White Eyes

Description

Unquestionably a Cape Breton Classic! Larry Gibbons was brought to a Mikmaw First Nation Reserve by a woman?s love, and was privileged to live there for ten years. He emerged with White Eyes—a collection of brilliant stories nurtured by native acceptance and what for Gibbons was a whole new world of indigenous possibilities, strange sights and insights, and an often parallel world. Gibbons lived the down-to-earth day-to-day reserve life that was infused with the rich spiritual experiences of their everyday encounters and dreams. And out of this rare communal treasure, Gibbons discovered himself as a writer, creating this compassionate, often comic and absolutely unique book called White Eyes.

Through these 16 stories, Gibbons grows from an interested, horny and slightly inebriated outsider to a person more in touch with his own capacities—from the confused and vulnerable white guy joking about the spirit world that pervades the Mi’Kmaw world. to a person more respectful of the people who shared their lives with him.

A singular achievement, Mi’maw linguist Bernie Francis described this book as a white man having “a hellava time understanding reserve life.” D. R. MacDonald recognized the “real energy and an honest voice” in Gibbons’ writing, and Sheldon Currie called these “wonderful stories, a loving clash of cultures?funny, warm and sensitive.”

Additional information