Sandy, Breaking the Pattern, has now launched! If you haven’t yet had a chance to pick up your copy, head on over to my blog post and pick up Sandy and some other great YA contemporary books now!
Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme. Read the rules and more teasers at The Purple Booker. Anyone can play along.
Wow, this one is an amazing read. In From the Ashes, My Story of Being Indigenous, Homeless, and Finding My Way, Jesse Thistle tells about the road he travelled, homeless and in and out of prison for decades before managing to overcome his addiction, enter university, and discover his Métis heritage while working on a BA in history. He is now a speaker on indigenous history, homelessness, and intergenerational trauma.
(Although I do not have direct experience with intergenerational trauma, I have also written about it in my fiction book Questing for a Dream.)
This is a great memoir. But it is very gritty and graphic and includes plenty of foul language, so don’t read it if you are sensitive to those things. But if you want to know what it is like growing up like Jesse Thistle, abandoned by his parents and mostly raised by his grandparents without access to his indigenous heritage, struggling to break the hold of addiction, this book is very enlightening.
It reminded me very much of Street Child, Justin Reed Early’s memoir of growing up on the streets of Seattle and San Francisco, addicted and facing many of the same challenges. Each of them even had a foot infection that nearly ended his life. Both books are gritty and graphic, but show just how strong the human spirit can be. Both of these men managed (with help and recovery programs) to overcome years of addiction and homelessness and are now helping others to do the same.
He promised her a life of sobriety.
Jesse Thistle, From the Ashes
Dad lasted three days before he drank himself into a stupor.
About the author:
Jesse Thistle’s award-winning memoir, From the Ashes, was a #1 national bestseller, and the bestselling Canadian book in 2020 and has remained atop bestseller lists since it was published. From the Ashes was a CBC Canada Reads finalist, an Indigo Best Book of 2019, and the winner of the Kobo Emerging Writer Prize Nonfiction, an Indigenous Voices Award, and High Plains Book Award.
Jesse Thistle is Métis-Cree and an Assistant Professor at York University in Toronto. He is a PhD candidate in the History program at York where he is working on theories of intergenerational and historic trauma of the Métis people. Jesse has won the P.E. Trudeau and Vanier doctoral scholarships, and he is a Governor General medalist.
Jesse is the author of the Definition of Indigenous Homelessness in Canada published through the Canadian Observatory on Homelessness, and his historical research has been published in numerous academic journals, book chapters, and featured on CBC Ideas, CBC Campus, and Unreserved. A frequent A keynote speaker, Jesse lives in Hamilton with his wife Lucie and is at work on multiple projects including his next book.
You can find Jesse Thistle at https://jessethistle.com/
Synopsis
This #1 internationally bestselling and award-winning memoir about overcoming trauma, prejudice, and addiction by a Métis-Cree author as he struggles to find a way back to himself and his Indigenous culture is “an illuminating, inside account of homelessness, a study of survival and freedom” (Amanda Lindhout, bestselling coauthor of A House in the Sky).
Abandoned by his parents as a toddler, Jesse Thistle and his two brothers were cut off from all they knew when they were placed in the foster care system. Eventually placed with their paternal grandparents, the children often clashed with their tough-love attitude. Worse, the ghost of Jesse’s drug-addicted father seemed to haunt the memories of every member of the family.
Soon, Jesse succumbed to a self-destructive cycle of drug and alcohol addiction and petty crime, resulting in more than a decade living on and off the streets. Facing struggles many of us cannot even imagine, Jesse knew he would die unless he turned his life around. Through sheer perseverance and newfound love, he managed to find his way back into the loving embrace of his Indigenous culture and family.
Now, in this heart-wrenching and triumphant memoir, Jesse Thistle honestly and fearlessly divulges his painful past, the abuse he endured, and the tragic truth about his parents. An eloquent exploration of the dangerous impact of prejudice and racism, From the Ashes is ultimately a celebration of love and “a story of courage and resilience certain to strike a chord with readers from many backgrounds”.
Library Journal
