Thought Train to Pusan

This is a bit of a difficult one to parse out my feelings: as a novel, Birdie has a lot of empathy and power in it, delving into an extremely human and complicated character that has had to deal with a lot of extremely difficult things. That is not to say that it is completely humorless, as there is some fun sprinkled into this book, but it is not exactly a fun read based on the subject matter. Yet, despite the voice being given towards a character representing an often underrepresented and uncared for group, this novel leaves some things to be desired in terms of the writing and clarity of it, sadly undermining a lot of the stronger aspects to it. Birdie follows the story of a Canadian Cree-Métis woman from Alberta named Bernice, as she now has journeyed to Gibsons, British Colombia, the home of a beloved aboriginal tv star from The Beachcombers. This motivation to move to Gibsons, however, is a minor piece to this novel, as through memories and dreams, Bernice...