Overall a fun-ish read! I think this novel Deep Rivers was very interesting and I especially like the authors descriptive writing style. Throughout the book there was a strong focus on Indigeneity which was shown in many ways. To me the representation of Indigenous culture through nature and music stood out the most. In Ernesto’s experience nature has this sense of magic, especially when he is near the river. The river is something that is living\u00a0 (aligning with the title of the novel), not just a background setting. The river seems to understand Ernesto, personifying it. Music also holds a lot of memories for Ernesto. I found it interesting how the power\/magic of nature seems to fade when Ernesto is at the boarding school ( a very white colonial place). This reminded me of how nature is often treated in our modern society as something to be used. This goes against the reciprocal way many Indigenous communities understand their relationship with nature ( from what I know).<\/p>\n
Ernesto being mestizo (mixed) also connects to this idea of water which is always flowing and sometimes branches out etc. Throughout the novel, he himself reminds me of the river as he is constantly moving between two cultures that he is part of . This made me think about people who grow up in different countries, like children of immigrants or first-generation kids. Even though the situation isn’t exactly the same, there is still a sense of being culturally mixed and learning how to exist as different versions of yourself depending on the context. This can be confusing and can make it really difficult out where you really belong.<\/p>\n
The boarding school experience in the novel also felt very relatable to me. Ernesto being sent to a Christian boarding school reminded me of when I transferred from a public school to a Christian private school in middle school. One thing I didn\u2019t really enjoy about the novel was that Ernesto often seems like he is mostly observing instead of making choices. Sometimes it felt like he was just there, which made parts of the story feel slow. However, I did like that by the end of the novel he finally chooses his own path.\u00a0 I also enjoyed learning new words from a language I was largely unfamiliar with before reading this book. I think the title Deep Rivers is very fitting as seen in the multiple ways it the idea of rivers fits into the novel from Ernesto’s identity to just how deep seated Indigenous culture is, to how important nature is.<\/p>\n
Question; I wonder what a sequel to this book would be like, especially since it ends when change is just starting and many things are left unresolved?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Overall a fun-ish read! I think this novel Deep Rivers was very interesting and I especially like the authors descriptive writing style. Throughout the book there was a strong focus on Indigeneity which was shown in many ways. To me the representation of Indigenous culture through nature and music stood out the most. In Ernesto’s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107676,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/rmst202palak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/rmst202palak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/rmst202palak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/rmst202palak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107676"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/rmst202palak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/rmst202palak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/rmst202palak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22\/revisions\/23"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/rmst202palak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/rmst202palak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/rmst202palak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}