Glass Beads

by Dawn Dumont

These short stories interconnect the friendships of four First Nations people — Everett Kaiswatim, Nellie Gordon, Julie Papequash, and Nathan (Taz) Mosquito — as the collection evolves over two decades against the cultural, political, and historical backdrop of the 90s and early 2000s.

These young people are among the first of their families to live off the reserve for most of their adult lives, and must adapt and evolve. In stories like "Stranger Danger", we watch how shy Julie, though supported by her roomies, is filled with apprehension as she goes on her first white-guy date, while years later in "Two Years Less A Day" we witness her change as her worries and vulnerability are put to the real test when she is unjustly convicted in a violent melee and must serve some jail time. "The House and Things That Can Be Taken" establishes how the move from the city both excites and intimidate reserve youth respectively, how a young man finds a job or a young woman becomes vulnerable in the bar scene. As well as developing her characters experientially, Dumont carefully contrasts them, as we see in the fragile and uncertain Everett and the culturally strong and independent but reckless Taz.

As the four friends experience family catastrophes, broken friendships, travel to Mexico, and the aftermath of the great tragedy of 9/11, readers are intimately connected with each struggle, whether it is with racism, isolation, finding their cultural identity, or repairing the wounds of their upbringing.

Genres: Fiction, Indigenous, Short Stories, Canada, Audiobook, Contemporary, Adult

266 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2017

About the author

A comedy writer with an interest in the supernatural.

Reviews

[CaseyTheCanadianLesbrarian · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was not at all what I expected. I loved her first two books, both of which are very funny. Glass Beads, however, is not funny at all (except maybe a handful of times)-- it's sad and dark. Beautiful character development of two Cree women from the same reserve in Saskatchewan. Lovely turns of phrase, too. The structure is odd: the cover declares it's a book of stories, but they don't stand alone. It feels more like a disjointed novel that skips ahead in time. Overall I did appreciate this book and was fascinated by the characters, but it's definitely my least favourite of her books. Content warnings for intimate partner violence and miscarriage.

[Marie-Christine Chartier]

Ce livre existe quelque part entre un coup de poing au ventre et une caresse. ❤️‍🩹

[Allison ༻hikes the bookwoods༺ · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was prompted to listen to this audiobook by the One eRead Canada campaign this month. I liked the characters and became interested in them, but was disappointed with how each story came to an abrupt end. I hoped the end of the book would bring a sense of closure, but it felt just as sudden as the rest.

https://www.instagram.com/p/B5BJhnzAp...

[Kate]

omg this COVER.

[Emmkay · Rating 4 out of 5]

”Inside was where futures were and they had none, no matter how much the nice teachers tried to tell them it was there for them too. Better to smoke and laugh than hope for anything else. Better to enjoy that brief time they had together.”

A bit darker than Rose's Run or Nobody Cries at Bingo, two other Dawn Dumont books I really enjoyed, this episodic novel is equally readable and still has her trademark humour, though it’s clear how much of a coping mechanism humour can be. It follows four indigenous friends from a brief glimpse at childhood through coming of age and into jobs, partners, and parenting. I found myself caring for all of the main characters. Lots of ground covered by lots of layers, which you piece together as you read. Will continue to read anything Dumont writes.

[Kerry Clare · Rating 5 out of 5]

An absolutely incredible book.

[Lata · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dawn Dumont follows four people from their childhoods/adolescence through to their middle age. Her characters grow up, contending with all that entails, but everything is complicated by their being aboriginal and having to deal with, among other things: broken families, absent/murdered mother, foster family, alcohol and drug abuse, rape, suicide, police brutality, difficulty finishing high school, racism both on personal and on governmental policy levels, poverty, and spousal abuse.
This isn't a funny book. Dumont follows primarily Nellie and Julia in loosely connected short stories, and each story shows a change or progression In their lives. Each story is tightly written and the complicated women are wonderfully portrayed.

[❀ Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed Glass Beads on my commutes but wonder if it would have been easier to keep track of the 4 characters through the stories, if i had read it as a book without days in between.

I did like how the 4 characters intertwined through the stories, skipping through the years to specific parts of their lives.

[Virginie Rainville · Rating 4 out of 5]

Le style d'écriture est beaucoup moins humoristique que les deux autres que j'ai lu d'elle, mais reste que l'histoire se lit bien. Toutefois, la fin m'a laissée perplexe, je ne sais pas trop quoi en penser...

[Bibliomaniaque · Rating 3 out of 5]

C'était bien, mais je n'ai pas trop compris le but. Ok, les personnages ont évolué (en fait, surtout vieilli), mais c'est tout.

[Kelsey]

This was one of my favourite books of 2017. I personally wouldn't call it short stories though -- to me it was absolutely a novel in the way that it took us through several years in the lives of four friends.

