For Joshua, Richard Wagamese
For Joshua, Richard Wagamese
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For Joshua
An Ojibway Father Teaches His Son

Author: Richard Wagamese

Narrator: Craig Lauzon

Unabridged: 5 hr 44 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Anchor Canada

Published: 07/09/2019

Synopsis

The heartfelt memoir from one of Canada's most beloved writers.

Staring the modern world in the eye, Richard Wagamese confronts its snares and perils. He sees people coveting without knowing why, looking for roots without understanding what constitutes home, searching for acceptance without extending reciprocal respect, and longing for love without knowing how to offer it.
He sees this because he lived it.
For Joshua Wagamese's love letter to his estranged son. Ojibway tradition calls for fathers to walk their children through the world and teach them their place in it. To teach them they belong. In this intimate memoir, Wagamese describes his own tumultuous journey--though childhood trauma, racism, and substance abuse--and his fight to emerge stronger. His road to self-knowledge has been long and treacherous, but this has furnished him, if not with a complete set of answers, then at least with a profound understanding of the questions. Hoping to impart his newfound understanding of the world onto his beloved son, Wagamese shares his search for happiness and the choices he has made to open himself up to it.

About The Author

RICHARD WAGAMESE, an Ojibway from the Wabaseemoong First Nation in northwestern Ontario, was one of Canada's foremost writers. His acclaimed, bestselling novels included Keeper 'n Me; Indian Horse, which was a Canada Reads finalist, winner of the inaugural Burt Award for First Nations, Métis and Inuit Literature, and made into a feature film; and Medicine Walk. He was also the author of acclaimed memoirs, including For Joshua; One Native Life; and One Story, One Song, which won the George Ryga Award for Social Awareness in Literature; as well as a collection of personal reflections, Embers, which received the Bill Duthie Booksellers' Choice Award. He won numerous awards and recognition for his writing, including the National Aboriginal Achievement Award for Media and Communications, the Molson Prize for the Arts, the Canada Reads People's Choice Award, and the Writers' Trust of Canada's Matt Cohen Award. Wagamese died at the age of 61, on March 10, 2017, in Kamloops, B.C. Starlight is his final work of fiction.

Reviews

Goodreads review by ❀ Susan on April 17, 2017

[URL not allowed] A beautiful, honest and reflective voice was silenced this March but lives on through the amazing books published by Richard Wagamese. His writing reflects his struggles with loneliness, belonging, alcoholism and homelessness. I am sad that I will never get to......more

Goodreads review by Kathleen on July 15, 2017

This book is eye opening. It provides the reader with a lot of reflection and things to take with them while they go about their day. Wagamese especially gives the reader a glimpse into an alcoholic's life along with being Native. I loved what Wagamese had to share about the Native/white man's analo......more

Goodreads review by Ambdkerr on May 28, 2017

This book ripped me open. I was given this book as a gift and was reading it when Richard passed away. His passing hurt my heart deeply. I finished reading it with tears and smiles and started right back at the beginning. In total I read it two and a half times before passing it on to someone who ne......more

Goodreads review by John on August 28, 2018

I have read three of Richard Wagamese's novels and have been very impressed. This is his first non-fiction book that I have read. It is written in the form of a letter to his six year old son, Joshua, who is living with his ex-wife and so he feels estranged from both of them. In the book, he tells o......more

Goodreads review by Debbie on March 17, 2017

Sadly I was in the middle of this book when Wagamese passed away much too soon at the age of 61. He is one of my favourite writers. Each book, especially his non-fiction have touched me personally and this one was no exception. His stories of heartbreak, loneliness, addiction and trying to pull out......more

Quotes

“[For Joshua] is revealing, open, and tragic. It is also a remarkably touching and well-written journey.” -- The Globe and Mail

“I hope that when Joshua does eventually read this book, he has the maturity to appreciate his father’s act of bravery, and to learn from it. For the rest of us, For Joshua is a fascinating and moving portrayal of one man’s search for his heritage, his true place in the world, and in the process, his discovery of himself.” -- Hamilton Spectator

“This well-written and perceptive book shows that it is possible for aboriginal people -- for any person -- to get back from there to here.” -- Quill & Quire

"Graceful and reverberating... A harrowing life story but also a ceremony, a gathering of traditional knowledge, and a love letter across the generations, For Joshua is a book we need, a book we can all treasure. Every page is infused with such tenderness and emotional intensity that I was shocked again and again with the thought: this is the true strength and reach and burden of love." -- Warren Cariou, author of Lake of the Prairies

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