Book Review - Starlight

BY RICHARD WAGAMESE

BY BIANCA DUBOIS

Richard Wagamese is one of Canada’s most revered Indigenous authors. Wagames has written many famous novels such as Medicine Walk, Indian Horse and many more. His novels are thought-provoking and haunting as he explores the Indigenous condition. Most of his books strongly emphasize nature and the protagonist’s connection to the natural world. Starlight is Wagamese’s final unfinished novel. The novel was published posthumously with the blessing of his family with minimal editing. The novel may be a little raw and unpolished compared to his other works; however, it was a delight to read and an excellent farewell to an outstanding Canadian author.

Starlight comes as a sequel to Wagamese’s renowned novel Medicine Walk, with Frank Starlight continuing as the protagonist. Frank is now a rancher and photographer in interior British Columbia with his close friend and ranch hand. Starlight is deeply connected with nature and captures beautiful moments causing him to grow a following. While in town, Starlight helps a woman and her daughter who got caught shoplifting from a grocery store. After the woman faces losing her daughter to child services, he offers the woman a job and a place to stay. Emmy (the woman) and her daughter Winnie are on the run from her abusive ex-boyfriend, who is chasing them down.

Emmy and Winnie brighten up the ranch and force Starlight and his friend Roth to realize how empty their lives were before the girls arrive. Meanwhile, Emmy and Winnie learn to trust again in people and the natural world as Starlight shows them the beauty of the world around them and self-sufficiency. Wagamese masterfully crafts bonds between the characters and the land they are on without feeling too cheesy while raising tension and the stakes as Emmy’s ex gets closer and closer to their new idyllic lives.

Although the ending was rather abrupt, it felt like a natural pause to the novel. We may not know what the actual ending Photo from press.princeton.edu had in store, but it was still a lovely read full of growth, acceptance and found family. I would rate this book 4/5 because although I enjoyed it, it could have used some back and forth between the author and editors to clean up some passages. Nonetheless, I would recommend this book to Wagamese fans, along with any reader who enjoys character-driven novels. ◆