Three Day Road ***

By Joseph Boyden
Published by Penguin Books,
1st Published by Viking Penguin
2005

OK - I knew I would get behind but sheesh! I have at least 5 blogs to do, counting this one, and I continue to read so more blogs will be necessary. Until then, I think I need to take a break from films until I catch up. I can't take a break from reading since I have a lot of obligatory reading to do - plus I wouldn't want to anyway. So these will be short and sweet.

Three Day Road is an antiwar book about pair of Native American friends that go to the Western Front in WWI and hale from a tribe in western Canada.

It's a coming of age story since the two young men start out naive and end up grown up at the end of the book - ravaged and scarred, but grown up. They end up being snipers for their group which gives them some perks the ordinary soldiers don't have, yet they still encounter plenty of horrific incidents. In fact they, especially the Elijah, commit some atrocities themselves. Which is all well and good since this is war, and this behavior is expected to a certain degree, at least against enemy soldiers. But Elijah takes it too far and starts to enjoy the killings while at the same time becoming addicted to Codeine (medicine). He starts to lose his sanity and humanity.

His partner, who is the narrator and never really receives a name but his Christian name is Xavair and his great aunt simply calls him nephew, also has his sanity tested. And though it is clear that Elijah has lost it, there is a more subtle question about the narrator's sanity.

Meanwhile, there is a subplot going on with the great aunt of the narrator. She is an outcast from her tribe and also has magical powers. (Ever notice that the witches and magical people in many stories are always cast out from the villages and live alone in the woods - this character is no exception.) Her role as a priestess (for lack of better word) is to kill the demon that possesses her tribe members and consequently the person carrying the demon. People get the demon by committing cannibalism. And here is the link to the main narrative. Elijah is committing cannibalism either literally (he comes back from a kill with blood smeared over his face) or metaphorically.

An interesting theme is the idea of justice in this book. Does the great aunt have the right to kill these people? In most cases the cannibalism was committed out of desperation. For instance one woman was stuck out in the woods with her husband and her baby. The husband tried to provide sustenance, but could not find any. He ended up freezing to death. He also ended up providing that sustenance since the wife and the baby ended up eating him. Of course these people were killed when they came back from the tribe. The great aunt's father, who did the killing and passed on his powers to his daughter, was arrested for murder by the white civilization.

My first instinct is to say, well, you can't murder, no matter the cause. These people are not necessarily bad because they committed a desperate act. The wife did not murder her husband. Perhaps they could hold on to their sanity in spite of the harrowing conditions given the chance, but the tribe never gives them a chance. They are killed. And sure, the victim goes nutty when they return to their village, but wouldn't most people lose it too if they knew they were about to be killed. The same questions has to be asked about the soldiers when they come back - in the past or even today. After being so severely mentally scarred, they do get a chance for rehabilitation. Some make it, some don't. What would be the future of the survivors when they come back - a question for me that looms large in the book.

The author clearly knows his stuff and demonstrates it with scene after scene of harrowing war action. Gripping at first, but then perhaps a little too much. Some might say, and did in my book discussion group, that they got the point. Of course we as readers can say enough already, but a soldier can't and maybe that's the point.

Over all a very good book.