I finally got around to finishing my second selection for the Canadian Book Challenge. Tomson Highway's Dry Lips Oughta Move To Kapuskasing is a play I've been meaning to read for a long time, ever since reading The Rez Sisters back in university.
All I can really say right now is wow. Or maybe ouch is a better word. This is a play that pulls no punches. While it has some wonderful wordplay and humour - and dialogue that dances between English, Ojibway and Cree - there is a darkness to this play that is almost painful. When the play turned tragic, I almost felt sucker punched. But it works well and I'm sure I will be thinking about this play for a long time to come.
The Ojibway and Cree passages were quite interesting. I found myself trying to sound out the words phonetically to get a feel for the language (translations are provided). While I was probably much less than successful, it intrigued me enough that I think I will seek out some books on those languages.
The only problem now is that I really want to see this play performed.
Where I go now in the Book Challenge is still up in the air. I'm working my way through The Torontonians. After that, I think I may tackle Kathleen Winter's story collection Boys and Leonard Cohen's first book of poetry (Let Us Compare Mythologies). That way, I've at least covered a wide spectrum of book forms. Then, I may get back into the Montreal books I had mentioned earlier. As you can tell, my list changes almost as often as the wind.
Well, it's way too late/early for me to be up flinging words around, so I think I will wander back over to my bedroom (with a good book in hand, of course).
2 comments:
I've been planning on reading Rez Sisters for a long time. Now I'm thinking I should skip it and go with this one. Do you have a preference out of the two?
It's really been so long since I saw/read the Rez Sisters that I cannot really say. I'd still probably opt for the Rez Sisters as it is the first play in the trilogy.
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