suexstories's review
4.0
Better than paying for it in my opinion read for a uni course, was very educational
kjboldon's review against another edition
4.0
I was led to this by the repeated mentions of Louis Riel in Louise Erdrich's Plague of Doves. An engaging history in comic book form of a fascinating person. The old fashioned, iconic art was a good fit for the story, though I found the text tiny, and hard to read.
les_lectures_hallucinees's review against another edition
4.0
Meilleure BD québécoise/canadienne? Fort probablement! Ce n’est pas une chose facile de faire une biographie en BD, mais je crois que Chester Brown a réussit son pari haut la main! Ce dernier parvient à raconter l’insurrection des Métis de la Rivière Rouge d’e manière simple avec un beau travail de recherche. Le style épuré et simple permet au lecteur de bien rentrer dans une des pages les plus sombres de l’histoire canadienne.
robforteath's review
4.0
What an unusual and interesting work! It is well-paced and fascinating from start to finish, and you never feel you are being manipulated by the biographer to think unduly well nor ill of the subject. The point-of-view and the sympathy of the story are entirely with the Métis, but Riel himself is viewed through a seemingly objective lens.
The extensive notes give a good indication of how sparse and contradictory the factual evidence of the events is, and how many wildly different books have been written on the subject (Tom Flanagan, sighhhh).
If only they had given us this book in high school!
The extensive notes give a good indication of how sparse and contradictory the factual evidence of the events is, and how many wildly different books have been written on the subject (Tom Flanagan, sighhhh).
If only they had given us this book in high school!
prairiefibrewitch's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
informative
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
littleredbiblio's review
3.0
I found this book for $2 at a thrift shop and picked it up to give to a friend who has written so many papers on Louis Riel that it has become a bit of a joke within our group. As someone who knows very little about Louis Riel (as in, almost nothing aside from the name and that he was Métis), I thought I would read through this and see if I could learn something more substantial about such an important figure in Canadian history. Unfortunately, for that purpose, I didn't enjoy this book.
I felt that this biography was too oversimplified for someone who is approaching it with very little knowledge. However, I really appreciated that Brown was open about the fact that some events had to be altered or altogether skipped for the sake of this graphic biography. Because I knew this going in, I wasn't invested in and expecting an incredibly accurate story. Yet, towards the end, I just started to get confused. His descent into mental illness seemed abrupt and how others reacted to it was focused on much more than his experience itself. I found this difficult to understand in that it almost felt like a plot device that wasn't fully explained. The ending also seemed to happen really quickly. The beginning of this biography felt fairly fleshed out and I understood what was happening, but at the beginning of Part 4, the story focused on Riel's trial which was incredibly confusing to me. I still don't know what was happening and why. This made the ending equally confusing and ultimately led to my frustration as I finished the book.
If you are familiar with the story of Louis Riel and Canadian history at this time, I can imagine that this graphic novel would be an enjoyable read (if it is accurate enough - I obviously cannot testify to this). Otherwise, I would recommend looking elsewhere for a biography on Louis Riel and returning to this if you'd still like to read it! Ultimately, I'm glad I read this because it made me curious to learn more about Riel's life and this time in Canadian history, but I wish this particular book could have done more for me!
I felt that this biography was too oversimplified for someone who is approaching it with very little knowledge. However, I really appreciated that Brown was open about the fact that some events had to be altered or altogether skipped for the sake of this graphic biography. Because I knew this going in, I wasn't invested in and expecting an incredibly accurate story. Yet, towards the end, I just started to get confused. His descent into mental illness seemed abrupt and how others reacted to it was focused on much more than his experience itself. I found this difficult to understand in that it almost felt like a plot device that wasn't fully explained. The ending also seemed to happen really quickly. The beginning of this biography felt fairly fleshed out and I understood what was happening, but at the beginning of Part 4, the story focused on Riel's trial which was incredibly confusing to me. I still don't know what was happening and why. This made the ending equally confusing and ultimately led to my frustration as I finished the book.
If you are familiar with the story of Louis Riel and Canadian history at this time, I can imagine that this graphic novel would be an enjoyable read (if it is accurate enough - I obviously cannot testify to this). Otherwise, I would recommend looking elsewhere for a biography on Louis Riel and returning to this if you'd still like to read it! Ultimately, I'm glad I read this because it made me curious to learn more about Riel's life and this time in Canadian history, but I wish this particular book could have done more for me!