Thread: In Review: Three Day Road - Joseph Boyden

BOOK: THREE DAY ROAD
AUTHOR: Joseph Boyden
Genre: Fiction set against a historical background.
Rating:



THREE DAY ROAD
Reviewed by MJ Preston

I recently finished Joseph Boyden's: THREE DAY ROAD and wanted to write a few words about this finely crafted piece of historical fiction. Set at the end of the Great war, Niska, an Oji-Cree medicine woman ventures into town to retrieve her only living family member Xavier Bird, who returns from the battlefield missing a leg and addicted to morphine.

Told in the first person from both Xavier and Niska's point of view, we learn about what struggles have brought them to this point in time. While Niska recalls her childhood, Xavier recounts entering the war with his Cree friend Elijah Weesageechak (Whiskyjack) and the transformation they undergo from mere soldiers to snipers and an eventual fall from grace.

This story is a testament to not only what a horrible toll the great war took on the men who fought in it, but also to the desecration of a people and their culture. Boyden puts you right there on the battlefield and guides you between past and present with almost mystical ease.

They paddle North into the Ontario bush as Xavier prepares to die and Niska uses every bit of her strength to try and save him from the darkness that engulfs him.

This is truly a remarkable story told by an exemplary writer. I highly recommend this book, which is the first in what will be a trilogy about the Bird Clan. The second in the series is called: THROUGH BLACK SPRUCE, and the third has yet to be written.

MJP