"Who is Will Sawnet? After his father's death, a young man learns that his mother was Native, and that he was adopted. Shocked and disoriented by the sudden discovery that his past was a lie, Will quits his newspaper job and takes to the road in desperate search of his real mother. This is a satisfying, compelling novel filled with humour, poignancy, tragedy, and caring detail, as Will drives north to the Red Clay Reserve, teetering between selves: is he Will Sawnet, the name his white parents always called him, or Billy Childforever, the ironic name his Cree girlfriend, Agnes, has given him? In Childforever, Cree-Scottish writer Ian McCulloch has created a powerful, urgent exploration of a crisis in identity and its resolution.
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About the Author
Ian McCulloch, the author of Moon of Hunger, The Efficiency of Killers, and Parables and Rain (all Penumbra Press, 1983-1993), was born in Comox, B.C., in 1957. His early years were spent as an Air Force gypsy travelling from base to base. His father eventually retired in North Bay, Ontario, where McCulloch and his son, Matthew, reside. McCulloch comes from mixed European and Cree parentage, and his Native heritage has always been a source of great pride. Many social factors in his life and in the lives of his ancestors, however, made his a somewhat abstract inheritance. In the early eighties, McCulloch worked on several reserves in northern Alberta, an experience that became the genesis for his first collection of poetry and for the novel Childforever.
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4.0 out of 5 stars
A quest for identity and a journey into Native reality toda,
By A Customer
This review is from: Childforever (Paperback)
This novel is a sensitive and sophisticated examination of Native cultural identity today, using the "road novel" structure and a hero who is still a "child" in both the pejorative and positive senses. McCulloch uses a lyrical prose style and warm humour to draw us into Will Sawnet's confused state of mind as he absorbs the fact that he was adopted by his European Canadian parents, and his mother was Native. A trip to her home reserve leads him into unexpected encounters with the present reality, rather than the past dream, of Native culture--and that reality is grim and despairing at times. Will's adventures are counterpointed by parables or tales using Coyote, the popular Native trickster figure, suggesting an archetypal level to Will's journey. Will's affair with a troubled Native woman who is yet another version of the muse or earth goddess, a type of mother-figure, initiates him into Native identity...and by the end, a deeper maturity as well. Well-drawn characters, a compelling narrative and a mix of humour and pathos make this novel a fine blend of entertainment and education.
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