Three Day Road by Joseph Boyden

 

     YES! I finally finished this book! When I finish a book like this, one that is incredibly deep and challenging, and takes me months to read, I say that I conquered it. So, I've finally CONQUERED Three Day Road by Joseph Boyden, the "beast" as I've been calling it. I don't want to dissuade you from reading it though, because it's actually a great book and I highly recommend it.

     Let me explain why this book is so challenging. To begin, Boyden's writing is lyrical and literary. Almost every sentence creates such vivid pictures in your mind because of Boyden's use of intense imagery. Each line is chalk full of literary devices including metaphors, anecdotes, symbolism, and alliteration, to name a few. While this type of writing is brilliant and unique, it can be difficult to read 380+ pages of it because you have to decipher each line's meaning.

     To continue, Boyden's writing is challenging because it is not something that can be zipped through. It's not a quick read at all. It's taken me MONTHS to read this book! Normally, I would have given up on a book this deep and challenging, but it's just so good, that I couldn't stop. Now, mind you, I only read this book during silent reading in my classes so I didn't devote enough time to it.

     Furthermore, Three Day Road is challenging because of the content. Let me provide a summary and explain why it's difficult to follow.  The story is told from two different perspectives, flip-flopping from chapter to chapter. The longer chapters are told from Xavier's perspectives and then the next chapter moves to his Aunt Niska's perspective. They are Cree Native Canadians in the early part of the 1900s before, during, and after WWI.

     Xavier, or X, is travelling with Niska in a canoe by river. Xavier has just returned from war, wounded, addicted to pain medication, and forlorn. He recounts his time in the war with Elijah, his best friend. Most of the book is X's flashbacks to the war and Niska's flashbacks to her early life.

     In their past, Xavier's parents die and Niska learns about her sister's disappearance and decides to rescue X from a residential school. Elijah, another residential school student, wants to join X and his aunt so he escapes from the residential school too. The three live together in the wild, feeding off the land, learning to hunt, and practicing traditional Native life. When they become adults, X and Elijah decide to enlist in the war. The majority of the flashbacks in the story recount their time as soldiers, primarily in the trenches. Wow! What an experience. They become snipers and X describes Elijah's descent into madness as he becomes more and more successful at murdering the "Fritz".

     Boyden clearly did a great deal of research into WWI and Native Canadian soldiers. This book highlights the successes of Natives and focuses on something that most history text books of the past do not: the amount of Natives who participated in the war and how valuable they were. I did not know much about this aspect of trench warfare so, as I've mentioned in previous blogs, I love when a book teaches me something new about a topic in which I thought I was well versed.

     This book also includes a lot of Cree language, which was interesting. The chapter titles are in Cree with an English translation underneath.

     There are two things that I did not particularly like about the book, so here is my warning to you. For one, the book is incredibly violent. As I mentioned, Boyden is a talented writer who creates phenomenal imagery in his readers' minds. So, when describing the violence of the war, such as scalping the enemies, it can be a little much to take! There are a number of very disturbing scenes, including one with an innocent mother and child. However, I completely understand the need for this violence, as it accurately depicts what WWI was like. I thought I understood the atrocities of trench warfare, but now I know much, much more!

     For another, I did not like Boyden's choice to give away one of the main characters' fates at the beginning of the novel. I don't mind when an author foreshadows an event, but in this case, Boyden directly tells his audience what happens to a character at the beginning of the novel. Of course, we don't learn until the end of the book how this character received this fate, but we still know his fate nonetheless.

     Also, there are a few very graphic sexual scenes in the novel. Their inclusion is necessary for the plot development, but some people may not appreciate them, so that is the reason why I am warning you.

     I do highly recommend this book because it's beautifully written, insightful, educational, and deep. If you read this book, your reading level is elevated and you too can also say that you conquered this beast! Give it a try. Boyden's writing is worth the challenge!