Tanya Tagaq
Forfatter af Split Tooth
Om forfatteren
Værker af Tanya Tagaq
Associated Works
Satte nøgleord på
Almen Viden
- Kanonisk navn
- Tagaq, Tanya
- Juridisk navn
- ᑕᓐᔭ ᑕᒐᖅ
- Andre navne
- Gillis, Tanya Tagaq
Tagaq - Fødselsdato
- 1975-05-09
- Køn
- female
- Nationalitet
- Canada
- Fødested
- Cambridge Bay, Nunavut, Canada (Iqaluktuuttiaq)
- Bopæl
- Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Canada
Iqaluit, Nunavut, Canada - Uddannelse
- Nova Scotia College of Art and Design
- Erhverv
- writer
musician
singer
Medlemmer
Anmeldelser
Lister
Hæderspriser
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Associated Authors
Statistikker
- Værker
- 6
- Also by
- 1
- Medlemmer
- 385
- Popularitet
- #62,810
- Vurdering
- 4.0
- Anmeldelser
- 16
- ISBN
- 17
- Sprog
- 3
Split Tooth is the prize-winning debut work of Inuit throat singer Tanya Tagaq. The story is about an Inuit girl who grows up in Nunavut, northern Canada in the 1970s. It is part memoir, part magical realism and mythology and part poetry.
This is a difficult book to review as it is gritty, beautiful, tender, confronting and disturbing all at once. It deals with the harsh realities of life including alcoholism, domestic violence, sexual abuse of girls, rape, solvent and drug use. Through this though you feel like Tagaq is fighting for women and shows an inner strength and resilience. She says, “Forgive them they say. Forgive those that have hurt you. Don’t hang onto the past they say. You will only hurt yourself. The past has birthed the bricks that build my bones…. The past is the house of these breaths. I do not forgive and forget. I protect and prevent. Make them eat shame and repent. I forgive me.”
The book also gives a vivid insight into the natural world, and paints a picture of the rhythms, majesty and wild beauty of arctic life. It does not shy away from the brutality of nature and a life that leaves no room for empathy.
The difficulty for me was that the lyrical poetic feel of the book, and the transitioning from myth to reality, meant the narrative flow was lost and ultimately I had no idea what happened. The main character was sexually molested by a teacher, had sex with the Northern Lights and also a huge dream fox, and possibly was raped by someone else, gave birth to twins, or maybe she didn’t. The story had a fever dream or nightmarish quality to it.
If you do read this book the audio version is essential as there are strains of her unique throat singing between the chapters. Overall for me this was not a book I enjoyed or understood but it felt like a valuable and important read. 3.5 stars for me.… (mere)