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specificwonderland 's review for:
Moon of the Crusted Snow
by Waubgeshig Rice
dark
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This was a recommendation from a YouTube video, and it was a short book! The part of the rec that intrigued me was reading it made the reader worried about their partner who wasn't home, and made them want to call their partner and make sure they were okay. I read half in one bath, and the other half in the same day. I liked the length, it was a very tight story. I read I Who Have Never Known Men and The Wall in the last 6-12 mo and it's interesting how in all three, the construct of time falls away so quickly, reduced to sweeping seasons and major plot points.
Basic idea is something happens to take out the power, phones, cell towers in short order to a family living on a reservation in remote Canada. Two people come back to the rez after things fall apart and tell them what the city was like. Visitors arrive on the rez seeking refuge to varying degrees of success. The winter is long and cold, and resources are pooled.
I thought this was an interesting story. It felt claustrophobic - the vignette's aperture(?) kept closing, smaller and smaller, the longer the story went on. It felt wholly unsustainable. I thought it was interesting white men forced Natives onto the rez, hundreds of years ago, and they learned to survive and adapt. And the same thing happened here. White men brought in modern luxuries like hydroelectric power, landlines, internet, cell towers, then took it away. I wonder what caused the big event? I feel like somehow it was white people's fault.
The fairness part of me was definitely triggered when the laziest people were "rewarded" so to speak by getting rations. It's nice to live in a community where we help the weakest members but it was personally triggering to me, why these people couldn't help themselves. It feels like a statement about society but I have seen it play out in much smaller dynamics. The idea that a well prepared person gets punished with no rations because they did what they were supposed to do. But I wouldn't expand that out to the macroeceomocs level of welfare.
I felt like the dreams weren't given enough credence. A few people had dreams right at the start and they were basically ignored. People should give more credence to their dreams in a situation like this!
Basic idea is something happens to take out the power, phones, cell towers in short order to a family living on a reservation in remote Canada. Two people come back to the rez after things fall apart and tell them what the city was like. Visitors arrive on the rez seeking refuge to varying degrees of success. The winter is long and cold, and resources are pooled.
I thought this was an interesting story. It felt claustrophobic - the vignette's aperture(?) kept closing, smaller and smaller, the longer the story went on. It felt wholly unsustainable. I thought it was interesting white men forced Natives onto the rez, hundreds of years ago, and they learned to survive and adapt. And the same thing happened here. White men brought in modern luxuries like hydroelectric power, landlines, internet, cell towers, then took it away. I wonder what caused the big event? I feel like somehow it was white people's fault.
The fairness part of me was definitely triggered when the laziest people were "rewarded" so to speak by getting rations. It's nice to live in a community where we help the weakest members but it was personally triggering to me, why these people couldn't help themselves. It feels like a statement about society but I have seen it play out in much smaller dynamics. The idea that a well prepared person gets punished with no rations because they did what they were supposed to do. But I wouldn't expand that out to the macroeceomocs level of welfare.
I felt like the dreams weren't given enough credence. A few people had dreams right at the start and they were basically ignored. People should give more credence to their dreams in a situation like this!