When Women Were Dragons, Kelly Barnhill
Barnhill begins her first novel for adults with a dedication to Christine Blasey Ford, whose testimony she says triggered the novel, and one can see the trajectory clearly in the book’s synopsis: in 1955 the world sees one of the largest mass dragonings of all time, with women spontaneously combusting into dragons and flying away, but not before making sure abusive husbands and partners disappeared as well. Alex, the protagonist, grows up in the time of this dragoning, indeed, her own aunt dragoned, leaving behind her baby cousin. But no one will talk about the event, nor the women involved, until more and more women start to dragon once again, and then they start to come back. The overarching sense of rage in the beginning of the novel is palpable, but by the end has petered out into a simply happy ending for everyone involved, with dragons and human coexisting peacefully and happily. While this could be seen as endearing, I see it as a shortcoming of what could have been a truly great novel. Simplicity does not make for greatness, there is something much more constructive about using your power as a force for change instead of going for the uncomplicated, simplistic narrative. One can see how being a YA writer affected how Barnhill ended her novel, hence why I mentioned this being her first novel for adults. I am just wondering why she wasn’t pushed to develop her initial idea further.
Halfbreed, Maria Campbell
Halfbreed is considered a seminal Indigenous work in Canadian culture, and I found out too late that there is a newer edition with an afterword written by Campbell! (If anyone out there has access to this, please let me know; sometimes I fervently wished I lived near a library with a good section for books in English!) The book is a memoir that details Campbell’s childhood growing up in Saskatchewan with her father, mother, great-grandmother, and siblings into her young adulthood. She writes about getting married at 16 in an attempt to care for her siblings after the death of their mother, and how when that marriage became abusive, she left for the big city and struggled with drugs and alcohol and even sex work. The book clearly highlights not only how the Canadian government has, and continues to, fail the Indigenous people, but also the divisions within the Indigenous groups themselves—she calls herself, along with her family, halfbreeds, meaning that she is the descendant of both Indigenous and white people. She wrote the book when she was in her early 30s, and that could explain why a lot of the book is merely a detailed list of what happened to her and what she did next, with no reflection to speak of. She will sometimes drop bombs on the reader and move on just as quickly. Since then, Campbell has dedicated her life to Indigenous activism and is the leader of many Métis social movements.