William George Lindsay crafts a new classic of Indigenous lit with Rez Dog Blues & The Haiku: A Savage Life in Bits and Pieces
There is no question why Cree-Stoney author William George Lindsay chose to dedicate his debut novel “to those who didn’t make it.”
“There were no white hands on this book mediating any of the experiences or the language, so it’s ultrarealism at its best and worst,” said Lindsay. “It’s an insider tale, told by someone who was there, with no bulls–t.”Those who did make it through aren’t looking for any advice. Neither is he. After 50-plus revisions, this text is as concise and crystal clear as can be.
Even his own PTSD diagnosis from some of the events so viscerally described in the book couldn’t shake his determination to present a picture of Indigenous experience with all the jagged edges intact. But it didn’t seem appropriate for someone working in a public institution to put out a book recounting drug-fuelled back country cop car chases, to-the-point chapters such as Suicide Solution or the informative breakdown of often offensive local slang found in the segment titled Indian Argot.Article content
Across the many chapters, certain key lines such as “for I am Indian and my skin is brown,” “it all seemed so normal,” “it haunts me still” or “Mother Earth knows how to speak to her children” keep reappearing like chorus refrains. Along with the frequent non-traditional haiku poems that populate the pages, an even stronger sense of song structure is built into the book.