Author | Waubgeshig Rice |
---|---|
Language | English |
Release number | 1 |
Genre | Post-apocalyptic fiction; thriller |
Set in | Canada |
Publisher | ECW Press |
Publication date | 2 Oct 2018 |
Publication place | Canada |
Pages | 213 (paperback) |
Followed by | Moon of the Turning Leaves |
Moon of the Crusted Snow is a 2018 post-apocalyptic thriller novel by Waubgeshig Rice. Set in a rural Anishinaabe community in northern Canada, it follows a group of community members after they are cut off from the rest of the world amidst a societal collapse. A sequel, Moon of the Turning Leaves, was published on October 10, 2023. The novel was nominated for the 2019 John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Science Fiction Novel.
Evan Whitesky and his wife Nicole raise their two children on an Anishinaabe reserve in northern Ontario, Canada. The reserve loses power and all connection to the outside world, though the town’s generators are able to power essential services through the winter. Two college students return from the south, bringing stories of societal collapse. A white man named Justin Scott arrives on the reserve, seeking shelter from the chaos. The chief and council allow him to stay, though they do not trust him.
The council institutes food and electricity rationing. Two young women freeze to death after drinking with Scott. Another group of white people arrive at the reserve begging for food, and Scott shoots one of them. As conditions deteriorate, Scott’s influence increases and the band council’s diminishes. There is a riot at the food handout line, and Scott suggests that he has found an alternative food source. A body goes missing from the morgue; Evan suspects Scott of cannibalism. He and other community leaders confront Scott, who is cooking the body into a stew. Scott is shot and killed; Evan is shot as well.
In an epilogue two years later, the power has never returned and the community is returning to their ancestral way of life; Evan has survived. They leave the reserve for a new settlement.
Alicia Elliot of the CBC writes that many non-Indigenous horror novelists use "old Indian burial grounds" as an explanation for why white protagonists are haunted. They may also use plot devices such as viruses wiping out entire populations, which have actually happened to Indigenous populations. In contrast, Moon of the Crusted Snow begins when the power goes out and the community is cut off from the wider world. At first, the community does not recognize the gravity of the situation, since their phone and Internet connections are frequently disrupted. As more community members die, the protagonist Evan notes that northern communities such as the one in the novel are "familiar with tragedy". According to Elliot, this serves as a magnification of "generations of intergenerational trauma and genocide". [1]
The Literary Review of Canada wrote that the novel explores a "doubled apocalypse": the fictional breakdown of society is contrasted to the real historical and cultural genocide against the Anishinaabe and other First Nations Peoples. Justin, a white man, eventually cannibalizes a Native American corpse, serving as a metaphor for cultural genocide. [2]
In a review for Strange Horizons , Sean Guynes explored the concept of Anishinaabe "separation" from the "white world". Guynes wrote that the character of Scott and his appearance on the reservation underscored the band's separation from white Canada; Scott has a "fetish" for Indigenous women and misuses Anishinaabemowin words. The elder Aileen explains that the Anishinaabe were not originally an arctic people. They were driven from their ancestral lands by men similar to Scott. The band's reliance on white-owned convenience stores and white-owned power plants is a symptom of this earlier genocide. Additionally, Evan and Nicole have traditionally white names as a result of white influence on native names, language, and culture. Their children Maiingan and Nangohns have traditional Anishinaabemowin names, which indicates a return to a more traditional way of life. [3]
The Anishinaabe language appears frequently in the novel. The words are sometimes defined and sometimes only understood through context. There is no glossary or pronunciation guide. This reflects an intentional choice by the author, who wanted readers to "do [work] on their own" as a "part of active learning". [4]
Rice uses jump cuts in which time passes without explicit description, similar to the works of James Joyce. [2]
Katharine Coldiron compared the novel's tight focus to the style of Alas, Babylon by Pat Frank. Both novels describe the "eye-level" view of people reacting to a disaster. [5]
Rice stated in an interview with the Toronto Star that he had always been intrigued by post-apocalyptic stories such as The Lord of the Flies and The Chrysalids . After reading The Road , he wondered if he could put "an Indigenous lens" on that type of story. [6]
Moon of the Crusted Snow received praise from critics. Katharine Coldiron of Locus praised the novel's "slow, deliberate" prose, calling it a "humble but welcome addition" to the postapocalyptic genre. [5] Publishers Weekly called the book a "powerful story of survival [that] will leave readers breathless". [7] The Seattle Book Review gave the novel five out of five possible stars, calling it a "frighteningly plausible" story that "shouldn't be missed". [8]
The book saw a resurgence in interest after the COVID-19 pandemic. When one Quebec couple traveled thousands of miles to the community of Old Crow, Yukon in an attempt to avoid COVID-19, many users on Twitter compared the story to a plot point from the novel. [9]
In 2019, Moon of the Crusted Snow received the Evergreen Award, which invites people to read and vote on a selection of Canadian books curated by librarians. [10] It was nominated for the 2019 John Campbell Award. [11] In 2020, the novel was selected as Hamilton, Ontario's "must-read book" of the year. [12]
Winona LaDuke is an American environmentalist, writer, and industrial hemp grower, known for her work on tribal land claims and preservation, as well as sustainable development.
