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- ISBN: 1-894692-00-4
- $12.95
- Fiction/First Nation
- 160pp
- 2001
A gentle, stunning literary voice emerges through the life of young Anna, growing up Métis in the Northwest Territories in the 1950s. In this perfect child's eye view of life, Frances Beaulieu tempers harsh physical and social realities with the love between a grandmother and granddaughter. Mommy Suzanne may come and go on the whims of white bureaucrats and the fierce mercy of alcoholic numbing, but Anna's God-fearing Ama provides comfort, home and laughter. In the company of friends T'atsun and Black Marie, Ama, who watched buffalo lick salt by the river as a child, guides Anna thoughtfully through the complex northern weave of colonial Canada. A gem.
"Beaulieu's characters and conversations are so immediate, so natural, they cease to live only on the page and take root in the reader's imagination, living on long after the book has been set aside. Little Buffalo River is, without reservation, one of the most exciting pieces of writing I've come across in recent memory."
The Yellowknifer
"…she has crafted a thoroughly absorbing fiction…"
The Toronto Star
"Her style is tough and evocative, hard-edged and poetic, her world the border between dream and nightmare. Irrepressible. A tale of persistence and validation. A major new talent. Literary award jurists take note."
Rotunda
"Beaulieu's collection of stories will appeal to readers on a number of levels. For those who want a 'good story' they are powerful, intimate and impossible to set down. For those who want to sift through them in more detail they are provocative and thought-provoking. Beaulieu has also given us a collection of stories that would greatly benefit the academic community not only for their value as works of literature, but also in the areas of native, ethnic and gender studies."
Herizons Magazine