Three Day Road

This story is of Xavier Bird and Elijah Weesageechak also known as Whiskeyjack, two James Bay Cree, who signed up together and became famous snipers in the Canadian Army during the First World War. The novel is a poignant tale of brutality and survival.

It opens with Xavier returning home, missing a leg and addicted to morphine, his days are also numbered. His aunt Niska greets him at the train station and together they begin a three day canoe journey home. On their travel, Niska recounts stories of their youth and in return Xavier graphically recounts the horrors he and his friend Elijah faced.

Boyden's detailed and colourful writing immerses his reader into two contrasting worlds. Niska's is rich in native culture and harmony with nature, the other, Xavier plunges the reader into the atrocities of war. Both are driven by the will to survive.

In addition to the central characters the story is stocked with many other memorable and wonderful secondary players. Xavier and Elijah's characters and some of their exploits are modeled after the real life experiences of Francis Pegahmagabow (known as Peggy) an Ojibway Indian, an honoured sniper of WW1.

The pace of the story is steady and holds ones attention firmly, it is highly captivating and a page turner one hard to put down. I highly recommend it.

THIS BOOK WILL DRAW YOU IN AND NOT LET GO!

The reviews of this book are generally positive, but I would not agree that it's a "page-turner".
It follows two young Canadian natives, who fought in WW1. It has accurate facts; about the Ross Rifles that jammed, the introduction of the creeping barrage, the futility of trench warfare, and the realities of trenchfoot. They refer to the Germans as Huns, Boche or Fritz, which was accurate for WW1. The brutality of war is portrayed well, as they are involved in many key Canadian battles, like the Somme, Vimy Ridge, Hill 70, Ypres, Amiens and Passchendaele.
This book gives the reader a better understanding of natives, their view of non-natives, the treatment of the natives by "whites", the horrors of residential schools, and the pagan practices of the natives, which this author apparently paints in a "noble savage" light. But the cannibalism, murder and black arts made me have a hard time liking the characters. He also misunderstands, misrepresents and mocks Christianity, having only the example of Catholics at residential schools.
The author's description of how these isolated Indians viewed the outside world was funny. The first time they saw a car, they couldn't figure out how it moved, and hypothesized that the man must be pedalling it.
It is beautifully written. An example was the old woman's description of her first look at a steam train. "the old ones call it the iron toboggan...the one bright eye shining in the sunlight and the iron nose that sniffs the track...the people in front of me tense, then move closer to the track, not further away as I would have expected...it whistles like a giant eagle screaming, so close now I must cover my ears...I watch the beast pull up and give one last sigh, as if it is very tired from the long journey, smoke pouring from its sides."
Early on, Xavier, who doesn't speak as much English as Elijah, is in training to go to war. He would rather sleep under the stars. He gets Elijah to teach him how to ask, and practices for a day before he gets it right. Elijah tricks him, and has Xavier go to the officers and say, "May I be so bold as to request different sleeping quarters? Perhaps outside away from the atrocious snoring of my fellow soldiers?" It was not well received. :(
Also, although I admire the skill of snipers, this shows that you can't kill like that, and not have it affect you, eventually.

A book people shouldn't miss, Boyden's novel put a touching twist on what could have been another standard WWI novel. His characters were appealing, his juxtaposition of hunting in the woods versus the hunting in war was interesting. His writing was beautiful, filled with emotion. I am recommending this book to everyone I know!

Three Day Road weaves a story of tradition and war viewed through the eyes of the aboriginal people of Northern Ontario. The first person narrative, which jumps between the young sniper Xavier during his anguish in the trenches of WW1 and his traditional aunt living deep in the wilderness of Ontario, makes clear the burden of war on the soul. A great read that not only lets you live the daily life of the soldier, but the intricacies of a luminous culture.

Two Cree hunters enlist in WWI and become the best snipers around in the trenches in France. This is told in parallel with their lives and those of their Aunt who comes to fetch the lone survivor as she paddles him back home. The strong sense of the Cree old ways as well as the horrors of the trenches envelope the reader and make this a hard book to put down. The Three Day Road is the road the Cree believe your spirit walks after you die to get to it's final destination.

I hate war stories and I didn't want to read this book, but people so consistently kept recommending it, I thought I'd give it a try. Although I found it boring at first, the further into the story you go the more it pulls you in! It's written from a highly original and interesting perspective, and you don't realize how multi-faceted it is until you're quite a ways through it. By that point, you're completely hooked! A very pleasant surprise indeed, even though the subject matter of the book is far from pleasant.

Boyden has woven a tapestry of images and emotions that falls head and shoulders above any other war novel of the period, or perhaps ever written.

Elijah and Xavier are two innocent native boys, raised the old way after escaping residential schooling in pre-WWI northern Canada. When the war sweeps across Europe, the two boys sign up for a chance at adventure. Through their eyes, and that of their aunt Niska, Boyden takes you on a journey beyond any other. Revealed is the truth of war and loss of innocence, yet, their grassroots Aboriginal perspective leads to deeper revelations on the nature of life itself. Told with elegant style and incredible gripping power, this is one novel you do not want to miss.

Right from the first page, I knew I had to keep reading this book.

This is not a book that would normally make it to the cashier in my hands, but I happened to pick it up at a friend's house and couldn't put it down - I had to run out and buy it to finish the last few chapters! First, it is based on the true story of an Ojibway hero – this alone is reason enough to read it because there are very few non-aboriginal Canadians who have any understanding of the contributions of aboriginal people in our history. This gentle, quiet aboriginal boy joins with the Canadian forces in WWI at the urging of his rather flamboyant best friend. The story captivated me from the start – the relationship between the two boys, their immersion into a totally different world than the one they grew up in, the shock and horrific realities of war, how they survived, their memories of growing up at home, their struggle to remain connected to their spirit… This is also a story of the boy’s amazing aunt who is a type of seer who managed to rescue herself from the reserve and the two boys from residential school, and yet seems to have lost them to another country’s war! Highly recommended read.

While the echoes of the canons of WWI fade into history, sadly the stories of the veterans disappear also. What Boyden accomplished in this work, is to bring to life the narrative of a much too often neglected aspect of our history, the role of Native veterans in Canada’s wars. This is an important topic to address, and Boyden does this with eloquence and grace. Perhaps, Boyden’s greatest accomplishment is by highlighting the role of Native women in society. This book should become a mandatory book for all Canadians.

This book has me completely riveted. Boyden has captured my interest with incredible story-telling and character descriptions. Knowing that it is partly based on a true story gives you even more food for thought. This man deserves to win the Governor General's Award!!

This is a must read for anyone who is interested in the experience of Canadian soldiers in World War One or the native experience at the beginning of the twentieth century. The two plot lines flow beautifully while Xavier is taken home along the northern rivers by his elderly aunt. In rich prose, she tells her story in an attempt to restore the life force of her dying nephew. Yet, like Sebastian Faulk's Birdsong, this story is also rich in detail of life in the trenches as Xavier relives his year's the BEF.
Canadian writing at its finest.

Don't miss this book.

I was overwhelmed by this story of young Xavier heading off to a war he didn't understand, and his old Auntie who helped him live after he returned broken in body and spirit. It's not often a Canadian historical novel comes along that is as captivating a story as this one, told from a different perspecive from your typical war story.

I was deeply touched by this tale, and would recommend it to anyone interested in our history, and the role Native Canadians played in the wars.