The Road to Chlifa by Michele Marineau
Summary: After a physical altercation with a high school classmate in Montreal, Karim examines what triggered him, going back to his life in war-torn Lebanon and his journey to get out of the country with his love interest’s little sister and brother. Karim hates living in Montreal, but as he sorts through his experiences, it turns out he is a young man in deep mourning for lost possibilities, lost people and a lost country. The offer of friendship from the classmate he defended brings him around, but Karim will always be affected by what has happened to him.
Number of Pages: 142
Age Range: 14-16
Review: The Road to Chlia by Michele Marineau is a thought-provoking story with a bumpy narration style. Switching from secondary character to protagonist to third person was confusing and frustrating because I found that I wasn’t interested in what the secondary character had to say. The parts that were written by Karim or about his direct experiences were definitely the most compelling and engaging aspect of the book.
That said, I see what Marineau was trying to accomplish. She takes complicated topics of loss, war, change, sorrow, grief and purpose and opens them up by being honest about people’s opinions and perspectives. It’s not pretty, but it is gritty and real and hopefully leaves its reader more enlightened and empathetic than when they started.
What struck me most about Karim’s story was the shock he goes through when he comes to Montreal from Lebanon. At first it seems like it’s simply culture shock, Western values being quite liberal in comparison to his home country. But it turns out to be more than that. Karim has just stepped out of a high-stress, life or death situation where he was forced to grow up overnight. He’s grieving, and still adjusting to normal life again when his parents send him to the local high school. The disparity between his life experiences and those of most of his fellow classmates is huge, yet Karim is forced to deal with their inane comments and uninformed attitudes. In retrospect, it is easy to see why he attacked Dave, not just because he was protecting My-Lan, but also because he was triggered in so many ways.
My favourite part is a quote from Karim’s reflections, and it’s the last quote in the Memorable Quotes section. I think The Road to Chlifa could have been organized better, but the heart of the story is incredibly powerful and I am glad I read it.
Memorable Quotes:
“When all’s said and done, I prefer insipid songs and morons for whom life is reduced to the slogan some of them wear on their t-shirts: ‘ Don’t worry. Be happy.” After all, what are wars, death, bombs, orphans, fear, remorse and tears? Real tragedy is not having enough styling gel or lipstick, or forgetting to turn on the VCR to tape the hockey game or the Thursday night soap.” – Karim from The Road to Chlifa by Michèle Marineau, page 22
“Glancing up, I saw Karim, on his feet, looking totally shattered. There was nothing left of cold indifference in him. In his eyes were rage, horror, fear, but mostly a terrible sadness. That’s when I understood the newcomer wasn’t haughty or disdainful like some said. He was simply in despair.” – from The Road to Chlifa by Michèle Marineau, page 24
“‘There’s no simple answer,’ he finally replies in a serious tone. ‘If there were, everything would have been settled quickly, and we wouldn’t be mired in this endless war. But one thing’s certain – the paradise that almost everyone waxes nostalgic over was only an illusion reserved for the rich, the cultivated Beirut elite, whether Christian or Muslim. Under the surface of their illusion, problems abounded that eventually had to erupt. There wasn’t just tension between Christians and Muslims. There was tension between rich and poor, the right and the left, people from the cities and people from country. . . . There was friction pretty well everywhere on all sides. And with the eruption of first events, everything fell apart. However, it wasn’t totally unforeseeable.'” – Milad from The Road to Chlifa by Michèle Marineau, pages 74-75
“In the afternoon, the bombing starts up again in the distance, but they hardly notice. Over there are bombs; here are trees, rocks, birds and butterflies. The two worlds have nothing in common. Maybe this is how one forgets atrocities. By distancing oneself. By acting as if they don’t exist.” – from The Road to Chlifa by Michèle Marineau, page 92
“‘What about these ruins and all the other ruins in the world? Weren’t these deaths, blood, screams? In Troy, in Rome, in . . . in . . . I don’t know, Babylon or Sparta or Baalbek? Weren’t there wars, battles, atrocities? But now all we see is the peaceful, romantic side. Don’t you find that revolting, all those forgotten dead?’
