Tomson Highway’s beautifully written novel Kiss of the Fur Queen is delightfully bizarre and mystical, tender and heartbreaking. It begins in 1951, when caribou hunter Andrew Okimasis wins the World Championship Dog Derby, is kissed by the Fur Queen, arrives home in triumph and nine months later welcomes baby boy Champion (Jeremiah) Okimasis. Two years later, the caribou hunter’s wife gives birth to their twelfth child, Gabriel. The young Cree brothers grow up on Mistik Lake in Northern Manitoba, where at the age of seven, children are flown south to Birch Lake Residential School, run by the Jesuits. Anyone aware of Canadian history will know sexual abuse was rampant at these schools. Tomson Highway himself was born on an Indian reserve and sent to a Residential school. He knows firsthand what went on there. His book does not sugarcoat this knowledge.
Jeremiah and Gabriel are two incredibly gifted boys. Jeremiah’s musical talent leads him to a career as the first Indian pianist while Gabriel dances his way to cities around the world. Both must deal with the abuses suffered at the Residential School in their own unique ways. Jeremiah by suppressing it, which leads to a life half-lived, drowning in alcohol, and Gabriel by embracing his sexual proclivities which leads to disease. Neither is able to overcome the past, but for Jeremiah, after years of struggle, there is hope in catharsis through his art.
Worse than the sexual abuse, though, seems to be the loss of culture, of language, of religion that alienates these boys from both their own people and the white man’s world. The Cree in Northern Manitoba have been forced to embrace Roman Catholicism and their myths and shamans deemed evil, never to be spoken of. At the Residential School, Cree is forbidden, and so the boys struggle to walk in both worlds, never truly fitting in. It’s a horrific account of the alienation of an entire generation of native peoples, with consequences that continue to trickle down through the years.
Kiss of the Fur Queen in an enchanting book filled with myth, sorcery, heartbreak and the essence of humanity. It is a book I wholeheartedly recommend.
Till next time, happy reading!
L :)
| TBR = 4 | WPL = 3 |
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