Five Little Indians by Michelle Good

Taken from their families when they are very small and sent to a remote, church-run residential school, Kenny, Lucy, Clara, Howie and Maisie are barely out of childhood when they are finally released after years of detention.

Alone and without any skills, support or families, the teens find their way to the seedy and foreign world of Downtown Eastside Vancouver, where they cling together, striving to find a place of safety and belonging in a world that doesn’t want them. The paths of the five friends cross and crisscross over the decades as they struggle to overcome, or at least forget, the trauma they endured during their years at the Mission.

Fuelled by rage and furious with God, Clara finds her way into the dangerous, highly charged world of the American Indian Movement. Maisie internalizes her pain and continually places herself in dangerous situations. Famous for his daring escapes from the school, Kenny can’t stop running and moves restlessly from job to job—through fishing grounds, orchards and logging camps—trying to outrun his memories and his addiction. Lucy finds peace in motherhood and nurtures a secret compulsive disorder as she waits for Kenny to return to the life they once hoped to share together. After almost beating one of his tormentors to death, Howie serves time in prison, then tries once again to re-enter society and begin life anew.

With compassion and insight, Five Little Indians chronicles the desperate quest of these residential school survivors to come to terms with their past and, ultimately, find a way forward.

Genre: Historical Fiction

Publication Date: April 14, 2020

Pages: 304

My Thoughts

This stories historical background is founded on the crruelties of the Canadian Indian residential school system. The stories of Kenny, Howie, Clara, Maisie, and Lucy, although fictional characters but based on events that occurred, give me a deeper understanding of what many children went through.

The stories move along pretty quickly and I found myself sucked into the stories of each of the survivors. Some of the stories are particularly heartbreaking. The chapters move back and forth between characters as get older and we begin to see how they cope with what they've been through. For some of the characters, their ways of coping are dysfunctional, and they are consumed by it. Pain can be an endless black hole. One character is driven by revenge; others channel their anger through activism, taking up the struggle. Still another character raises her child and just muddles through because sometimes that's all we can do. They only have each other to turn to because who else could understand? There are no easy answers, and the book is about surviving and finding a way to move forward -- if you can. It was a good book and I give it 5 stars.