Karim doesn’t say anything. There’s nothing to say. A lifetime wouldn’t be enough to try to understand.” – Maha from The Road to Chlifa by Michèle Marineau, page 96
“I still don’t know why we’re alive. Maybe I’ll never know. But it seems to me we don’t have the right to let ourselves die. If only out of respect for all those who die but wanted to live. For now, that’s reason enough for me. I choose to live because Maha and Nada are dead. And their parents, their Aunt Lelia and all the others I don’t know. I choose to live so their deaths haven’t been in vain, so they won’t be forgotten. I choose to live to tell their lives to Jad, who’s just taken his first steps, and there’s nothing more incredible than a baby’s first steps. Oh, Maha, Maha, you didn’t even see Jad take his first step!” – Karim from The Road to Chlifa by Michèle Marineau, page 137
The Road to Chlifa by Michèle Marineau is published by Northern Lights for Young Readers (1992, translated into English by Susan Ouriou in 1995).
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Boy O’Boy by Brian Doyle
Summary: Martin O’Boy lives in a distracted family. With a twin named Phil who has emotional and physical problems, a pregnant mother and a father who throws tantrums on a regular basis, the most reliable family member Martin has is his cat, Cheap. Paid to be in the boys choir at church, Martin and his friend Billy encounter a man named Mr. George who appears to be their friend but has more sinister intentions. After Martin has a traumatic encounter with Mr. George and his family is oblivious, Martin turns to others for help to stop the same thing from happening to his friend Billy.
Number of Pages: 158
Age Range: 14-16
Review: Martin is a boy growing up during World War II, and his family situation means that after his beloved grandmother dies he has to fend for himself. His friend Billy is in a similar situation living with a single mother with a father known to be crazy.
Unfortunately as children thrust into adult roles, they are both vulnerable when Mr. George starts paying special attention to Martin, and then Billy. Thankfully, when Martin realises what is going on he finds an adult he knows will listen, and Buz, a neighbour recently back from the war, protects the boys when needed.
It’s a powerful and heart-wrenching read. I loved Brian Doyle’s exploration of living with a special needs sibling, and the responsibility that comes with being the ‘well’ sibling. The relationship between Martin and his cat, Cheap, was my favourite part of the book. Doyle brings such life into Cheap, and truly captures the unconditional love between a boy and his pet. I was glad Martin had someone who loved and listened to him, because pets can be the best, non judgemental listeners.
Plus, if you look at my Memorable Quotes section, you’ll read complete sections of Doyle’s book. He has a way of putting things that I just had to repeat. The boys listening to the pipe organ, and the scenes between Martin and Cheap. They are incredibly vivid and touching.
Mostly though, I though Martin was pretty brave. Even though he was confused and ashamed of what happened between him and Mr. George, he still did his best to protect his friend by asking for help. And because of the close-knit community he lived in, there were other places he could go for help besides his parents. I loved it.
Memorable Quotes:
“Soon Mr. George is down at the organ. You can see him sitting down there through the slats in the wall. Now tiny notes start coming out of the smallest pipes, the little whistles, lots of teeny, high notes running up and down like pretty water falls or teensy rain tinkling.
Now the bigger pipes start paying, like bugles and car horns and the factory whistle at the paper mill. And the noise in the nearly pitch dark room is starting to hurt our ears.
Now it gets louder, and the notes get lower now and the bigger pipes are blowing and sounding like bulls howling and trains whistling and I can see the shadows of the summer boys putting their hands over their ears. Now the biggest pipes start to pound and bellow and rumble like thunder and crash and roll and explode like earthquakes and volcanoes and the whole room is shaking and vibrating and shuddering and the low notes are coming up our legs and into our hearts and boiling into my brain until my whole body is shaking and I’m falling apart and the door cracks open and the room comes tumbling down behind us.
All of a sudden everything stops. The silence is ringing away.
