cowardice and bravery, of loneliness and connection.

“The certainty of failure, the landscape of his secrets, became the terror that kept him awake.”

Wagamese's story hit close to home as Franklin's confusing emotions towards his father are depicted with incredible realism. Is it fair for Eldon to seek forgiveness when he's about die? Should Franklin condone him in light of Eldon's traumatic past? Wagamese doesn't offer us simplified answers, letting his characters talk it out (with each other and themselves).

“The light weakened. He could feel the thrust of evening working its way through the cut of the valley and he watched the shapes of things alter. The sun sat blood red near the lip of the world and in that rose and canted light he sat there filled with wonder and a welling sorrow. He wiped his face with the palm of his hand and he stared down across the valley. Soon the light had nudged down deeper into shadow and it was like he existed in a dream world, hung there above that peaceful space where the wind ruled, and he could feel it push against him.”

In many ways Medicine Walk feels less like a novel that a long conversation: between a dying man and his child, between a man and his past, and between people and nature. Wagamese compassionate portrayal of addiction and shame, as well as his affecting examination of grief, family, history, forgiveness, and freedom, make Medicine Walk a book of rare beauty.

“He sat on the fence rail and rolled another smoke, looking at the spot where the coyotes had disappeared. The spirit of them still clung to the gap in the trees. But the kid could feel them in the splayed moonlight and for a time he wondered about journeys, about endings, about things left behind, questions that lurk forever in the dark of attic rooms, unspoken, unanswered, and when the smoke was done he crushed it out on the rail and cupped it in his palm while he walked back to the barn in the first pale, weak light of dawn.”

[Kathleen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful writing! Eldon Skylight has lived a sad life and his alcoholic liver is on the verge of killing him. So, he sends for his son, Franklin, to take him into the mountains so that when he dies, Franklin can bury him in the ‘warrior way’. Franklin has been raised by Bunky, ‘the old man’, and is a master woodsman. He accepts this last request from a man he hardly knows as his duty and an opportunity to learn about his parents.

The two men set off. Franklin leads the way, while Eldon rides Franklin’s horse. Wagamese’s lyrical atmospheric writing brings the wilderness alive as the two climb ever higher. It is a ‘medicine walk’ for both. Eldon finally tells the story of his life to his sixteen-year-old son, something he has avoided for most of his life. Franklin learns about his mother, and what happened to her. Both men receive the spiritual healing they need.

Highly recommend.

[Margorito · Rating 5 out of 5]

J’ai lu jusque 3h du matin et un peu pleuré. Bouleversant et splendide, j’ai pas les mot

[Cheri · Rating 5 out of 5]

Franklin is the 16 year-old son of Eldon Starlight, although as this story begins, he was raised by another man, ’the old man.’ A man who knew his mother before Eldon Starlight stepped into the picture. Eldon leaving him with ’the old man’ after Franklin was born, and his mother gone, after dying in childbirth.

Franklin seems older than his years, he isn’t happy or unhappy, he just accepts what life has handed him calmly, and finds solace in nature, fishing for trout with the old man, and wandering through the forests where no one has expectations for him. He was a quiet boy, and kept to himself mostly, preferring to be alone. He found solace and gratification in working the land, a joy in horses, and in the ’untrammelled open of the high country’ preferring to listen to the ’symphonies in wind across a ridge and arias in the screech of hawks and eagles, the huff of grizzlies and the pierce of a wolf call against the unblinking eye of the moon.’

’Alone. He’d never known lonely.

’It sat in him undefined and unnecessary like algebra; land and moon and water summing up the only equation that lent scope to his world, and he rode through it fleshed out and comfortable with the feel of the land around him like the refrain of an old hymn. It was what he knew. It was what he needed.

Pretty much everything Franklin learns in his young life he has learned from the old man. He taught him how to track an animal, how to learn their patterns, the way they think, what they like. How to move through the woods without making a sound, and with that he learned patience, caution, and a shrewdness that served him well.

’He learned to wrap himself in shadow, how to stoop and crawl between rocks and logs, how to hide himself in plain sight. He learned to stand or sit or lay in one position for hours. He could slow his breathing so that even in the chill air of winter the exhalations could be barely seen. He learned how to go inward, how to become whole in his stillness and forget the very nature of time.’

