Totem

On the whole, this story of a white orphan boy raised in a native residential school had a lot of compelling details and a decent plot. I enjoyed the magical shift to the past, although I found it somewhat predictable, and I appreciate that Maruno clearly made an effort to truly depict the horrors of the residential school and to carefully imagine early pacific northwest tribal life.

What I don't get is why the main character of the book is white. I also don't really find it believeable that this character should somehow be able to demonstrate master level carving skills after spending such a short time learning that trade. It is not exactly clear how long he spends learning, but he watches the creation of one pole, then comes back to his current day life with a magical ability to not only carve the poles, but also understand all the symbolism of each character and accurately depict them. Sorry, I flat out don't buy it. And if the plan is for it to be a magical ability, why didn't the native character come back with a similar magic ability?

Debbie Reese is going to have a field day with this one.

My copy provided by Edelweiss.