MaidMerry reviewed The break by Katherena Vermette
Review of 'The break' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
This book deals with difficult topics, but the author never loses sight of the humanity of her characters. The characters are believable, and even the "villains" elicit some empathy from the reader.
Set in Winnipeg and dealing with issues many Indigenous people in the city face, this novel reveals the closeness of family, and the way families, especially the women, support one another during crises.
I had a few problems with this book. It's slow-paced. There are a lot of characters, and it can be difficult to keep track of them, although the author does provide a family-tree diagram. It takes the reader out of the story, though, to have to flip back and forth to look at it. This difficulty is compounded by the story being narrated through several characters' points-of-view. Finally, there is sometimes too much detail that seems significant but isn't. e.g. In one instance, a character …
This book deals with difficult topics, but the author never loses sight of the humanity of her characters. The characters are believable, and even the "villains" elicit some empathy from the reader.
Set in Winnipeg and dealing with issues many Indigenous people in the city face, this novel reveals the closeness of family, and the way families, especially the women, support one another during crises.
I had a few problems with this book. It's slow-paced. There are a lot of characters, and it can be difficult to keep track of them, although the author does provide a family-tree diagram. It takes the reader out of the story, though, to have to flip back and forth to look at it. This difficulty is compounded by the story being narrated through several characters' points-of-view. Finally, there is sometimes too much detail that seems significant but isn't. e.g. In one instance, a character is trying to think of his language teacher's name. ("Ben. That was his name. Ben. Ben what?") Then Ben never figures in the story again, nor does the character's memory difficulty have any importance. I feel this book could have used more editing to cut out extraneous and confusing detail like this and help the story move along more smoothly.
Overall, though, this was a good read, and Ms. Vermette is an author I would read again.