His father, Eldon, makes an unexpected request of him, knowing he is dying, he wants to take a journey with Franklin, one last journey to be buried in the tradition of a warrior. Not really knowing his biological father, Franklin agrees to join him, if somewhat reluctantly. What little he does know of him, that he prefers liquor to the land, leads him to believe this journey will be difficult, at best. A forty mile journey with a dying man is a long journey, which will offer Eldon a chance to share his story with his son, share the stories that made him the way he is. He isn’t looking so much for forgiveness, but he shares his stories with his son much like a dying man shares his confessions to a priest, to purge himself of his sins and show contrition.

A story of both tragedy and love, the stories we share and the stories we hide even from ourselves. Despite the sadness, I loved the way this story evolved, leaving me with hope.


Many thanks to my friend Angela, and her review which led the way to this beautifully shared story, please check out her review:
Angela’s review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Many thanks to the Public Library system, and the many Librarians that manage, organize and keep it running, for the loan of this book!

[Paltia · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was, for me, a deeply personal read. What is a medicine walk? “Everything a guy would need is here if you want it and know how to look for it, he said. You gotta spend time gatherin’ what you need. What you need to keep you strong. He called it a medicine walk.” He goes on to say that there are many times in our lives that you don’t even realize what you need until you lay your eyes upon it. This is at the core of the story and an often returned to lesson. A long estranged father asks his 16 year old son to go with him to a long remembered place of peace to die and be buried like a warrior. Despite their traumatic history the son agrees. He walks, the father desperately sick, does his best to stay astride the horse as their medicine walk takes form. As they make their way the father finds his voice and tells his stories that his son has waited his 16 years to hear. He learns of his mother, a Cree woman who could hold his attention by telling stories of days gone by or places that perhaps never were. She can bring tears to his eyes telling her story of the sea that he had forgotten were in him. She could do all that and more. The love of his life she bears him a son. This is a story about the need to tell stories to those ready to listen, to unburden oneself beginning with one word. These are beautiful stories and sad stories that guide the son to understand where he came from and who he is. The father’s stories also reveal many hidden secrets about life itself. And, in the telling they complete their medicine walk, father and son finding their own ways to apologize and ultimately forgive. The walk was hard, very hard. The son felt, in some respects, ill prepared to look at death straight on. Yet, this noble young man, wise beyond his years, digs deep into his being and dedicates himself to this final walk. On his way home he learns the lessons of grieving. It will take hours, days, and yes, years to order the tales in his head and make them his own. A terribly moving story of a father and son’s final days. There is an honor in the telling - a wisdom that while breathtaking was difficult for me to read. It involved self exploration and recalling memories which are both harsh and deeply personal. I read this with a quiet respect and acknowledgement of their walk trying to manage my tears to keep my mind available to the wisdom. The story ends with a feeling of calmness and comfortable silence. Sometimes loss is so personal that you don’t think anyone could understand. Yet, Richard Wagamese does and he leaves you surrounded by the great healing power of nature, grounded and at peace.

[Jill · Rating 5 out of 5]

In a recent interview, Canadian writer Richard Wagamese – born to Ojibway parents -- had this to say: “I don’t want to be compared, I don’t want to ghettoized, I don’t want to be marginalized…I just want people to read my work and go, ‘Wow.’”

Okay, Mr. Wagamese. WOW!

If life were fair, Richard Wagamese would be a household name by now. His latest novel – at its core – is an absent father’s redemption through the art of storytelling and a son’s growing knowledge of his own sense of identity.

Franklin Starlight, 16 years old, grows up under the guardianship of “the old man”, a man of few words who lovingly teaches him how to co-exist with nature and survive. He knows nothing of his mother and little of his birth father; only that every few years, a drunk wreck of a man shows up and fails time and time again at connection. Just as he’s becoming reconciled that he has no father, he is summoned by his dying father Elden, who asks him to take him into the interior so he can die “in the warrior way”, facing east.

