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A review by fiberreader
The Yield by Tara June Winch
4.0
4.5 stars
This is really a stunning, gut-wrenching book. I read it shortly after the news was broken in Canada of the remains found on the grounds of a residential school, and it seemed fitting. The effects of colonialism and the efforts to try to eradicate native cultures are not in the past, and it's perhaps more important than ever to keep the cultures that others have tried to bury alive.
For the most part, I found the writing to be really beautiful and moving. I especially enjoyed the use of Poppy's dictionary and the choice of terms to define as a way to illustrate the devastation of racism and colonialism on this family in particular and on Indigenous people in general. There was a spot in maybe the last quarter of the book where it felt like the writing changed, like the narrative was being hurried toward its conclusion (or maybe perhaps it was this reader hurrying to get to the conclusion) and wasn't quite as eloquent as it had been. That is really the only thing that kept this from being a 5-star read for me; the change was noticeable enough to be distracting to me.
This is really a stunning, gut-wrenching book. I read it shortly after the news was broken in Canada of the remains found on the grounds of a residential school, and it seemed fitting. The effects of colonialism and the efforts to try to eradicate native cultures are not in the past, and it's perhaps more important than ever to keep the cultures that others have tried to bury alive.
For the most part, I found the writing to be really beautiful and moving. I especially enjoyed the use of Poppy's dictionary and the choice of terms to define as a way to illustrate the devastation of racism and colonialism on this family in particular and on Indigenous people in general. There was a spot in maybe the last quarter of the book where it felt like the writing changed, like the narrative was being hurried toward its conclusion (or maybe perhaps it was this reader hurrying to get to the conclusion) and wasn't quite as eloquent as it had been. That is really the only thing that kept this from being a 5-star read for me; the change was noticeable enough to be distracting to me.