I just stepped off a cliff into space.” – Martin from Boy O’Boy by Brian Doyle, pages 72-73
“I think Cheap wants to be a human, a person, instead of being just a cat. I think he’d like to do the things that I do. I think he’d like to sit at the kitchen table and eat snap crackle and pop with me and maybe when he’s half finished, reach over and pull the sugar bowl to him and put some extra sugar in his bowl.
And sometimes when he looks at Phil I think he’d like to tell Phil to quit ruining everything all the time.
And when my father boots the enamel basin, Cheap runs and hides but he peeks out almost right way – even before the basin has stopped rolling – and glares at my father as if to say, ‘Why are you acting like a common animal?’ – Martin from Boy O’Boy by Brian Doyle, page 94
“After a while I go down Cobourg and to my house at 3 Papineau. I stand at the door. I don’t want to cry. I’ll show my mother my knee but I won’t cry. I’ll tell her about fighting after choir. She’ll see my knee and take care of it.
I open the door. The door to the house where I don’t want to live.
Please, Somebody. Take care of me. Love me.” – Martin from Boy O’Boy by Brian Doyle, page 108
“‘He only cares about you because you’re the one who fees him,’ my father says, putting on his hat to go to work.
No, that’s not true. He loves me. I can tell when I talk to him and he closes his eyes. Squeezes them shut. Like he’s having a good time.
‘Cheap is a joke for a cat. As far as I’m concerned, this cat is just a waste of fur. And don’t feed him bacon. Bacon is expensive!’
My father slams out the door.
He doesn’t even notice my slashed knee.
Cheap is staring up at me.
I pick him up and he gives me a little purr.
‘You’re not a joke,’ I say to him and give him some more bacon.
‘And you’re not a waste of fur. Maybe somebody we know is a waste of skin! What do you think of that?’
Cheap agrees. – Conversation between Martin’s father, Martin and Cheap from Boy O’Boy by Brian Doyle, page 110
Boy O’Boy by Brian Doyle is published by Groundwood Books (2003).
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Up to Low by Brian Doyle
Summary: Young Tommy hasn’t been to his family cabin since his mother died two years before. Living now with his father and his Aunt Dottie, a woman with a serious germ-phobia, Young Tommy is looking forward to going back to the cabin, hoping he’ll run into Baby Bridget, the girl next door he cares for. Getting to the cabin means taking his life in his hands at times as he travels with his father and his father’s friend Frank, a notorious drunk who drives anyway. All along their journey the news is that Mean Hughie, Baby Bridget’s father, is dying of cancer, and when he finally gets to the cabin Young Tommy helps Baby Bridget get through the second hardest moment of her life.
Number of Pages: 113
Age Range: 14-16
Review: Up to Low by Brian Doyle is old school teen fiction. Published in 1982, the year I was born, it has a different feel to it then the books I’m reading from 2000 onward. Not a lot actually happens in the book, instead, it is a poignant snapshot of a moment in Young Tommy’s life. It’s memorable because Young Tommy is reunited with Baby Bridget, the girl he has a crush on, and he is there to witness her reunification with her father just before her father dies.
In a way, it reads more like a short story than a novel, because there was so much more I wanted to know that wasn’t contained in the book. Also, I’m not sure I really understood the significance of Frank’s drinking problem and Aunt Dottie’s germ-phobia besides simply being amusing anecdotes. Did they contribute to Young Tommy’s growth as a character? I’m not sure.
This is my first time reading Brian Doyle’s work so I’m wondering if I simply need to get used to his style. I have two more of his books on my list, so I have time to test my theory. I would recommend Up to Low to reluctant, mid teen readers mostly because I’m curious to find out if it is a book that stands the test of time for today’s readers.
Memorable Quotes:
“Then all of a sudden I knew. I knew what that crazy old Hummer meant. Healing.
Healing. There was healing. But it wasn’t her arm that got the healing. No. Not the arm.
It was the heart.
The heart got healed.
Baby Bridget’s heart!” – Tommy from Up To Low by Brian Doyle, pages 101-102
Up To Low by Brian Doyle is published by Groundwood Books (1982).
