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.

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.