Reviewed by Elizabeth McGill
If you relish intrigue, this book is for you. If romance is more your genre, this book is for you. If you enjoy a complicated plot full of twists, turns, and “I didn’t see that coming” action, this book is for you.Canadian writer Krista Foss is a former journalist. In her first novel, Smoke River, she addresses the issue of indigenous land claims.
Perhaps she was inspired by the recent Idle No More movement, but going back to April of 2008, a blockade was set up on a two lane stretch of County Road 2 near Deseronto, Ontario. The protest drew attention to a land dispute between Mohawks of the Bay of Quinte band and local developer Nebourg Developments. Several highways in eastern Ontario and western Quebec, railway lines, and a major Montreal bridge were closed by Mohawk blockades. The peaceful protests were designed to draw attention to indigenous land claims.
Smoke River is a compelling story built around tobacco farming, urban development, and the question “Who owns the land?” The novel is set in the mythical town of Smoke River. Readers may speculate that this is somewhere in southern Ontario.
Foss gives the reader a glimpse into everyday people’s lives with her talent for developing believable characters. We may feel like we have encountered Ella, jogging along the road to the housing development she is working on in partnership with her husband. Ella has run since high school. Is she running from her past or toward her future?
When her father, Vilja, died – his body jaundiced, thin as a stewpot chicken – Ella started to run. The high school track and field stars were the high-cheeked children of landowners and tobacco farmers, realtors and bank managers. Her father picked tobacco in the summer, cleaned toilets in the winter. Accents clung like gristle to his and her mother’s English, and the air in their rented house was oiled with cooking and nicotine.
Perhaps you identify with Shayna who left the reserve to study law in the city. She gave up her practice and her marriage to return to her roots:
She walked out of her office tower one day, late for a lunch appointment, saw her passing reflection with her expensive leather boots and tight skirt, clutching a mobile phone looking as if she’d mow down anyone who delayed her, and suddenly she couldn’t reconcile her reflection with the women who’d come before her or the woman she wanted to become.
Shayna spearheads the protest against Jarvis Ridge Country Club Estates, the development to be built by Ella and Mitch Bain, on viable agriculture property across from Coulson Stercyx’s tobacco farm.
Tension builds at the blockade constructed at the housing development’s entrance. “Ladies, I’m going to give you one more minute to get the fuck out of our way,” says the truck driver, a ruddy young man in a T-shirt. “Then I’m getting back into my truck and I’m driving through.” Shayna’s aunts hold their ground. “This is disputed land. You won’t be getting through today. Or tomorrow. Not unless the dispute is settled.”
We are introduced to Cherisse, a teenager being raised by her father. She dreams of escaping the reserve to pursue a singing career but her plans are derailed when she is assaulted by a local athletic hero. She contemplates suicide as a solution to her pain:
The river’s rhythmic nudge forward, the water’s upward lift relax Cherisse. Slowly the murmurs trapped in her head free themselves to become something beautiful: a humming river-song. The sun paints her cheeks, her torso, her necklace of glass with heat. The water cools what’s underneath. Finally there is nothing but comfort and the gentle, sure pull of the current. Perhaps the rest of it will also wriggle free: the weight of her heart, her history. She’s exhausted from carrying it. A dragonfly hovers by her face. The river smells sweet and rich as maple creams. Somewhere in the distance a dog barks, insistent, playful yaps. She thinks she might be happy. If she floats and floats and never stops, she can relieve her pain and, in doing so, relieve others of the trouble she has caused.
Foss explores relationships between people. Shayna, the representative of the Mohawk people, is romantically involved with tobacco farmer Coulson Stercyk. The daughter of the land developer has a clandestine romantic interlude with Nate, a young Mohawk boy.
The lengthy process of negotiation begins. Shayna presents her peoples’ demands to the negotiators. “We want the land, not compensation. The land itself… the tiniest fraction of what was originally promised to our people.”
The ending happens quickly:
By late afternoon, the police cars arrive. The officers are friendly but firm. It is time for the blockade to come down. It’s your land now, they’re told. The way the blockade came apart was as practiced as a theatre set being stuck. A backhoe scooped away the gravel. Debris got thrown in a large waste bin, delivered by dusk. A group of men hooked up the trailer home and pulled it from the highway, abandoning it on the edge of the development. What was created with such joyful defiance was dismantled sombrely.
The large cast of characters is confusing at times. It requires mental acuity to keep everyone straight! Whose child is this? Which auntie works in the snack shack? Who is the owner of the smoke shack?
But overall, Krista Foss has written an enjoyable, engaging novel with richly descriptive passages. ‘Smoke River’ explores contemporary topics of power, entitlement, and oppression. Be sure to include it on your summer reading list.
