Book Review - Five Little Indians - Michelle Good
Five Little Indians synopsis
The ‘Five little Indians’ in question are indigenous First Nation children placed in residential care in 1960’s Canada. We meet them when they are young, ripped away from their families and now at the mercy of the Canadian Indian residential school system and it’s cruelties. The book follows the five as they attempt to rebuild their lives in Vancouver, with varying degrees of success – Kenny, Howie, Clara, Maisie and Lucy. They are the survivors.
Being Irish, I am of course aware of the history of abuse that went on in Educational settings over the years in this country, usually at the hands of priests and christian brothers, so it many ways it was a sadly familiar story. I struggled initially with the beginning of the novel, set in the residential school. Part of the problem was that I was listening to the audiobook, and there seemed to be little distinction between the characters voices, and the narrative jumped back and forth a lot. But I kept with it and was glad I did.
Survivors
Each chapter moves back and forth between the survivors as they get older, and we see how they cope with life. This book is very much about survival, and the different mechanisms for coping that humans have. For some of the characters, their ways of coping are dysfunctional, and it consumes them. Pain can be a endless black hole. They are trapped in a cycle of self-hate, doomed to never escape. In the words of Bruce Springsteen, one of the characters is born to run, but you can’t out run your inner demons. And of course they are receiving no help. They only have each other to turn to, because who else can understand?
There’s a line in a Bob Dylan song, Mississippi, where he says you can go back, but you can’t go back all the way. I thought of it when one of the characters returns to his mother, only to find she is a shell of a woman. I can’t imagine the impact on the families of having their children taken from them.
Naturally, there is a lot of anger in ‘Five little indians.’ One character is driven by revenge – what if you could hunt down your tormentor in later life? Others channel their anger through activism, taking up the struggle. Another character raises a child and just about muddles through, because that sometimes is all we can do – keep putting one foot in front of the other. There are no easy answers, and the book is about surviving and finding a way to move forward – if you can.
Native American Beliefs
One of the things that struck me about these first nation children is how they were ripped from their environment, and thrust into a harsh, alien world that was far removed from their heritage, community and upbringing. Parts of the book are tough going, as you’d imagine. Some of the most touching scenes for me are when the children, when they become adults, rediscover parts of their rich ancestry. Clara, for me the beating heart of the book, having been raised on tales of eternal damnation in school, discovers through an elder the sweat lodge and the spiritual guidance of her ancestors.There is another beautiful scene that relates to Native American beliefs about the afterlife which for me worked really well.
I did struggle with the style and tone of the book – it seemed so easy to read to begin with, that I had to check and see if it was a book for young adults (not that that’s an issue). It wasn’t, but it continued to bother me throughout the book – the prose was so matter of fact. It didn’t retract from the story, but left me feeling a bit undernourished in terms of style. I think I could have done with a bit more description. It’s the strength of the characters and the story that carried it through for me; in a lesser book I would have struggled even more. As said previously, I wasn’t overly taken with the narrator of the audiobook – I appreciate it’s difficult to use different voices, but it just didn’t work for me. Howie and Kenny, for instance, sounded the same.
Involving Stories
But the stories zip along and I found myself getting involved with each characters story in ‘Five little indians.’ Some of them are particularly heartbreaking and I’m not going to name them in order not to spoil the plot. It’s definitely a book with many dark corners but I found it had a great pace to it. It’s also an immensely compassionate book and you can tell the author cared deeply about these characters, so deftly are they drawn.
On the day I finished listening to this book, there was a story on the news here in Ireland that chimed with me, about a parish which is facing a bill of £2.5 Million, which may bankrupt them. Of course this a drop in the ocean for the Catholic church and it’s riches. I’m sure they could sell some of their hidden treasures or parts of their vast estate that they own. Many of the perpetrators of these crimes are long dead and won’t face their day in court, and sadder still are the victims no longer with us who never received justice. I couldn’t help but think that although money is part of the process of redress for victims, after so many years it’s the culture of denial and silence that has delayed and continues to deny justice that sickens me the most.
Summary
I didn’t know about first nation children placed into the cruelties of the Canadian Indian residential school system. The stories of Kenny, Howie, Clara, Maisie and Lucy, although fictional characters but based on events that occurred, give me a deeper understanding of what many children went through. ‘Five little indians’ is an emotional read that was difficult to put down at times. Definitely recommended and one of those great bookclub books with plenty of talking points.
(If you like this, you’ll also like another book I have reviewed about native Americans - The nightwatchman by Louise Erdrich)
*Michelle Good is an member of the Red Pheasant Cree Nation in Saskatchewan. Some of the episodes in the book were based on the experiences of her mother and Grandmother, both survivors of Canada’s residential school system.
Book review - Five little Indians - Michelle Good
Harper Collins
304 pages
10 hrs 34 minutes Audiobook - narrated by Kyla Garcia
Update - Just read that a TV series based on the book is currently in production with Prospero Pictures. Definitely one to keep an eye on.
I was also shocked to read about the discovery of 215 bodies of indigenous children were found in a mass grave at a residential school in Kamloops, British Columbia.
Five little Indians Book Club Questions
Each of the characters has a different way of dealing with their time in the residential school. Which character resonated with you most?
What did you think of the format of the book - did it make the story less or more effective and why?
What does the book tell us about trauma and how to live with it?
How do you think that residential schools were able to get away with treating children this way?
What lessons can we take from this book?