The 40-mile journey that encompasses this book is a well-worn metaphor for an internal journey and indeed, that is what occurs here. But it is done masterfully. Both father and son are men of few words, but Frank eventually reveals this to his father, when queried about “the old man”: “At first he brung me out all the time when I was small. Showed me plants and how to gather them. Everything a guy would need is here if you want it and know how to look for it. You gotta spend time gatherin’ what you need. What you need to keep you strong. He called it a medicine walk.”

Indeed, Franklin begins to gather what he needs – hard-won stories from his father about his hard-luck life and the forces that shaped him into a man who had little left to lose. In doing so, he provides his son with the missing pieces to embrace his own complicated legacy.

I cannot praise this book highly enough. As with other of his Canadian compatriots – I’m thinking of Joseph Boyden, and Elizabeth Hay, for example – the sensory descriptions of the B.C. interior take on a life of its own. As a result, Franklin and Eldon’s story, while important, becomes a sort of asterisk to the bigger world, where each of us is folded in to the natural rhythms of life. The naturalistic dialogue – and I wonder, how can so much wisdom be condensed into such pithy statements – interweaves beautifully with the subject at hand.

This is a marvel of a book, one that explores human truths, the nature of identity, what it takes to achieve redemption, and how we are interconnected with nature and each other. It��s as good as – no, better than – Mr. Wagamese’s former book, Indian Horse. He deserves a strong readership.

[Sue · Rating 4 out of 5]

In Medicine Walk, Richard Wagamese uses spare language, but uses it beautifully and effectively, to give clear images of the natural setting in 1950s rural Canada, the nature of the people, the nature of their often harsh lives. Eldon and Franklin Starlight, father and son, each half-Indian, long estranged and largely unknown to one another, come together for one last purpose---Eldon wants his son to accompany him on his way to death. This is such a moving journey in which the father reveals much of his own life and we learn something of how the son was actually raised and came to of his heritage. There is much emotion, anger predominant, after such experiences of life, but also perhaps some understanding.

The descriptions of the land befit the simple lives of the characters involved. Simplicity suits the way they view the sunrise and sunset, the stars at night and horses running. But the prose is often poetic in its simplicity. So, a difficult journey movingly portrayed.

Definitely a recommended book.

[Dave Marsland · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Stories get told one word at a time.”
Lyrical and poetic, Richard Wagamese’s semi-autobiographical Medicine Walk is about reconciliation with no salvation. The book trails sixteen-year-old Frank Starlight as he escorts his gravely ill, estranged and alcoholic father to the mountains where he wishes to die.
“His father was like a photograph that had been in the light too long. He was a stranger.”
Their odyssey connects them for the first time. As Eldon’s torturous life journey is revealed through a series of stories, Frank understands that even simple stories are complicated. Loss of identity, shame and social alienation are never far from the surface.
Beautiful and engrossing, it takes you on a on a journey of redemption. By the end you feel a better, wiser person. It’s just an incredible piece of writing.

[Chrissie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book has some really pretty lines. What happens could happen and the characters could realistically do what they do. While it is pretty darn easy to guess the final resolution, the author throws in other questions that need to be resolved and you cannot put the book down until you have gotten all your answers. Finally, wisdom and human frailties are attributed to both Native Americans as well as those characters not of Native American heritage. This gives a balanced portrayal rather than an idealized view of Native Americans. I very much appreciated all these aspects of the book.

So why not at least four stars? Well, because I liked the book and that is all. If I tried to wax lyrical about a book that simply didn’t knock me over, you would hear I couldn’t get all that excited about it. Each reader has their own personal experiences and personality traits that influence how they react to a book. I wholeheartedly recommend this book to readers who have had to deal with alcoholism in their own family. I haven’t. Secondly, I had difficulty feeling the slightest speck of empathy for Eldon Starlight. He is the alcoholic in this story. Yeah, I do know that the need for drink is all consuming for alcoholics. The book does very well show this, but me being who I am, am not willing to excuse his behavior. Seriously, he aggravated me to no end. That is how I am!

