The Orenda, by Joseph Boyden

In The Orenda, Joseph Boyden shifts first-person perspective between three main characters: Bird, a Wendat (Huron) warrior, Snow Falls, a Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) teenager who has been adopted by Bird (after he killed her family in a fit of vengeance), and Christophe, a French Jesuit missionary who comes to live among the Wendat (Christophe is loosely based on a real-life Jesuit, Jean de Brebeuf). The book is a fictionalized account of what occurred during the formative years of Canadian colonization (~ 1640 – 1650) in the area that is now central Ontario (the Georgian Bay area). The different points of view signify a joint responsibility for French colonization and loss of culture, and the first-person accounts by the characters are, I suppose, an attempt to provide a balanced perspective of what occurred; however, the Haudenosaunee are represented as aggressors and antagonists in the novel and their voice, their point of view, is not well represented.

Orenda is the life-force contained in all things; people, animals, plants, stones, et cetera (somewhat similar to The Holy Spirit, Chi, et cetera).

The Orenda is a well researched historical novel, but I always approach any version of history with a grain of salt; historical accounts are recorded from a certain perspective, and the reader can never be assured of an unbiased rendering. Nevertheless, The Orenda is a book that should be read by anyone interested in the birth of colonial Canada; as such, the novel could be used as a school resource to spark discussion, although the depictions of torture are quite brutal in some sections.

I don’t think the torture scenes are as excessive as some reviewers have reported: some scenes are quite grisly, but I don’t think they are gratuitous; they add to historical context. There has been criticism regarding what some consider a disproportionate depiction and measure of torture scenes (apparently, some First Nations’ groups have insisted that this type of sadistic torture was discontinued hundreds of years before the events in the novel and that Boyden relied too heavily on the biased accounts of Jesuit’s journals. There is no way of knowing what really happened; records are subjective. This is a fictional account, and it is generally agreed that the torture described in the novel occurred at some point, so I don’t have a significant concern with these scenes in the book). Incongruously, the torture in the novel is referred to as ‘caressing’; the scenes are cruel, but are depicted as part of the culture: the torture, and a warrior’s bravery during sessions of caressing, is significant to the mood of enmity and mutual respect between the Wendat and Haudenosaunee. The caressing is not performed to garner information; rather, it is undertaken as a vindictive/spiritual ritual, and a demonstration of domination (it should be remembered that torture is still used by modern-day, supposedly civilized, humans).

The story is quite interesting, but I found that some of the sections dragged, especially those depicting mundane events. The three main characters are well-portrayed: they are flawed, but noble people; however, their personalities didn’t fully engage me until the very end. I would have enjoyed more information regarding the spiritual aspects of these First Nations peoples and there was a fascinating woman in the novel — Gosling, an Anishinaabe shaman — who would have made a wonderful point of view character.

The Bird family seems to be Boyden’s genealogical connective tissue throughout his novels (perhaps his three novels are presented as a generational trilogy); one of the main characters in The Orenda is Bird, and the protagonist in Three Day Road — set mostly in the years around WW I — is Xavier Bird, who I suspect is a descendant of Bird from The Orenda; and Boyden’s 2008 novel Through Black Spruce, which is set in present day Ontario, is also apparently populated with Bird’s descendants. Boyden’s novels are stand-alone stories, but they appear to have a connection of sorts, which is alluded to near the end of The Orenda.

As a novel, I preferred Joseph Boyden’s Three Day Road; but, as an absorbing portrayal of my country’s history, The Orenda is fascinating literature.

Recommended.

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