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All Good Children by Catherine Austen
Summary: Upon returning to New Middleton after attending his Aunt Sylvia’s funeral, Max notices that children at his sister Ally’s school are beginning to change. Once playful, rambunctious and loud children have become docile and rule-abiding, all impulsivity and free-thinking removed. This behaviour is spreading up the school grades thanks to mandatory ‘vaccinations,’ and Max and his friend Dallas find themselves pretending to be zombies just to fit in after Max’s mother rescues them from getting the shot. Living in a society that focuses on using its resources to build the best worker possible, Max’s family must decide how many rights they are willing to give up for what the community considers to be the greater good.
Number of Pages: 300
Age Range: 15-17
Review: All Good Children by Catherine Austen is sharply written, from the movies Xavier watches to the way Max and Dallas perfect the art of zombie speak to pass as vaccinated students at their school. It’s a complex piece of writing that explores the removal of rights from a society, causing them to lose the most precious thing of all, the innocence and joy of childhood and growing up.
Such a serious topic is injected with wonderful moments of humour while honouring Max and Dallas’s feelings of hopeless resulting from being powerless to stop the situation. I enjoyed their conflict about trusting the grown ups who decided the vaccination was the right thing to do, and the clarity that comes with youth over decisions adults find morally ambiguous.
Plus, I loved the characters. Austen presents us with another memorable little sister in Ally, who starts out sweet and extremely loveable but becomes quite creepy after she gets the shot. Xavier’s character is informative, and Max and Dallas are a comedy team while being the best of friends.
I can’t end this review without commenting on the Canadians Max and his family encounter in the book. It was the one part that got under my skin, because they come off as being incredibly arrogant. I think my patriotic self was a bit injured in my reading.
All Good Children should be considered a classic dystopian read and I would recommend it for mid teen readers.
Memorable Quotes:
“‘Where did these come from?’ Ally asks, holding my chip bags.
I shrug. ‘They must be yours.’
She turns them over, puzzled, before tucking them in her seat pocket. Then she leans into my chest and holds her teddy up to the window.
I kiss her head and love her like crazy, my gullible good-hearted sister.” – Max from All Good Children by Catherine Austen, page 10
“Ever since I flipped open my first box of sixty-four crayons at the age of three, art supplies have made my heart race. Paint, ink, my mother’s nail polish, even the juxtaposition of wet and dry concrete makes me tremble. My mind reels around tonal variation, the sheer number of blues you can lay side by side.” – Max from All Good Children by Catherine Austen, page 80
“‘It’s not funny,’ Xavier says. ‘One by one, our rights are being stripped. Freedom of movement, freedom of speech, freedom of organization. You don’t care because you’re where you want to be. But one day they’ll control us in a way that matters to you, Max. Then you’ll have to choose if you’re going to go along with them or fight back.'” – Xavier from All Good Children by Catherine Austen, page 91
“I get up and go inside the tent. I can’t sit down. I turn in circles and watch the walls blur by. I know exactly what I’m going to paint for the exhibit.
I’ll paint children, dozens of them, real ones – Tyler and Pepper and Xavier, me and Dallas, Bay and Brennan, Montgomery and Kayla, Saffron and Chicago, the baby on the sidewalk yesterday, Zachary and Melbourne from the park, Lucas from downstairs, the high school kids on skateboards, the throwaways on skates. I’ll paint all of us doing what we used to – dancing and running and fighting and playing and laughing and being kids. I’ll paint us on the walls inside the tent where I’m hiding now, in dazzling hues and luminance. I’ll leave the walls outside dull gray, stenciled with a single word. I’ll call the whole thing Withstanding on a Perilous Planet. And I’ll give it to Xavier as a belated birthday present. I’ll tell him it’s a metaphor.” – Max from All Good Children by Catherine Austen, pages 170-171
“She holds up her hand to stop me from interrupting, but I interrupt anyway. ‘Maybe we should all stay,’ I say. ‘What if things are worse in Canada? Isn’t that a theme through history – people go off in search of a better land but they end up in some nightmare and wish they’d never left in the first place?’
‘There’s also the theme of people going off in search of a better land and finding a better land.’
