In 1962 a Mi'kmaq family from Nova Scotia travel to Maine to pick berries. One day the two youngest, Ruthie (4) and Joe (6), spend their lunch time sitting on a rock together. At some point Joe leaves Ruthie and moves down to the lake alone. He is the last person to see Ruthie. She seems to vanish into thin air. The family searches for her diligently for the whole month they are still in Maine, devoting every hour they aren't picking berries looking for her. Joe is wracked with guilt, fearing somehow it is his fault she is gone. At the end of the summer the family is forced to return to Canada without their daughter. Joe's guilt and grief of all family members shape the rest of their days. One event and the trajectory of each of their lives are irrevocably altered.
Meanwhile the story shifts to focus on Norma, a young girl growing up in Maine with an aloof father and an overbearing mother. She is told that her memories of another life, another mother are just dreams and nevermind there are no photos of you as a baby. There had been a fire which burned them all up. Her skin is darker than hers because of an Italian relative.
Norma grows up knowing something about her life is off and continually searches for the key which will open up her past. Joe lets his anger and grief get the best of him and he spends the rest of his life trying to run away from them. The chapters alternate between Joe and Norma, who the reader already knows is really Ruthie. "The novel is less concerned with maintaining a mystery than with exploring how brutality ripples out, touching everything and everyone in its wake. Peters beautifully explores loss, grief, hope, and the invisible tether that keeps families intact even when they are ripped apart" (Kirkus Reviews).
Will the brother and sister meet before it is too late for both of them?
On the fringes of the story is the indigenous stories of racism and brutality, of forced boarding schools, and poverty. A story where whites are not condemned for kidnapping while natives are not even given any help in locating a lost child. It is a heartbreaking story.
As I prepared for our book club, question #9 in this discussion guide states that ultimately The Berry Pickers is about forgiveness. That statement brought me up short. Do whites deserve forgiveness for the wretched way they have historically treated the First People of this continent? "Sorry. We were bad. Get over it!" I am going to have to sit with this thought for a while. Maybe, in terms of this story, self-forgiveness is what Joe needed and what ultimately brought him home to his family. And that IS a good thing.
Rating: 4 stars.
2024 Twenty Books of Summer Challenge
20 / 20 books. 100% done!
-Anne
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