Review: The Break

The Break by Katherena Vermette
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is another one of our Indigenous Book Club choices and I definitely see why. It is really well written, the characters are compelling and it is, ultimately, a hopeful book. It is also painful and difficult in its telling of trauma, both individual and multi-generational. Set in the North End of Winnipeg, we get a glimpse of ordinary people, struggling to navigate a world steeped in racism and violence. It mirrors the experience of Indigenous peoples in Winnipeg and the struggle of a family to support each other in the face of an appalling assault. Healing, or at least, the hope of it lingers at the end of the story, but not in a saccharine or easy way.

As I said above, this is not an easy book and please really be careful if you have any history of sexual assault. And even if you don't, take this book slow, you'll need breaks. That isn't to say, don't read it. I think you should because it is really good.

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Review: Elatsoe

Elatsoe by Darcie Little Badger
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is another entry in the Indigenous Book Club which my class is now currently are reading. It is a strange, but compelling novel, set in a rather stranger and, frankly, more magical America. The title character is an asexual Lipan Apache girl, who inherits power over dead animals and who finds herself in the midst of a disturbing murder mystery. The world of Elatsoe blends various 'supernatural' traditions, both good and bad, but in such a way that it almost feels normal.

I loved this book because of the way that it weaves story-telling, a coming of age tale and spirituality into a compelling story. Elatsoe, as a character, is funny and awkward and wise beyond her years, guided by her family and her people. The world is a little disorienting in its blend of the mundane and supernatural, but the story is worth it.

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Review: Tantalus and the Pelican: Exploring Monastic Spirituality Today

Tantalus and the Pelican: Exploring Monastic Spirituality Today by Nicholas Buxton
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I stumbled upon this book in Google Reads, drawn by the sub-title (of course), but intrigued by the title itself. I'm not quite sure what I expected, but this proved rather a different story from that. It didn't help that I had completely forgotten who the author was and was only reminded about a third of the way in that he had participated in the Monastery reality show in 2005, which had been an influence on my interest in monasticism so evident in my reviews.

The book is part autobiography in which Buxton tells of his spiritual searching, first in Eastern monasticism and eventually in Benedictine monasticism. He, of course, explains his experience on the Monastery, which was interesting because he always came off as the most centred of the bunch. He weaves in monastic teaching sensitively and maintains an amused detachment about his own foibles. The result is an insightful, but not too heavy narrative which manages to teach a surprising amount of wisdom.

This book really is a wonderful book and is interesting not only to former views of the Monastery, but to those interested in monastic wisdom.

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Review: Seeds of Destruction

Seeds of Destruction by Thomas Merton
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I've been wanting to read this book for a long time, largely because of the first essay in it, the famous Letters to a White Liberal, which is crucial for understanding Merton's understanding of race in the 1960s. Seeds of Destruction collects this essay as well as other essays on race and on peacemaking in the 1960s and reveals much of Merton's social thinking in the last decade of his life. Merton in the 1960s can be a polarizing figure, but I appreciate the clarity of his thinking, which holds up generally quite well more than fifty years later.

The book is divided into two main sections- Black Revolution and the Diaspora. In Black Revolution, Merton considers how white Christians should respond to the revolution building in Black communities in the 1960s as the U.S. navigated the Civil Rights struggle. His discussion takes Black authors and activists seriously and he has an unusually clear idea of white privilege and the way that even white supporters of the struggle find it hard to understand it. Despite its occasionally archaic vocabulary and Merton's own shortcomings, it remains a useful discussion.

The second section, the Diaspora, focuses primarily on peace, the world crisis (i.e. the 1960s version) and the problem of the Christian in a post- Christendom world (my words, not Merton's). The discussion here is rooted in Scripture and Catholic thought and provides insights which continue to be useful today. Again, the lean is progressive and supportive of Vatican II, so remains somewhat controversial among conservatives.

This is an important book for those of us interested in Merton's social thought, which only really was published to the wider world after Merton's death. The view is still rooted in the 1960s, but remains curiously relevant to the world we find ourselves in during the 2020s.

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