Review: A Mind Spread Out on the Ground

A Mind Spread Out on the Ground by Alicia Elliott
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is another of my Indigenous reads for my English course this year. We decided to base our first unit in second semester with some of these essays as exemplars. So, I took the time to read the whole collection.

Alicia Elliot is a Tuscarora writer who has divided time between the US and Six Nations reserve near Brantford. This collection reflections on her childhood and her experience with mental illness in her family and her own. The essays are brilliant, but raw and sometimes really really funny. She combines a really reflective spirit with her awareness of the impact of colonialism on both families and her people. It is not a comfortable read, but it is a good one of this late 50s white male settler.

Definitely worth reading, but with trigger alerts for depression, trauma and suicide.

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Review: Saint Leibowitz and the Wild Horse Woman

Saint Leibowitz and the Wild Horse Woman by Walter M. Miller Jr.
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is, admittedly, a very strange book. It is the sequel, prequel, something of the classic sci-fi novel, A Canticle for St. Leibowitz also by Walter M. Miller, which is a very strange blend of post-apocolypse and pre-Vatican II Catholic spirituality (especially from the religious orders). The earlier novel follows the Order of St. Leibowitz through the post-apocalyptic wastelands from nuclear war sometime in the 1950s or 60s and mass Simplification which wiped out most of human learning until it was painful reconstructed and humanity does it again. This book is placed about a century or so after the second book, Fiat Lux, and follows a disgraced monk of the monastery of St. Leibowitz into a story which combines the post-apocalyptic landscape combining Catholic spirituality, Native American spirituality, colonialism, power plays and what looks suspiciously like an Avignon papacy. And strange.

Part of the strangeness, I think, is that this is only based on a manuscript by Miller, so another writer has completed it. It is really hard to tell what is Miller being strange and the editor adding things for modern sensibilities. There is more sex in this novel than Canticle, which I wonder if that isn't added. But it is very much the same world, told, this time, from more in the centre of the action.

It is still worth reading, if you've read Canticle. Disorienting, yes, but an interesting story about power, faith and human understanding. It deserves to be read more.

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Review: The Rise and Fall of Ancient Egypt

The Rise and Fall of Ancient Egypt by Toby Wilkinson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is an interesting and ambitious attempt to give a clear narrative to Egyptian history, which, given the fragmentary nature of early Egyptian history, is quite an achievement. It packs a surprising amount of historical information, archaeology and just good story telling in a fairly substantial space, but remains really readable and compelling nonetheless.

The only caveat that I have is one that, not being an Egyptologist, I'm not sure I can evaluate the plausibility of all the reconstructions. Writing a narrative like this can mean taking some liberties, or ignoring dissenting opinions, so some cautious and reading around is probably helpful.

Still, this is an entertaining and interesting book and one I'm happy to have in my library.

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Review: There There

There There by Tommy Orange
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is an interesting, if strange novel. It is another in my series of Indigenous novels that I'm reading for my Indigenous Voices (English) course I'm teaching this year. Unlike many of the one's I've read, this one is American, although that makes less difference than you'd think.

The novel is pretty episodic, being told from the voices of about a dozen characters, who all find themselves, by the end of a novel, at a pow-wow in southern California which experiences a bungled robbery (I won't say more to avoid spoilers). The structure is pretty diffuse because the story is told in short chapters in the voices of many characters, so the unravelling of the plot is confusing sometimes, especially because the stories of perpetrators, eye-witnesses and victims are all intertwined and take time to figure out the relationships behind them. But the characters are compelling, so it kept my attention quite well.

This is a good novel, if a little harrowing. But definitely worth reading.

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Review: The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry: How to Stay Emotionally Healthy and Spiritually Alive in the Chaos of the ModernWorld

The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry: How to Stay Emotionally Healthy and Spiritually Alive in the Chaos of the ModernWorld by John Mark Comer
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I'm a bit divided about this book, to be very honest. There's nothing I'd say was wrong with what Comer is saying or, at least, not very. And I do think that we as Christians do need to consider whether we're slowing down and paying attention to God in this fast-paced and, frankly, overwhelming technological culture we find ourselves in. That's why I picked up the book in the first place. Comer's analysis of the problem is pretty standard, but sound. Yet, there's a tone that tended to put me on edge.

I think what it is is a sense of 'arrivedness'. It's that sense that the author gives of having arrived at the other end of the problem and is giving his wisdom, despite the fact that dealing with this chaos of the modern world is, in my experience, an ongoing and continuous process. I fully recognize why that sense comes in- Comer did have to disconnect from a prestigious, but exhausting ministry to slow down. But it puts a sour tone for the rest of us struggling in the foothills. That's a bit of a grump, but just noting the sour note.

But this book is still worth reading. It does make an important comment on society and on how Christian interact in it. It does give suggestions on how to deal with the pressure to hurry and how to slow down. So, still worth the time spent on reading it

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