Wagamese novel an absorbing journey

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Keeper'n Me

By Richard Wagamese

Paperback, $13.95, 214 pages

Published by Doubleday

Former Windspeaker columnist Richard Wagamese has turned a spiritual quest into a moving, highly readable story in his first novel, Keeper'n Me.

Part autobiography and part fiction, the tale of Garnet Raven's reconnection to his family and culture is a tale of self-discovery. The journey begins when Garnet leaves the last in a series of foster homes at age 16, hitting the road with his thumb out and no particular place to go.

Raven wanted to be anything but Indian. Being yanked away from his home and family at the age of three and raised in white foster homes from that time on, he didn't known any Indians, except for a group of alcoholics on ski row a foster father once showed him.

With that image and those of TV Indians in his head, he tried to pass himself off as Chinese, Mexican, even Hawaiian - until he discovered the blues and became a wannabee black.

Raven was still in his black incarnation when he returned to the White Dog Reserve in northern Ontario, his birthplace and home to the rest of his family. There he meets his mother for the first time and starts to forge bonds with his brothers and sister.

But it is his relationship with Keeper, an Ojibway Elder and recovering alcoholic, that introduces Raven to his culture and spirituality. By setting an example and using his storytelling skills, Keeper helps Raven understand what it means to be an Indian.

It is through Keeper's eyes we see the evolution of a lost young man into an assured Indian at peace with himself and his surroundings.

Wagamese, a former columnist for the Calgary Herald and winner of a National Newspaper Award, displays his own considerable storytelling skills in Keeper'n Me.

He moves the story from poignant moments to hilarious anecdotes, while recounting a young man's acceptance of his own culture.

Windspeaker readers may be familiar with parts of Raven's story, as told by Wagamese in his columns. But his full-length novel offers much more insight into an intriguing past and the shaping of a modern-day storyteller.