Eldon has contacted his son, Franklin, whom he has ignored his entire life, and asked him to take him to the mountains so he may be buried in the traditional Ojibway manner. His son is sixteen. The only connection he has with his father are sore disappointments and bad memories of broken promises. On the journey together they talk…..finally! The son and father have not lived together. There is another man who has raised Franklin. Who is this man, and how did it end up this way and who is his mother? These are the questions the reader wants answered. You know from the start the son will not deny his father’s last wish, and because of how the son is drawn it seems perfectly logical that he would say yes to his father’s request. I don’t feel empathy for Franklin either; he is so darn strong he quite simply doesn’t need my empathy!

The narration of the audiobook is totally fantastic. Tom Stechschulte is the narrator. He captures mood magnificently and gives perfect intonations for the respective characters. Not too fast and not too slow. I give the narration five stars, and this guy joins my list of favorite narrators.

So you see, I have no complaints about the book. Intellectually I can pinpoint nothing I would want to improve, but neither can I deny my emotional response. I think I have figured out why I did not love it and why I just liked it. I think my lack of personal experience in dealing with alcoholics and my demanding personality prevents me from feeling an emotional bond with the characters…..even if it does have some gorgeous lines mirroring the beauty of nature.

[liv ❁ · Rating 5 out of 5]

“It’s all we are in the end. Our stories .”

This book follows the pilgrimage of an estranged father & son as they tell each other stories and gain some form of understanding and connection that they both needed. This is also the story of a young boy feeling obligated to help give his unreliable drunkard father a traditional warrior burial in the wilderness he knows and loves when he feels like his father is the furthest thing from a warrior or hero that he's ever known. The story is quiet but it is heartwrenching. If I wasn't crying, I was on the verge of tears for the entirety of this one.

"Eldon Starlight. Franklin Starlight. Four blunt syllables conjuring nothing. When he appeared the kid would watch him and whisper his name under his breath, waiting for a hook to emerge, a nail he could hang context on, but he remained a stranger on the fringes of life."

All 16 year old Frank Starlight really knows about his father is that he's an unreliable drunk so when he's called into town for a visit, he's dragging his feet, begging his guardian to not make him go. Eldon Starlight is dying and his last wish is for his son to take him into the British Columbia mountains to be buried in the Ojibway tribe's traditional warrior way. Through some convincing, Frank and Eldon beginning their pilgrimage where they both gain something that they desperately need.

The first few stories we get are of Frank living on a farm with a white man he refers to only as "The Old Man". We watch as this man cares for him and tries his best to help Frank connect to the land and his roots, even though he has very little knowledge of Ojibwe ways. We watch as he supports Frank and teaches him how to live well. We also see these scattered moments of the boy with a man who claims to be his father. We watch as his father continually disappoints his son - sometimes in just semi-disappointing ways, others with absolutely atrocious behavior. We watch as every time his father says he's going to connect with him, he ends up drunk and doing something insane. But then, as they move further into the mountains, we see a shift in the stories as his father tells him things he has never told anyone in his life. We see the heartbreaking and hard life his father lived and we start to understand exactly why he has to be drunk all the time. But while we are seeing this and feeling bad for the father, we know the pain the 16 year old boy has been through because of him and how his actions, understandable as they may be, have completely destroyed him.

"You don't get to say things like that and just die. You don't get to get off that easy."

I could feel the raw anger and confusion in the boy as he learns about his fathers past. He's getting all of the answers to the questions he's been asking his whole life, but it feels too late. Why couldn't his father explain this before he was dying? Why did he have to spend his whole life wondering if he was unknowingly walking past his mother? But of course his father couldn't tell him anything. The truth was too heavy and his shame was too great to tell anyone until the very last opportunity.

"He doesn't seem much of a warrior to me." "Who's to say how much of anythin' we are? Seems to me the truth of us is where it can't be seen. Comes to dyin', I guess we all got a right to what we believe."

One thing I really love about this book is how the dad never expects or pressures the boy to forgive him. And, while we do feel sorry for the dad, I know I wouldn't forgive him if I was in the boy's shoes either. We see how a shared understanding can be enough to ease the burden of both of them. The boy finally learning about his family history. The man finally telling someone his confessions. This really is a Medicine Walk because, by the end of it, they both have found exactly what they needed.

"I never knew where my name came from. Never thought to ask."

