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wrengates's review against another edition
5.0
Rich and beautiful. While breaking your heart, Wagamese also fills the reader with a sense of hope and light. It isn't the most captivating read at times, as the story telling follows more closely to an oral tradition, but it's slow pace gives a true sense of the connections that Garnet Raven makes with his culture and heritage.
babyfacedoldsoul's review against another edition
4.0
The final section of this book broke my heart in the best way.
mniiida's review against another edition
4.0
A slow burn of a book about healing and finding a sense of belonging. This is Richard Wagamese's debut novel about a recently incarcerated man who moved from one foster home to another at an early age, taken away from his family at three years old. As my first time reading his work, I found the dialogue challenging to process at first but books three and four start to weave the story together more clearly. There are many teachings I'm taking from reading this book
bosstweed's review against another edition
emotional
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
I really liked this book, but even thought it’s short, it felt like it meandered in places. The book was profound, funny, and grounded while also using this horrible backdrop of history as a starting point to think through themes of identity and family. At some points I found myself struggling to see the through line of the plot, and while it felt disjointed at times, it came together in the end to really be a heartbreaking and heartwarming story of finding yourself and family.
scrappyhooker's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
5.0
weaselweader's review against another edition
5.0
Richard Wagamese was paying close attention when Keeper spoke of the importance of story-telling!
Garnet Raven (almost certainly an autobiographical stand-in for Wagamese himself) was born in northern Ontario, a baby of the land, a baby of the people, Anishinabe. Even as an infant, his grandfather and father had already told him that the bear was his brother, that he “didn’t have to be afraid of him. Same thing with fox, raccoon, weasel, … same thing with water, tree rock, fish, everythin’ out there. Plants, insects, all of it.” They told him the land is “always gonna be your home.” But they didn’t know that Garnet was about to be stolen from his family, to have his community, his attachment to the land, his happiness, indeed, his childhood and his life as one of the people ripped away from him by a 20th century white government whose policies have now been acknowledged as nothing less than wantonly genocidal.
Slipping the grasp of the residential schools and an endless parade of foster homes as a strong willed teen, Garnet finds himself on the streets of downtown Toronto. Despite the love and comradeship of a black family who had befriended him, he was soon behind bars serving time for possession for the purposes of trafficking. Although he feared he could never belong, although he had no idea “how to be an Indian!”, a communication from his family who had never given him up for lost, who had sought to find him for over twenty years persuaded him to travel north to White Dog Lake to meet them.
KEEPER’N ME is the belated coming-of-age story of that journey home, the decision to search for and get wisdom, something that Keeper will much later help him to understand is not “someplace you get to”. He had to learn that it was a “path you decide to take’n follow”. KEEPER’N ME is a lush, poignant paean to the beauties of aboriginal culture that is at once heartwarming and heartrending. The white folks of any country that has mismanaged its relations with its aboriginal people (that would be all of them) owe it to themselves to read KEEPER’N ME, to enjoy it and to learn from it.
Meegwetch, Richard Wagamese. I hold the gift of your writings with honor.
Paul Weiss
Garnet Raven (almost certainly an autobiographical stand-in for Wagamese himself) was born in northern Ontario, a baby of the land, a baby of the people, Anishinabe. Even as an infant, his grandfather and father had already told him that the bear was his brother, that he “didn’t have to be afraid of him. Same thing with fox, raccoon, weasel, … same thing with water, tree rock, fish, everythin’ out there. Plants, insects, all of it.” They told him the land is “always gonna be your home.” But they didn’t know that Garnet was about to be stolen from his family, to have his community, his attachment to the land, his happiness, indeed, his childhood and his life as one of the people ripped away from him by a 20th century white government whose policies have now been acknowledged as nothing less than wantonly genocidal.
Slipping the grasp of the residential schools and an endless parade of foster homes as a strong willed teen, Garnet finds himself on the streets of downtown Toronto. Despite the love and comradeship of a black family who had befriended him, he was soon behind bars serving time for possession for the purposes of trafficking. Although he feared he could never belong, although he had no idea “how to be an Indian!”, a communication from his family who had never given him up for lost, who had sought to find him for over twenty years persuaded him to travel north to White Dog Lake to meet them.
KEEPER’N ME is the belated coming-of-age story of that journey home, the decision to search for and get wisdom, something that Keeper will much later help him to understand is not “someplace you get to”. He had to learn that it was a “path you decide to take’n follow”. KEEPER’N ME is a lush, poignant paean to the beauties of aboriginal culture that is at once heartwarming and heartrending. The white folks of any country that has mismanaged its relations with its aboriginal people (that would be all of them) owe it to themselves to read KEEPER’N ME, to enjoy it and to learn from it.
Meegwetch, Richard Wagamese. I hold the gift of your writings with honor.
Paul Weiss
brenticus's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
relaxing
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
This book is deceptive in a way. It starts off like a story of someone trying to find his way, and it sort of is, but I think it's more accurate to say it's about a guy who found his way and how he walks the path.
The story is broken into four parts. In the first, Garnet Raven is reunited with his family in White Dog and decides to stay and see if the Anishinabe way is what he's been missing in his life. And from there... it's him learning more. About himself, his family, his community, his people, his history, his land, his culture. The narrative passes between Garnet and Keeper, his teacher and friend, almost as if they're recounting the story to us around a campfire.
This book places a focus on Indigenous culture in a way I've never seen written down before. Many books I read talk about the damage to Indigenous culture through government policies, the resistance and fight to keep the culture alive, modern resurgence in various ways, the paths forward for culture and governance... But Keeper'n Me is about the old ways. The way the Anishinabe lived before contact. And about how those ways are still important today, and about how they can shift to match the ways life has changed today. Rather than lamenting the state of the world, it celebrates that there is so much to be learned in the old ways and that people like Garnet learning these ways can lift up a whole community in the process.
This book is, even with darker moments and sad tales, a celebration of Indigenous culture in a way I've never seen before. And I love it.
The story is broken into four parts. In the first, Garnet Raven is reunited with his family in White Dog and decides to stay and see if the Anishinabe way is what he's been missing in his life. And from there... it's him learning more. About himself, his family, his community, his people, his history, his land, his culture. The narrative passes between Garnet and Keeper, his teacher and friend, almost as if they're recounting the story to us around a campfire.
This book places a focus on Indigenous culture in a way I've never seen written down before. Many books I read talk about the damage to Indigenous culture through government policies, the resistance and fight to keep the culture alive, modern resurgence in various ways, the paths forward for culture and governance... But Keeper'n Me is about the old ways. The way the Anishinabe lived before contact. And about how those ways are still important today, and about how they can shift to match the ways life has changed today. Rather than lamenting the state of the world, it celebrates that there is so much to be learned in the old ways and that people like Garnet learning these ways can lift up a whole community in the process.
This book is, even with darker moments and sad tales, a celebration of Indigenous culture in a way I've never seen before. And I love it.
tempestemery's review
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0