Auf ein Miniaturbild klicken, um zu Google Books zu gelangen.
|
Lädt ... Black Applevon Joan Crate
   Keine aktuelle Diskussion zu diesem Buch.  LynnB | Apr 7, 2018 |   Joan Crate sculpted the characters well and I found that they were well rounded. Despite Canada's inhumane treatment of Native Aboriginals I found that this book managed to create a dynamic balance between both the religious institutions and the Aboriginals perspective, showing how well intentioned actions were the cause of Native decline yet keeping some humanity in the wrongdoing. The nuns were not just portrayed as villainous, which I find creates the good vs evil sort of view but there were injustices done in the Catholic organization to members of it. The issue that I have with the book is when Rose Marie arrives in Black Apple. She is out of school and is thrust into the real world of discrimination as a young woman and without the guidance of the Sisters, she begins to question as why things are as they are. This should be the peak of the book but its near the end, and I find that the inclusion of two possible suitors, one native and the other white is a blunt representation of what lifestyle Rose Marie chooses without the Sisters at her back. I thought that the discrimination that she faced in the church was enough to give her of a choice whether she wants to stay part of the Catholic institution or not, and this addition of possible romance was just an excess which could have been done without. It could be seen as a metaphor, but it is written far too literally. Especially one insinuation in a chapter near the end. It was a letdown of an ending about 3/4 through, but everything else was enough to pique my interest to keep reading it. I recommend it to a certain extent, not to those who rely on the ending to wrap up the story with a neat little bow though. (  ) Lynora | Aug 21, 2016 | canada has a shameful, heartbreaking legacy in its residential school system. for years indigenous children were forcibly taken from their homes and placed into schools away from their families and traditions. often these schools were run by religious orders, with the goal to assimilate the first nations children to a white, christian way of life. of course, this was a spectacular and horrific failure. last year, the truth and reconciliation commission released their report on the impact of the government's residential school program - it found these actions were akin to cultural genocide. so in this regard, Crate's novel could not be any more well-timed and necessary. i hope many people will pick up this book and gain some exposure to what this experience may have been like for a child. (i strongly recommend Indian Horse, by Richard Wagamese as well, for fiction that shares a residential school experience. and you can access the truth and reconciliation commission's work here: http://www.trc.ca/websites/trcinstitution/index.php?p=890.) Crate is not, at all, letting anyone off the hook, but what she does, interestingly, is offer small glimpses of - in the best case - moments of compassion and kindness from non-indigenous characters. at its worst, she portrays horrific abuses, cruelty, racism, stereotypes, and white saviour mindsets. somewhere in the middle... Crate presents a feeling of ambiguity. i was quite taken by some aspects of the book, but there was so much in the story that left me wanting. i did like rose and mother grace, and how their arcs worked together. but two of the most interesting characters for me - anataki, and sister cilla - were secondary, and did not go as deeply as i had hoped. (i would read a whole novel just focusing on each of them.) the novel also jumped 6 years in its early stages, and that transition was not such a smooth one in my reading. the ending is fairly open. i read that the character of rose has been with Crate for many years, originally being created in a much earlier and different writing project. learning this, it made me wonder if we could see rose again in a subsequent novel? ( ) JooniperD | Mar 2, 2016 | Zeige 3 von 3 keine Rezensionen | Rezension hinzufügen
Auszeichnungen
A dramatic and lyrical coming-of-age novel about a young Blackfoot girl who grows up in the residential school system on the Canadian prairies. Torn from her home and delivered to St. Mark's Residential School for Girls by government decree, young Rose Marie finds herself in an alien universe where nothing of her previous life is tolerated, not even her Blackfoot name. For she has entered into the world of the Sisters of Brotherly Love, an order of nuns dedicated to saving the Indigenous children from damnation. Life under the sharp eye of Mother Grace, the Mother General, becomes an endless series of torments, from daily recitations and obligations to chronic sickness and inedible food. And then there are the beatings. All the feisty Rose Marie wants to do is escape from St. Mark's. How her imagination soars as she dreams about her lost family on the Reserve, finding in her visions a healing spirit that touches her heart. But all too soon she starts to see other shapes in her dreams as well, shapes that warn her of unspoken dangers and mysteries that threaten to engulf her. And she has seen the rows of plain wooden crosses behind the school, reminding her that many students have never left here alive. Set during the Second World War and the 1950s, Black Apple is an unforgettable, vividly rendered novel about two very different women whose worlds collide: an irrepressible young Blackfoot girl whose spirit cannot be destroyed, and an aging yet powerful nun who increasingly doubts the value of her life. It captures brilliantly the strange mix of cruelty and compassion in the residential schools, where young children are forbidden to speak their own languages and given Christian names. As Rose Marie matures, she finds increasingly that she knows only the life of the nuns, with its piety, hard work and self-denial. Why is it, then, that she is haunted by secret visions--of past crimes in the school that terrify her, of her dead mother, of the Indigenous life on the plains that has long vanished? Even the kind-hearted Sister Cilla is unable to calm her fears. And then, there is a miracle, or so Mother Grace says. Now Rose is thrust back into the outside world with only her wits to save her. With a poet's eye, Joan Crate creates brilliantly the many shadings of this heartbreaking novel, rendering perfectly the inner voices of Rose Marie and Mother Grace, and exploring the larger themes of belief and belonging, of faith and forgiveness. Keine Bibliotheksbeschreibungen gefunden. |
Aktuelle DiskussionenKeineBeliebte Umschlagbilder
 Google Books — Lädt ...GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)813.54Literature English (North America) American fiction 20th Century 1945-1999Klassifikation der Library of Congress [LCC] (USA)BewertungDurchschnitt: (3.5)
Bist das du?Werde ein LibraryThing-Autor. |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
3
So why is this particular book important? Because it shows that there were individual people (like Mother Grace) who genuinely believed she was helping the children and who did her best to ensure they were fed, educated and not abused. Here is a woman who was indoctrinated from birth about salvation of the immortal soul through Jesus, about priests being the embodiment of God on earth...she is (to a more benevolent extent) a victim of a system that channeled her way of thinking and her beliefs. She did her best in difficult circumstances. Should she have known better? Probably.
And that is the main reason this book is important. Despite the relatively good treatment Rose received, and the advantages Mother Grace secured for her, we see a young woman torn from her family who misses them terribly throughout her life. We see a young aboriginal person struggling to understand who she really is, where she belongs, how to best live her life, learning how to make her own decisions and to trust her own judgement. That is one of the tragic legacies of residential schools: they stole the identities of those who survived; they stunted the growth of independence, decision-making, self-confidence and trust. That is one part of why so many survivors, and their children and grandchildren have had to work so hard to reclaim their cultural and personal heritage.
So, for those who say that many former students were not abused, that many received a good education; for those who try to find the good in the system, this book is an eye-opener that even the good was not really so good for the vast majority of students. (