[Edith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sans le côté humoristique de ces 2 autres romans. j'ai beaucoup aimé quand même. Et j'ai adoré la traduction de Daniel Grenier.

[Amélie Faubert · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolument renversant et captivant, tellement d’espace de non-dits et pourtant, on comprend tout jusque dans nos os. J’ai envie et j’ai hâte de lire les autres oeuvres de l’autrice.

[Barbara McEwen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dawn Dumont does a great job of creating multi-faceted characters and weaving social issues into her story in a believable way. She had me rooting for the characters to learn and grow.

[Sharon :) · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book had me have the cover. Very interesting read learned alot.

[Marie · Rating 5 out of 5]

4,5 ⭐️

[Cherop · Rating 3 out of 5]

Half way through this book I was ready to call it quits and rank it within the bottom 5 of my lifetime reads. Two thirds through the book I liked it better and it ended up being a satisfactory read ~ just.

Perhaps my expectations were too high. I had read fairly good reviews of the book which consists of interwoven short stories. In addition I have seen the author on television numerous times and she has a terrific comedic talent. I guess I was expecting the book to be funny. It isn't. I do intend to read another work by this author entitled, "Nobody Cries at Bingo". Perhaps I will enjoy it more.

[Alison Jacques · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don’t know why this is presented as a collection of stories. Maybe an episodic novel? The book follows four characters over time — the “stories” don’t stand alone. Anyway, I really enjoyed this book. There’s definitely humour here, but not lol humour as in Nobody Cries at Bingo. There’s a lot of real stuff. I found it easy to care about the characters right off the bat and all the way through — I’d happily read another book about them. (Copy editors, be warned: contains more than a few errors and typos. 😖)

[Heather(Gibby) · Rating 5 out of 5]

What an incredible collection of stories.
The book has it all, heart, sorrow, humour, friendship, belonging, alienation, addictions, abuse, recovery, spirituality, healing.

It is the stories of four individualism who are joined together by a collective background, and a need to have a connection in a world they don't quite fit.

[Jeri · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn't want to read this book as it was only available as an eBook in my library and I like a real book in my hands. I listened to a number of people who told me that I should read it, I would like it. I'm glad I listened. I ended up caring very much for the characters in the story and what would happen to them. Am I an eBook convert? No, but I won't say no if a book I want to read is only available in that format again.

[M · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not necessarily the best written and kind of wandering storytelling, which could have lacked drive but I found the characters very engaging.

[Véronick Harvey · Rating 5 out of 5]

C'était mon préféré des 3. J'ai adoré. Les personnages étaient vraiment bien construits et ma curiosité m'a vraiment titillé souvent lorsque la chronologie était fracturée.

[Kristal · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is Dawn Dumont's third book and I have read all of them. I enjoy her character building (at least at the start) but still feel like this book is lacking. The four friends (mostly Everett and Taz) are just as dysfunctional at the end of the book as at the beginning. There is no growth nor closure in many ways with their relationships. I understand in life people often don't learn from their mistakes and I don't expect that from all the characters, but there are many loose ends. Does Everett talk to his mom ever? What is Nellie's job really like? Sorry, was Julie sleeping with both Everett and Taz? Is this baby she carrying Taz's?

I think the problem is that Dawn is trying to do too much- she keeps changing the focus between the 4 characters (frequently I had to re read pages to figure out who was talking) and this book will skip YEARS at a time so the story has to constantly catch up on what these 4 people are up to. This book mostly covers 1993-2008 (15 years) and is only 266 pages (as a comparison, The Help by Kathryn Stockett covers 3 main characters over about a year, was 450 pages and the characters were extremely well developed). It is simply not big enough to deeply explore 4 characters over that broad of a time period. Overall I felt like each of the 4 were stock characters: Nellie the businesswoman, Taz the abusive drunken chief, Everett the deadbeat (cheating?) dad, and Julie the submissive, misunderstood beauty.

Overall Glass Beads started out good but it faltered in the end (much like her book, Rose's Run). To date I still prefer "Nobody Cries at Bingo" as my favorite of her books.

[Katie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book. It's out of my normal range of reading interests, but that is why I like participating in a book club and why I wanted to complete the Evergreen reading program this year because you do get a chance to read outside of your normal realm. I definitely wouldn't have read this book, or even known about it, had it not been for this program.

Glass Beads is a very character-driven book. You get to know the four friends' personalities and traits more so then having descriptions of their surroundings or writing that is lyrical and literary. I find the short stories read more like chapters though. There is a linear path with each chapter occurring in a disjointed manner throughout the time span and the focus may be a different character each time. It's a fast read, but you do get drawn into each character and I found that I was rooting for one or more at a time as they went through certain periods of their lives. I was also not liking each character at times too! It’s a serious novel that gives you a peek into how life differs for Aboriginal Canadians and what some of the unique challenges they face are that may not even cross our minds or be relatable to Canadians of white heritage.

