Liberal MP Bob Rae recommends 'Three Day Road' by Joseph Boyden

“Wonderfully written, evocative, elegeiac, with moments of great humour and passion”

by macleans.ca on Wednesday, June 24, 2009 11:19am - 2 Comments

2005_09_28 Boyden“Twenty years ago I travelled to the James Bay coast and visited each of the aboriginal communities from Moosonee to Fort Severn.  It was an unforgettable experience which has stayed with me. Joseph Boyden, whose Through Black Spruce won the Giller Prize, is the chronicler par excellence of the James Bay Cree. Three Day Road is a brilliant story—of courage in the trenches of the First World War, of a young man’s last journey home, of a woman’s memories of her life in the bush. It is a book I have enjoyed re-reading. Boyden understands that this is Canada’s rendezvous not with destiny, but with ourselves. It’s wonderfully written, evocative, elegeiac, with moments of great humour and passion.”

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  • Fred Berktin

    I like reading Joseph Boyden. Read Through Black Spruce and The Three Day Road. I was up in the Hudson's Bay, Moosonee area with my Scouts few years ago. It was a memorable experience. Agree with Bob rae on both books.

    • http://intensedebate.com/people/janicemaerose janicemaerose

      I totally concur. Both are great reads; although Through Black Spruce was my favourite. The guns and killing in Three Day Road got me down a bit much, but I understood Boyden's purpose, and I sooo got into the characters. What a juxatoposition in both novels of the simplicity, as well as parallels of life in the bush and life fighting big wars or the social ills of big cities.

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