📚 A Song Over Miskwaa Rapids by Linda LeGarde Grover 📚

Thanks to netgalley and @uminnpress for the advance ebook.

After reading In The Night of Memory by this author earlier this year for @indigenousreadingcircle , I jumped at the chance to read this on netgalley. It's a very short novel, about 150 pages, and it focuses on two points in time - a present day story about the Sweetgrass area and allotment that Margie holds, and a day in the 70s that has a long lasting effect on the region, and especially Dale Ann. There are spirits who are involved with the story, most often as observers but sometimes with actions that set things in motion. Looking at the synopsis for her novel, The Road Back To Sweetgrass from 2014, I think it would be wise to read that book before reading this, since it seems to give a lot of the backstory on Dale Ann, Margie, and Theresa. Even without that info, I liked this book and enjoyed being back on the Mozhay land and around these character groups that I got to know in Night of Memory.

#ASongOverMiskwaaRapids

Gripping prose with a moving and mystical plot. I loved the mischievous ancestors.
Many thanks to University of Minnesota Press and to Netgalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

After a slow (and somewhat confusing) start, it becomes clear that this is a story of “mischievous” ancestors intervening in the lives of family. It’s about land, and connections, old traumas and hauntings. Margie is preparing to fight to keep her family’s land, and there are buried secrets that the ancestors work to uncover to help her. There are also buried connections that come to light in unexpected ways.

It’s a pleasant read, but it didn’t feel like it really got going until the middle of the book. The switches of perspective could also be perplexing, scattered as they were throughout the narrative. Family connections were not always clear, but that may be from my not having an understanding of cultural practices in that community. I was also less than satisfied with the big reveal at the centre of the novel, and its resolution.

Still, a pleasant way to pass the time. Thank you to University of Minnesota Press and to NetGalley.

I found it quite confusing to follow the story at first since so many characters were introduced so rapidly which made it hard for me to feel engaged right away. That being said I loved the theme of an indigenous people fighting for their land and I always enjoy an intergenerational saga.

I am always a fan of stories that have multiple timelines and I appreciated the author's ability to keep them separate. I didn't get lost in time with events and characters and the way the book was written made it easy to get through. The writing was truly easy to read and the book was well paced.
However, this book did have some information and maybe even some characters that felt unnecessary. It wasn't any particular example, more so it is the feeling I had after finishing it.

A 50-year old secret is literally unearthed on fictional Ojibwe reservation in northern Minnesota. It was a really an interesting setting and I am always interested in stories about land developers and people trying to preserve their community and that was really woven in all throughout the book. I really felt like I was there!

The chorus aspect of the storytelling makes this one a bit challenging to follow at first, but I'm glad I stuck with it. Ultimately, I very much enjoyed the story and will be recommending this one to fans of literary fiction. The atmosphere is lovely, and the mystery is compelling. .The author brings the setting to life in a remarkable way.

I was provided with an e-galley of the book by NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an unbiased review, and these opinions are my own.

I love the kind of meandering prose of Grover - and honestly, more than anything else, I really enjoyed how she made this reservation and all those inhabiting it come so vividly to life in her way that I genuinely felt transported from my home all the way to northern Minnesota, to a place that doesn't actually exist yet feels so very real.