[Louise · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book of interconnected stories with the same four characters throughout, is neither a novel, nor a book of short stories. It's somewhere in between. A choppy novel? There are gaps in time between each chapter/story which broke the flow and left me somewhat frustrated. But to call this a collection of short stories is wrong. None of these stories are stand alone; they are part of the whole.

That aside, it's a sad book, nothing like this author's previous novels (Nobody Cries at Bingo being one of my favorite Indigenous books). It's also poignant and touching and certainly worth reading.

[Marie · Rating 4 out of 5]

We drop in to the lives of four young Saskatchewan Indigenous over a period of several years. Vignettes, snapshots - some cryptic, some graphic - of their lives from teens to middle age. Sorrow, screwups, death, and vision quests all impact the journeys of the four. Lives intertwine then separate in a circular pattern. No matter what, they are each other's reference points. Dumont's terse and explicit story movement through dialog and simple description gives the reader a perspective of life on and off "the rez" for the legacy children of residential schools and the Sixties Scoop.

[Kim(berly) · Rating 5 out of 5]

A collection of vignettes about 4 native kids through early adulthood in and around Saskatoon. The stories are snapshots of their lives as they figure out who they are, their place in the world and their families. No sugar-coating here: accounts of casual and intentional discrimination are common, frequent, and unsurprising to this crew. It’s just the way it goes. As a descendant of Métis and colonialists, these stories made me very uncomfortable at times, which means the stories are effective in making me more aware of the work all Canadians have ahead of us. Highly recommended.

[Carol · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really wanted this book to be better. Every story on its own was so real and captivating but always ended without any climax. Every chapter left me sad and disappointed. Otherwise the writing was great.

[Loretta · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is one of those books. It was really good. It was unsettling. I liked the writing and the characterization. Parts of the characters and their interactions and their broken-ness were really hard and uncomfortable to read. I related to the characters. I didn't relate to the characters.

This book floated into my awareness because it was made available by libraries across the country as an e-book for the month of June, in celebration of Indigenous day. It's a series of loosely connected stories - connected by the four central characters who recur, and their relationships to and amongst each other. The stories run from childhood to parenthood of the characters. I liked how each story was a point-in-time, a sort of day in the life. The reader sees the inner lives, the frictions and temptations and frustrations and conflicts within that story, and then how these things continue and shift over time. I liked how real these folks were. No romantic notions, no bullshit here. This is real life for real indigenous characters, with the beauty and the challenges.

The things I found uncomfortable were mostly around Nellie and Julie and their relationship. Nellie was probably most uncomfortable because wow, did I recognize her: the smart, fat kid, growing up into the smart fat lawyer, with the skinny beautiful friend. Yup. Been there. But I was frustrated, I think, because Nellie's self-hatred, especially around her body, just seems soo....I dunno. I wanted her to grow up past that, and we don't really see that happen. There are hints that motherhood might help her get there. But I wanted more. I also just disliked how much of Nellie and Julie's relationship seemed to hang on this constant jealousy/comparison. I think (hope?) most women outgrow that, and I didn't love that they didn't seem to, quite. But again, the ending seems to hint that they will.

Definitely worth reading, and I will also look for more Dawn Dumont books.

[Ben Truong · Rating 4 out of 5]

Glass Beads is an anthology of twenty-three interconnecting short stories written by Dawn Dumont, which stars four First Nations friends: Everett Kaiswatim, Nellie Gordon, Julie Papequash, and Nathan "Taz" Mosquito and revolves over two decades of their relationship over two decades. Glass Beads is the book for the One eRead Canada campaign.

For the most part, I really like most – if not all of these contributions. Glass Beads contains twenty-three short stories and most are written rather well. While written as short stories, the book reads as a panoramic polyphonic Bildugsroman for four Indigenous friends.

Nellie Gordon is a weary feminist and anti-racist killjoy, pointing out the roots causes of various problems and social ills while looking to her education and career in law as her ticket away from her troubles. Julie Papequash, staggeringly beautiful, drifts through life with a lack of self-confidence, never truly recovering from the deaths of her mother and her baby. Everett Kaiswatim is an unreliable womanizer that goes through a cultural and spiritual awakening, becoming upset that he's never learned Cree and knows little about his cultural background. Nathan "Taz" Mosquito has big political ambitions and a lot of vision, but still cannot escape his origins or other people's assumptions.

Like most anthologies there are weaker contributions and Glass Beads is no exception. However, comparatively speaking, they are far and few in-between. Instead of an anthology, it read like a novel about the coming of age for four First Nations teenagers.

All in all, Glass Beads is a wonderful collection of short stories of Indigenous issues from the prospective of four different First Nations teenagers as they grow up during the 1990s and 2000s.