Tomson Highway knows how to tell a story. He takes big topics like language, gender, creation and death and leads us through Greek, Christian and Indigenous mythologies to try to get us to some sort of truth and understanding. The book was very good. I'd like to go back and listen to him lecture as I imagine there is something lost without him actually delivering the content. I did very much enjoy the book - though by the end, I felt a little hammered with the message that everything I grew up with (Greek and Christian mythologies) was wrong.

Many thanks to the publisher and to NetGalley for providing a digital ARC for review!

I chose to read Laughing with the Trickster — a contribution to the CBC Massey Lectures series by noted Indigenous author and playwright Tomson Highway — on the occasion of Canada’s second National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, and it was perfectly suited to the occasion. Over five chapters — examining language, creation, sex and gender, humour, and death — Highway shares personal stories, Indigenous mythology (particularly focussed on Trickster tales), and compares how language and creation myths from around the world set the tone for how a society decides to live within these five areas; easily making the case that colonialism (and the imposition of English and Christianity on Indigenous peoples) not only separated colonised people from their own culture and history but also forced them to adopt a more restrictive and frightening worldview. Thomson lays out these truths with a generosity of spirit and good humour, and this is the sort of informative and accessible book that should be widely read and widely taught as we seek reconciliation with our First Nations. Very highly recommended.