Paper Postcards - Eden Robinson's "Traplines"

Linda focuses on Indigenous writers in this podcast in view of Orange Shirt Day (every child matters!) and the inaugural National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. She recommends several writers (some of them featured on 49th shelf), including Cherie Dimaline and Joshua Whitehead.

Postcards may offer glossy images of success or experiences that aren't real - instead, sometimes those images may obscure the turbulent underside of our lives. Beginning with her experience with depression (trigger warning), Linda addresses how misunderstandings arise from expectations about what one should feel and what one actually feels; she thus considers the Apple TV character, Ted Lasso, and his sage advice, "Be curious, not judgemental." She then looks at Eden Robinson's magnificent (and painful) story, "Traplines" (from the book of the same name, Traplines, published by Penguin/Random House) in which the narrator, Will, must navigate an abusive context (more trigger warnings) and try to discern how to act and what is options really are. All of this is rendered more complex by his deep sense of hunger (real and otherwise).

Then, in the Takeaway, Linda recommends Naomi Fontaine's Manikanetish (translated by Luise von Flotow, published by House of Anansi), which was shortlisted for the Governor General's Award. You can find a longer review of this book in the Montreal Review of Books.

She also thanks some of her listeners, including Arpita Ghosal at SesayArts Magazine.

If you are suffering from depression, please reach out and get support. You are not alone.

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