Review: Troon Harrison - Red River Stallion
I have major difficulties remembering names. When I used to
teach, I had a plan of the classroom, who sat where, and their names. And I
needed that plan. When addressing pupils, Short Accountant Person, or Dark
Haired Woman Who Looks Petrified doesn’t really cut it. So it’s to Troon
Harrison’s credit that she has a heroine in Amelia Otterchild Mackenzie whose
name has stuck with me since I read it.
Amelia Otterchild Mackenzie is the heroine of this book, set
in Hudson Bay during the 1930s. Amelia and her sister Charlotte Bright Eyes are
on their own. They are half Swampy Cree – half white. Their Cree mother married
a man who went off up river, promised to send for them and never did. After
waiting years, Amelia’s mother married another white man, but he went back to
his country, Scotland. And now their mother is dead and Amelia and Charlotte
need to decide what to do.
When the book opens, Amelia thinks she’s going to die. Her canoe is being swept out to sea and she cannot stop it. But then she is rescued by her pawakan, her spirit guide – a creature she’s never seen before, which comes out of the fog, swimming to shore. Amelia grabs the creature by its long red hair and is towed to safety. It’s a wonderfully atmospheric piece of writing, the canoe being borne inexorably out to sea, and the strange creature appearing out of the fog.
The creature of course turns out to be a horse. Amelia,
Charlotte, Foxfire the horse, Olivia its owner (and a large crew) journey
upriver, so Olivia can be reunited with her husband, and Amelia and Charlotte
can look for their father. It’s a grim journey, and the author does a fine job
of putting over just what a desperate struggle it was to move to undertake such
a journey in this country. It’s a gripping story, well told.
A good historical story has to impart a serious amount of
information: the reader needs to understand the context in which the characters
are operating, and what governs their behaviour. This the author does well, and
to her credit, not blindly. I liked the nuanced view Troon Harrison takes of
Cree beliefs: she’s obviously firmly on the side of these people who live with
what the land gives them, and understand the souls of animals, but not blindly
so. They are not perfect: Amelia regards a fellow traveller up the river who
has epilepsy as a danger, who is turning Witiko, a creature with a heart of ice
that will devour them. Amelia’s world view is often a help, but here it is a
major hindrance. Had she only had the same view of epilepsy as Olivia, she
would have found vital clues to the whereabouts of her father much, much sooner.
I was completely absorbed in the world of this novel. The
author made me see the world through Amelia’s eyes and understand her way of
looking at it. The horse is splendid: a Norfolk Trotter, who is always
recognisably a horse. Amelia’s instinctive sympathy with the horse is
beautifully done.
This is a story about a girl learning to cope with life; using what she’s learned from her Cree upbringing and what she learns from those she encounters on her travels – a many and varied, and always interesting lot. There’s so much of Amelia some of the other characters don’t get quite enough space: sister Charlotte Bright Eyes is a somewhat vague presence considering the importance Amelia places on her, but Amelia Otterchild takes you through the story quite well enough.
Troon Harrison – Red River Stallion
Bloomsbury, 2013, £5.99; available as an ebook too.
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