‘But if we’re the only ones – ‘
‘You’re not.’ She takes my face in her hands. ‘There is a whole world out there full of normal children, Max. We think because we’re trapped here that this is our only choice, but it’s not. We’ll be okay. Like you said, I’m a nurse. I can find work. We can go anywhere.'” – conversation between Max and his mother from All Good Children by Catherine Austen, pages 225-226
“Mr. Reese doesn’t participate. He shows a documentary, assigns a reading, points to questions on the screen, goes about his duties like a secretary to his former self. I hate him and all that he withstands. I hate him like I hate my mother, whom I love and wish I didn’t hate but I can’t help it. I hate every adult who feels bad about what they’re doing and does it anyway, sighing with every breath, clinging to the notion that they’re good people in bad times. I hate them for not standing up for me. I hate them for not helping me stand up for myself. I hate them for not teaching me to care about all the people they mowed down before they got around to us. I hope they choke on all their coffee-talk and tissues.” – Max from All Good Children by Catherine Austen, page 237
“Dallas was right – living with hope is like rubbing up against a cheese grater. It keeps taking slices off you until there’s so little left you just crumble.” – Max from All Good Children by Catherine Austen, page 262
All Good Children by Catherine Austen is published by Orca Book Publishers (2011).
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Good for Nothing by Michel Noel
Summary: Fifteen year-old Nipishish comes home to life on the reserve from residential school with a lot of anger. Unsure of his place and his future, he is directed by the Canadian government to attend high school in another town and live with a foster family, but while the abuse has ended, Nipishish continually comes up against blatant racism. Caught between the world of the white man and the world of the Natives as a Métis, Nipishish has to work twice as hard to figure out who he is and how he fits in. A mystery involving his father’s death helps him clarify his own identity, and ends up leading to opportunities he never thought possible.
Number of Pages: 322
Age Range: 16-18
Review: Despite being told by his teachers and society that he is good for nothing, fifteen year-old Nipishish finds and fans the flame of pride within himself, claiming his proud Indian heritage as a guiding force in his life. Although his Métis status makes him an outsider, he is fortunate to be surrounded by the love of his aunt Manie, and Pinamen, his partner, as well as other members of the Indian community.
But it’s 1959, and racism against Indians is so ingrained that it would be easy to understand if Nipishish did decide to drink his life away, especially after his experiences at a residential school, but he doesn’t. Instead, he keeps trying to do what he thinks is right, being there for his family, getting back to his Indian roots, and standing up against the injustice he’s facing. His Métis status changes from a liability to an asset as he becomes a new leader among his people, able to transcend the white world to fight for Indian rights.
Michel Noël’s writing is stunning in its beauty. Not only does he provide his readers with a character to care about and root for; he provides breath-taking imagery and detail of traditional Indian practices. I was completely caught up in Nipishish’s story, which is why I found its 322 pages to be such a quick read. They just flew by.
I love the image I have now of Nipishish and Pinamen, facing the winter in their little cabin, living off the land with their dogs and anticipating the birth of their first child. They face the dangers of living in the wilderness on a daily basis, but their happiness is complete in having purpose and each other.
Good For Nothing is a sensitive and informative look at Indian/white relations in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Nipishish courageously explores who he is through investigating his parents’ histories and rejecting negative opinions about Indians, and I felt honoured getting to witness his coming-of-age.
