Lisa Bird-Wilson

I'm always sad when a book I'm enjoying has structural issues. This one includes a schematic called "Ruby's Relationship Web", which would be much more helpful if it was not hand-written and in a larger font (for 70 year old eyes). After I finished, I went back and wrote down the main characters and dates in order to truly understand who was who in Ruby's life. That said, it was a fine novel, and chronological order would have improved this tale of a Metis (Native and French) woman given up by her mother's mother and adopted into an unstable white family, with the social worker's assumption that it was better than nothing, considering the baby's dark skin and hair. Ruby's lack of knowledge of her birth family really gnaws at her and is mostly the underlying cause of her many regrets. She's not at all unlikable, but she is frustrating. Despite these drawbacks. I really enjoyed the series of linked short stories about Ruby, her indecisions, and her wrong decisions. She's a very strong and unique woman, and the parts featuring indigenous characters are the highlights.… (mer)

This book was a mixed-up mess. It jumped from time frame to time frame and back again. Each chapter had a new person's name that we hadn't really heard before and in order to figure out who the name referred to and where it belonged in the story, i had to remember the date at the beginning, and try to fit the piece in the puzzle.. I'm not sure if I'm just dim, or if this kind of non-chronological story is difficult for me to follow because I don't think I quite got the idea of what the author was trying to say throughout the book. I did manage to finish it, but that was mostly because I hoped it might make sense in the end (which it didn't. I also liked brave, rough and ready Ruby, and how she survived horror after horror in her life. Who knows, maybe Ms. Bird-Wilson used this type of story formatting to solidify the haphazardness of Ruby's life? If that was her intention, she certainly succeeded. The book did make me think of all the other lost little children out there like little Ruby. Every child deserves a safe, happy and loving life, but so many don't experience that. The book is worth a read for the insight it provides into a part of our Canadian life.… (mer)