When Wagamese was a child, his parents drunkenly left him and his siblings in a bush and went drinking in a town Northwestern Ontario and went drinking in a town 60 miles away. They were picked up and became part of the thousands of children who were apart of the infamous Sixties Scoop. For decades, he felt the pressing weight of the primal wound which came from being separated from his parentage and Ojibwe culture.

This books seem to be in part an outlet for his own emotions. When Eldon tells his son that he (Frank) has never been in a war, Frank's response is simply "I'm still livin' the one you never finished." Wagamese referred to himself as a "second-generation survivor" of the experiences his parents went through - namely the horrific residential schools that both of his parents were forced into as children. Both Frank and his younger selves, along with countless Indigenous second-generation survivors are living that war that haunt their parents so thoroughly.

"When you share stories you change things."

The New York Times described this books as "less written than painstakingly etched into something more permanent than paper" and that truly is the perfect way to describe it. While I was reading this I felt a continuous dull ache in my soul. Even when writing this, I had to take breaks and pace around to try and stop from crying. Richard Wagamese was a gift to this world and he truly did change things when he wrote. I anticipate you will be seeing a lot more of his books in my reviews this year.

"and in the full darkness he wished for at least a slip of a moon to slacken the hold of the night."

4.5/5

[Ellen · Rating 5 out of 5]

The story of a young boy's meeting with his dying abandoning father is haunting. Beautifully written, Wagamese vividly portrays a wild and gorgeous landscape that is the setting for the boy's (only) journey with his father, with all the boy's questions and resentments of a lifetime spent with another man who fathered him without being his father. The writing left me breathless and the revelations brought me closer than I ever could have imagined to a man whose life is nothing like my own.

[Diane Barnes · Rating 5 out of 5]

There have been other reviews that did an exceptional job with telling about this book, so I won't attempt to compete with those. I have long wanted to read this one, so when it wasn't available in my library system I asked for an inter library loan. This one came in just a few days before Thanksgiving with only a 2 week loan time. I had to finish one I was reading first. I wouldn't have chosen to read this at such a busy and distracted time, but as it happened, only being able to read in short bursts of time turned out to be perfect. It needed to be set aside several times to digest some emotional scenes.

I will say right up front that this was not at all what I expected. A sixteen year old boy accompanies his dying father into the wilderness to die and be buried in the "warrior way".
That seems straightforward enough, but I was not prepared for the story that unfolded. Heartbreak and sadness and disappointment and guilt (on both sides) follow them into the wilderness, and if you can finish this book with dry eyes, you're a tougher person than me.

You'll never meet a sixteen year old as tough as Franklin Starlight, or anyone as full of pain and remorse as Eldon Starlight, the father who had abandoned him, or as good as the old man who raised him.

Or many authors who can write like Richard Wagamese either.

[Jodi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Richard Wagamese was a remarkably talented author and his loss is felt by many.

The two books I've read, so far—Starlight and Medicine Walk (read in reverse order🙄)—were two of the most memorable books I've read ever. But it's more than just his writing that's special. Not only is Wagamese an extraordinary author, he's also a very brilliant storyteller! It's the story of Frank Starlight that I found to be so phenomenal! It is absolutely captivating!

Recently, I was kicking myself for going in blind on these books, as I do with so many. I didn't realize they were related stories of Frank Starlight—his childhood and youth in Medicine Walk, and his adult years in Starlight. But now that I've read them both, I can see that it makes not a single bit of difference which order they are read. All that matters is that, together, they are spectacularly good. Period.

Do yourself a favour and read these amazing, outstanding books. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

[Wyndy · Rating 4 out of 5]

‘Medicine Walk’ is my first novel by Richard Wagamese, and I was hooked by his prose from the very first sentence. It is the moving story of “the kid,” Ojibway Franklin Starlight, and “the father,” Eldon Starlight, and their journey through the dense forest of anger, regret, forgiveness and healing. On this 40-mile walk by foot and horseback through the breathtaking backwoods of rural Canada, in search of a burial site “facing east” for the dying father, 16-year-old Franklin (“Frank”) learns the reasons he was raised from birth by “the old man,” a white man, and not by his father. He meets the grandparents and mother and father he never knew as Eldon finally releases his long bottled-up history and memories. Frank begins at last to understand the anguish that has fueled his father’s chronic alcoholism.