Memorable Quotes:
“It’s not true that everything is fine. I feel like a deer, fleeing after it has been wounded by a hunter. My heart won’t stop pounding. I want to run deep into the woods and roll in the damp spring earth and like my wounds.” – Nipishish from Good For Nothing by Michel Noël, page 11
“‘They took our sons and daughters so they could ‘educate’ them in residential schools. They took them against our will, by force and with lies. We were deceived and today, I ask you, what has happened? Our children don’t know how to live like Indians. They no longer speak our language, they don’t recognize us any more and we don’t know who they are. But they are still our children, our flesh and blood! They are ashamed of their ancestors and they disown us without daring to say it. It saddens me when I see how we have become strangers in our own land.'” – Basile from Good For Nothing by Michel Noël, page 20
“‘Often, in life, when we are upset or troubled, when we don’t know what to think or who to talk to, the simple act of taking a piece of paper and a pencil and writing can do us enormous good. Writing things down lets us talk to ourselves, helps us understand who we are, where we come from and what we are heading for…'” – Monsieur Thibeault from Good For Nothing by Michel Noël, pages 119-120
“I was full of hope when I came to live in town. I thought I could bury the horrible memories that were haunting me on the reserve. I thought I would be able to sleep without nightmares, but I was wrong. The memories stick to my skin. Here I’m alone and useless. I’m a misfit, a good for nothing, and I feel as if there’s no place on this mother earth where an Indian like me can fit in.” – Nipishish from Good For Nothing by Michel Noël, page 122
“‘Our ancestors were brave men,’ Tom always says. ‘But who will be our heroes now? We are sick and we no longer know how to cure ourselves. We wallow in our dependency and our fear. We hide behind the filthy curtains of our wooden houses. We hardly dare peek outside when a white man walks by. We spit our hate and our despair onto our own floors. We bury our heads in the ground because we are ashamed of what we have become.'” – Tom from Good For Nothing by Michel Noël, pages 171-172
“Some say the government is paying us to use our land. Others say that the money will help us out of our misery, so we can live like the whites. But now I see that it’s all lies and deceit, like decoys. The money they give us only keeps us down even more. We are like cows and sheep that depend on the farmer to come and feed them every day.
The thought makes me feel sick. How did we get to be like this?
We have to find the pride that has been forced back into some deep part of ourselves. The whites abused the age-old patience of the elders, but I know that deep down, our pride has not been extinguished.
It burns there like an ember waiting for a brisk wind to fan the flame.
And I swear, the first chance I get, I will be that wind.” – Nipishish from Good For Nothing by Michel Noël, pages 173-174
“I start to laugh the way I laughed when I was little. But now I’m a man. I know that I’ll never forget the residential school, the jail, but I like myself the way I am, and I know that I will follow my road right to the end, with pride and respect, no matter what the cost.” – Nipishish from Good For Nothing by Michel Noël, page 192
“Louis Riel was a Métis, just like me. He was born in 1844, exactly a hundred years before me. He wrote that one’s homeland is the most important thing in the world, and to take it from its people is as terrible as snatching little children from their mother just when they need her most. And that the government of Canada is guilty of doing exactly that to the Métis people.” – Nipishish from Good For Nothing by Michel Noël, page 194
“Manie has given us back our pride. For once I feel like a worthy descendant of my Anishnabe ancestors. I am a man with a great lineage. The earth, the water, the air are my very flesh, my breath, my blood.” – Nipishish from Good For Nothing by Michel Noël, page 213
“The wooden floor is freezing on my feet. It’s cold this morning. Winter has settled in for good.
I’m happy. A pale band of frost makes a pattern like transparent ferns on the window. Through the door you can see the silent valley. The trees stand like stone statues. Light flakes of snow dance on the wind in the frosty air.
The lake has turned white during the night. Trails of powder run down its back, mingle with the alders on the shore and swirl up to the tousled heads of the spruce trees.” – Nipishish from Good For Nothing by Michel Noël, page 245
“‘Tonight we Anishnabe are moose, because we are eating its flesh. It gives us life, and its blood mixes with our own. Be grateful to the forest, the mountain, the lakes, the earth, the stars and to all the animals in the universe who share their riches with us. Tonight we are all one. Let us live in respect for each other. Kitchi miguetch, thank you.'” – Old Mathieu from Good For Nothing by Michel Noël, pages 271-272
“But I am happy to see the coming of spring, to hear the water surge in the swollen veins of the earth, to wake up in the morning to the low, raucous song of the snow geese, to put my canoe in the water. Still, my heart will always skip of a beat when I think of winter. If its call is too strong, we will come back – Pinamen, the baby and me – to live with it again.” – Nipishish from Good For Nothing by Michel Noël, page 307
Good For Nothing by Michel Noël is published by Groundwood Books (1999, translated into English by Shelley Tanaka in 2004).
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