Split Tooth

304 pages

English language

Published July 7, 2019 by Penguin Random House.

ISBN:
978-0-14-319805-5
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4 stars (3 reviews)

TW: Sexual Assault

From the internationally acclaimed Inuit throat singer who has dazzled and enthralled the world with music it had never heard before, a fierce, tender, heartbreaking story unlike anything you've ever read.

Fact can be as strange as fiction. It can also be as dark, as violent, as rapturous. In the end, there may be no difference between them.

A girl grows up in Nunavut in the 1970s. She knows joy, and friendship, and parents' love. She knows boredom, and listlessness, and bullying. She knows the tedium of the everyday world, and the raw, amoral power of the ice and sky, the seductive energy of the animal world. She knows the ravages of alcohol, and violence at the hands of those she should be able to trust. She sees the spirits that surround her, and the immense power that dwarfs all of us.

When she becomes pregnant, she …

1 edition

Highly recommend the audiobook

3 stars

Actual rating 3.5

I'm new to poetry. A lot of it goes over my head, but I do know that styles and subtleties can vary heavily between each poet. The poetry in this seemed lyrical. I enjoyed it and found it beautiful with being able to hear the emotion and intent behind each story portrayed by Tagaq. Highly recommend going with the audiobook so you can hear it, with an added bonus that she does throat singing between the sections. With that said, I did not grasp a lot of what was being told. I felt like I understood it completely but then when sitting down to think on it, I realized I didn't truly get what was being told. I'm not sure if it is due to the story not being meant for me or if I'm just a little too dense for deep lyrical stories.

Like Memory, Dream, Legend, Song

5 stars

I'm not even sure I can call this a novel so much as an experience. Intensely poetic and crass, the main character's narrative slips in and out of dreams and, by the end of the book, a character of legend. The unflinching look at childhood trauma can be difficult to read.

avatar for MaidMerry

rated it

3 stars

Subjects

  • Inuit literature
  • Poetry
  • Memoir