Though much of this story centers on the sins of the father and his impending death (as the blurb implies), it is not a morbid or depressing read. There were moments when I felt the prose and plot were slightly overwritten, but overall this novel left me in awe of Wagamese’s talent and filled with relief and peace. Relief, because even though this book is only 250 pages, it is an intense journey. Peace, because the mercy shown by the kid and the old man is truly inspirational. This kid and this old man and the horse will linger in my memory for some time. A powerful story rich with nature, truth, and every facet of human emotion and condition.

“He seems sad.”
~ The kid

“Pretty much. Sad’s not a bad thing unless it gets a hold of you and won’t let go.”
~ The old man

[☮Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Franklin has had to grow up in the home of someone he calls "Old Man" without a father present because he's a drunk, and with no knowledge of a mother because no one has ever  talked about her.  Frank seems well adjusted, a very mature 16 year old, in spite of his lack of family, as oftentimes family is what you decide it is. 

Now Frank's dad thinks he's dying and has called for his son to come be with him in his final moments and take him to where he's chosen his final resting place.  Frank is reluctant, since other visits with daddy have been derailed by drink, but goes nevertheless. The two of them have some very frank discussions and you wonder if you'll ever hear all the details of Frank's past. We do, thanks to some amazing story telling.

The ending couldn't be better.  Speaking of that, on the very excellent audiobook, I was surprised that the reader's last words were simply "The end." I really didn't want it to end! Anyway, a beautiful story, with many stories within the story.

[Sue · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was so lucky to win a copy of “Medicine Walk” by Richard Wagamese, an established Canadian Native author and storyteller, through the Goodreads Giveaway Contest. This is his latest novel taking place in the wilderness of British Columbia, and my first by this author. WOW what a novel! I loved it, it made my heart happy and sad, and will definitely not be the last book I read by this author. This is a profoundly moving novel and one that will rest in your heart for a long time.

Franklin Starlight, (the kid) the protagonist, is a sixteen year old Native man who was adopted by "The Old Man" when he was a little boy. He was taught “the value of work early and he was content to labour, finding satisfaction in farm work and his joy in horses.” He left school at an early age, as it was not his thing. He was an Indian, and the Old Man said it was his way. He never knew his father or mother. He was alone.

But then one day, Franklin is called to visit his father, Eldon. He must go, as it is his duty. Franklin makes the journey and finds his alcoholic father in a small flophouse, dying of liver failure. Eldon asks his son to take him into the mountains, and bury him in the traditional Ojibway ways. “I need you to bury me facing east. Sitting up, in the warrior way.”

And then began the journey up the mountain with his father, and the stories then unfold. Eldon tells his son about his life history, his happiness and sacrifices made along the way. And we see both father and son connecting, for the first time.

The wise Old Man told Franklin that everything a guy would need is here if you want it and know how to look for it.

“You gotta spend time gatherin’ what you need. What you need to keep you strong. He called it a medicine walk.”

The scenery in this novel is descriptive, and flowing, allowing his characters to come alive. This novel is about courage and love, and redemption.

Don’t miss out on reading this book by this talented storyteller. There is much to learn from this writer. I highly recommend Medicine Walk to anyone who enjoys reading high-quality literary fiction

“ It's all we are in the end. Our stories..."

[Blair · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow! Great little book!
Canadian Indigenous author, Richard Wagamese's 'Medicine Walk' is a powerful, moving story of 16 year old Franklin Starlight's struggle with identity and forgiveness. Frank's estranged, dying, alcoholic father has one request of the boy. That he take him into the backwoods country of the B.C. Interior and bury him in the Obijwe warrior tradition.
It is a 'walk' of discovery, of redemption, and of closure. Powerful medicine.
With evocative prose and sparse meaningful dialogue, Wagamese writes from the heart. Not a word is wasted.The land itself is a character in the novel. The boy describes it as his 'cathedral' and 'all that I need'. The land itself has much to give. And so does this book.
I look forward to reading more by this, unfortunately deceased author. Highly recommended. Five enthusiastic stars.