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Making Love with the Land

Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
1 of 1 copy available
#1 NATIONAL BESTSELLER
FINALIST FOR THE HILARY WESTON WRITERS' TRUST PRIZE FOR NONFICTION
Much-anticipated non-fiction from the author of the Giller-longlisted, GG-shortlisted and Canada Reads-winning novel Jonny Appleseed.
“Thrillingly cerebral. . . . Delivered with virtuoso aplomb.” —The New York Times

In the last few years, following the publication of his debut novel Jonny Appleseed, Joshua Whitehead has emerged as one of the most exciting and important new voices on Turtle Island. Now, in this first non-fiction work, Whitehead brilliantly explores Indigeneity, queerness, and the relationships between body, language and land through a variety of genres (essay, memoir, notes, confession). Making Love with the Land is a startling, heartwrenching look at what it means to live as a queer Indigenous person "in the rupture" between identities. In sharp, surprising, unique pieces—a number of which have already won awards—Whitehead illuminates this particular moment, in which both Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples are navigating new (and old) ideas about "the land." He asks: What is our relationship and responsibility towards it? And how has the land shaped our ideas, our histories, our very bodies?
Here is an intellectually thrilling, emotionally captivating love song—a powerful revelation about the library of stories land and body hold together, waiting to be unearthed and summoned into word.
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    • Publisher's Weekly

      August 29, 2022
      Novelist Whitehead (Jonny Appleseed) examines the relationship between queerness, the body, and language in his intimate first foray into nonfiction. In “I Own a Body That Wants to Break,” Whitehead reflects on his experience with disordered eating, finding that the root for the word body in Middle English means “trunk”: “Again this blanket of flesh is rooted in the land,” he writes. “Writing as a Rupture” considers genres and what autobiography means (“In what ways is an autobiography also an obituary?”), while “The Year in Video Gaming” examines how Fortnite served as “a medium for escapism, entertainment, and social enrichment” when his cousins turned to it after a death in the family. “My Aunties Are Wolverines” is a reflection on mourning, and “Who Names the Rez Dog Rez” asks “What does loneliness mean to a rez dog whose foot is wounded from a trapper’s coils?” Whitehead weaves Indigenous Cree language throughout the essays to powerful effect, and though his metaphors can at times be winding, he asks moving questions without resorting to simple answers—“Can a body be sovereign if you continually self-destruct it?” he asks, and “What does it mean to let go of the self?” Fans of the personal essay will relish Whitehead’s evocative, rich prose. Agent: Stephanie Sinclair, CookeMcDermid.

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Joshua Whitehead performs his essay collection, which centers on Indigiqueer identity and living in an Indigenous body in a society formed by colonialism. Each essay intimately presents Whitehead's perspective as he examines the world around him and works through discussions of intergenerational trauma, the stories of his family's experience, and Indigenous storytelling. Whitehead contemplates his personal pain and transformation, what they mean for him as an artist, and how these ideas will change his writing. Throughout the collection, much of Whitehead's narration remains emotionally removed from his deeply personal subject matter. With his stunning prose, Whitehead's writing is emotionally complex, but his performance is a missed opportunity to echo that emotional depth for listeners. K.D.W. © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine

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  • English

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