McClelland & Stewart | 352 pages | $29.95 | cloth | ISBN #978-0771036095
‘Smoke River’ by Krista Foss
Book Reviews
If you relish intrigue, this book is for you. If romance is more your genre, this book is for you. If you enjoy a complicated plot full of twists, turns, and “I didn’t see that coming” action, this book is for you.Canadian writer Krista Foss is a former journalist. In her first novel, Smoke River, she addresses the issue of indigenous land claims.
Perhaps she was inspired by the recent Idle No More movement, but going back to April of 2008, a blockade was set up on a two lane stretch of County Road 2 near Deseronto, Ontario. The protest drew attention to a land dispute between Mohawks of the Bay of Quinte band and local developer Nebourg Developments. Several highways in eastern Ontario and western Quebec, railway lines, and a major Montreal bridge were closed by Mohawk blockades. The peaceful protests were designed to draw attention to indigenous land claims.
Smoke River is a compelling story built around tobacco farming, urban development, and the question “Who owns the land?” The novel is set in the mythical town of Smoke River. Readers may speculate that this is somewhere in southern Ontario.
Foss gives the reader a glimpse into everyday people’s lives with her talent for developing believable characters. We may feel like we have encountered Ella, jogging along the road to the housing development she is working on in partnership with her husband. Ella has run since high school. Is she running from her past or toward her future?
When her father, Vilja, died – his body jaundiced, thin as a stewpot chicken – Ella started to run. The high school track and field stars were the high-cheeked children of landowners and tobacco farmers, realtors and bank managers. Her father picked tobacco in the summer, cleaned toilets in the winter. Accents clung like gristle to his and her mother’s English, and the air in their rented house was oiled with cooking and nicotine.
Perhaps you identify with Shayna who left the reserve to study law in the city. She gave up her practice and her marriage to return to her roots:
She walked out of her office tower one day, late for a lunch appointment, saw her passing reflection with her expensive leather boots and tight skirt, clutching a mobile phone looking as if she’d mow down anyone who delayed her, and suddenly she couldn’t reconcile her reflection with the women who’d come before her or the woman she wanted to become.
Shayna spearheads the protest against Jarvis Ridge Country Club Estates, the development to be built by Ella and Mitch Bain, on viable agriculture property across from Coulson Stercyx’s tobacco farm.
Tension builds at the blockade constructed at the housing development’s entrance. “Ladies, I’m going to give you one more minute to get the fuck out of our way,” says the truck driver, a ruddy young man in a T-shirt. “Then I’m getting back into my truck and I’m driving through.” Shayna’s aunts hold their ground. “This is disputed land. You won’t be getting through today. Or tomorrow. Not unless the dispute is settled.”
We are introduced to Cherisse, a teenager being raised by her father. She dreams of escaping the reserve to pursue a singing career but her plans are derailed when she is assaulted by a local athletic hero. She contemplates suicide as a solution to her pain:
The river’s rhythmic nudge forward, the water’s upward lift relax Cherisse. Slowly the murmurs trapped in her head free themselves to become something beautiful: a humming river-song. The sun paints her cheeks, her torso, her necklace of glass with heat. The water cools what’s underneath. Finally there is nothing but comfort and the gentle, sure pull of the current. Perhaps the rest of it will also wriggle free: the weight of her heart, her history. She’s exhausted from carrying it. A dragonfly hovers by her face. The river smells sweet and rich as maple creams. Somewhere in the distance a dog barks, insistent, playful yaps. She thinks she might be happy. If she floats and floats and never stops, she can relieve her pain and, in doing so, relieve others of the trouble she has caused.
Foss explores relationships between people. Shayna, the representative of the Mohawk people, is romantically involved with tobacco farmer Coulson Stercyk. The daughter of the land developer has a clandestine romantic interlude with Nate, a young Mohawk boy.
The lengthy process of negotiation begins. Shayna presents her peoples’ demands to the negotiators. “We want the land, not compensation. The land itself… the tiniest fraction of what was originally promised to our people.”
The ending happens quickly:
By late afternoon, the police cars arrive. The officers are friendly but firm. It is time for the blockade to come down. It’s your land now, they’re told. The way the blockade came apart was as practiced as a theatre set being stuck. A backhoe scooped away the gravel. Debris got thrown in a large waste bin, delivered by dusk. A group of men hooked up the trailer home and pulled it from the highway, abandoning it on the edge of the development. What was created with such joyful defiance was dismantled sombrely.
The large cast of characters is confusing at times. It requires mental acuity to keep everyone straight! Whose child is this? Which auntie works in the snack shack? Who is the owner of the smoke shack?
But overall, Krista Foss has written an enjoyable, engaging novel with richly descriptive passages. ‘Smoke River’ explores contemporary topics of power, entitlement, and oppression. Be sure to include it on your summer reading list.
McClelland & Stewart | 352 pages | $29.95 | cloth | ISBN #978-0771036095