Point Books Toward The Lesser Blessed
| Original Title: | The Lesser Blessed: A Novel |
| ISBN: | 1550545256 (ISBN13: 9781550545258) |
| Edition Language: | English |
| Literary Awards: | Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis for Jugendbuch (2001) |
Richard Van Camp
Paperback | Pages: 128 pages Rating: 3.86 | 1149 Users | 138 Reviews
Declare Appertaining To Books The Lesser Blessed
| Title | : | The Lesser Blessed |
| Author | : | Richard Van Camp |
| Book Format | : | Paperback |
| Book Edition | : | First Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 128 pages |
| Published | : | April 6th 2004 by Douglas & McIntyre (first published 1996) |
| Categories | : | Fiction. Cultural. Canada. Young Adult. Contemporary |
Ilustration In Pursuance Of Books The Lesser Blessed
A fresh, funny look at growing up Native in the North, by award-winning author Richard Van Camp.Larry is a Dogrib Indian growing up in the small northern town of Fort Simmer. His tongue, his hallucinations and his fantasies are hotter than the sun. At sixteen, he loves Iron Maiden, the North and Juliet Hope, the high school "tramp." When Johnny Beck, a Metis from Hay River, moves to town, Larry is ready for almost anything.
In this powerful and often very funny first novel, Richard Van Camp gives us one of the most original teenage characters in fiction. Skinny as spaghetti, nervy and self-deprecating, Larry is an appealing mixture of bravado and vulnerability. His past holds many terrors: an abusive father, blackouts from sniffing gasoline, an accident that killed several of his cousins. But through his friendship with Johnny, he’s ready now to face his memories—and his future.
Marking the debut of an exciting new writer, The Lesser Blessed is an eye-opening depiction of what it is to be a young Native man in the age of AIDS, disillusionment with Catholicism and a growing world consciousness.
A coming-of-age story that any fan of The Catcher in the Rye will enjoy.
Rating Appertaining To Books The Lesser Blessed
Ratings: 3.86 From 1149 Users | 138 ReviewsJudge Appertaining To Books The Lesser Blessed
I dont have words for this. I gulped it down like a starving animal. Richness and beauty and horror and joy, steady and unlikely and unwieldy.Beautiful and bleak. Having lived in norther Saskatchewan this work really resonated with me.
This was a book about the redemption of broken bodies. Reading in parts like a drugged-out haze, and incorporating drugs, fighting, and sex, it was a maelstrom of feeling in the life of teenage poet, Larry. Some parts were quite disturbing, communicating as it did the brokenness of people. The book redeemed itself with a poem at the end, communicated as Larry buries a dead ptarmigan.
I met Richard Van Camp recently at an early childhood education conference and decided I had to read his book. It is hard to believe that such a nice, funny man, and writer of beautiful children's books, could write such a raw, dark, disturbing novel. This coming of age story about a native teen growing up in the fictional town of Fort Simmer, NWT (based on Van Camp's home town of Fort Smith), deals with drugs, alcoholism, abuse, promiscuity and tragedy. It is not for the faint of heart, and
Turns out this novel involves high-school-aged teens in a community in Northern Canada. Added to the usual themes of coming of age, raging hormones, girls, sex, and parents are issues of gasoline sniffing, drugs, alcoholism, poverty, whitey vs native. Told from the point of view of Larry, a Dogrib, the picture painted is not pretty. The narrative is violent, depressing, drug-filled, and despondent. Children grow up fast in this environment. We read about suicide rates in Northern communities,
Not that it was awful it's just not my style. But this story should be told, I just think it could have been told better. I would only recommend this story for someone that wants to read a messed up jumbled story. Spoilers!!!!!So what I think happened is that the main character (who I believe is native American) had a father that raped his aunt, who was being abused at her own home already. And I think the father was abusing his wife also. Then the main character killed his father because no one
Sometimes I when I finish a book I am reminded that this is the reason I even read books at all. This book is one of the most masterful pieces of fiction I have ever read or seen. This is a revelation. This is a masterpiece. I met Richard Van Camp about six years ago, at the Strathcona Branch of the Edmonton Public Library. I used the library as an office, and sat in the same cubicle area almost every week day. Every few weeks, I would be there at the same time as Van Camp, who would be
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