The Saulteaux, otherwise known as the Plains Ojibwe, are a First Nations band government in Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia, Canada. They are a branch of the Ojibwe who pushed west. They formed a mixed culture of woodlands and plains Indigenous customs and traditions.
The Anishinaabe are a group of culturally related Indigenous peoples in the Great Lakes region of Canada and the United States. They include the Ojibwe, Odawa, Potawatomi, Mississaugas, Nipissing, and Algonquin peoples. The Anishinaabe speak Anishinaabemowin, or Anishinaabe languages that belong to the Algonquian language family.
CBCS-FM is a Canadian radio station. It is the CBC Radio One station in Sudbury, Ontario, broadcasting at 99.9 FM, and serves all of Northeastern Ontario through its network of relay transmitters. The station's studio is located at the CBC/Radio-Canada facilities at 43 Elm Street in Sudbury.
The Lac Courte Oreilles Tribe is one of six federally recognized bands of Ojibwe people located in present-day Wisconsin. It had 7,275 enrolled members as of 2010. The band is based at the Lac Courte Oreilles Indian Reservation in northwestern Wisconsin, which surrounds Lac Courte Oreilles. The main reservation's land is in west-central Sawyer County, but two small plots of off-reservation trust land are located in Rusk, Burnett, and Washburn counties. The reservation was established in 1854 by the second Treaty of La Pointe.
Shingwauk Kinoomaage Gamig is a Canadian Indigenous-led institute, with Algoma University in Sault Ste. Marie as one of its main partners. Shingwauk Kinoomaage Gamig is one of nine Indigenous institutes in Ontario's post-secondary system and collaborates with other colleges and universities to offer post-secondary programs geared specifically toward Indigenous students.
Robin Cass is a Canadian film and television producer. He is most noted as the producer of John Greyson's film Lilies, which won the Genie Award for Best Picture at the 17th Genie Awards in 1996. He has also been a supervising producer for the CBC TV series Kim's Convenience.
Margaret A. Noodin (née O’Donnell) is an American poet and Anishinaabemowin language teacher. She is a professor of English and American Indian studies at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee and Associate Dean of the Humanities. She also directs a tribal Head Start program in Minnesota.
The Caldwell First Nation is a First Nations band government whose land base is located in Leamington, Ontario, Canada. They are an Anishinaabe group, part of the Three Fires Confederacy, comprising the bands Potawatomi, Odawa, and Ojibwa, whose members are originally of the Mikinaak (Turtle) and the Makwa (Bear) dodems. The Caldwell First Nation are a distinct and federally recognized Indian band and used to be referred to by such names as the "Chippewas of Pelee", "Point Pelee Indians" and "Caldwell's band of Indians."
Leanne Betasamosake Simpson is a Mississauga Nishnaabeg writer, musician, and academic from Canada. She is also known for her work with Idle No More protests. Simpson is a faculty member at the Dechinta Centre for Research and Learning. She lives in Peterborough.
Elizabeth LaPensée is a game designer and games researcher. She is currently the Narrative Director at Twin Suns Corp, a Seattle-based AAA studio. She has previously worked as an associate professor in the Department of Writing, Rhetoric, and American Cultures at Michigan State University. She studies and creates video games, interactive digital media, animation, visual art, and comics to express Indigenous ways of knowing.
Josephine Mandamin was an Anishinaabe grandmother, elder and founding member of the water protectors movement.
Cherie Dimaline is writer and a member of the Georgian Bay Métis Council of the Métis Nation of Ontario. She is most notable for her 2017 young adult novel The Marrow Thieves, which explores the continued colonial exploitation of Indigenous peoples.
Joanne Robertson Misko Anungo Kwe (Red Star Woman) is an Anishinaabe author, illustrator, and water protection activist. Joanne is a member of Atikameksheng Anishnawbek and is of the Bald Eagle clan.
Johnny Nurraq Seotaituq Issaluk is an Inuk actor, athlete, and cultural educator from Nunavut. He is best known for his roles in AMC's The Terror, the film Indian Horse, and in the BBC program The Misadventures of Romesh Ranganathan. In May 2019 he was named Royal Canadian Geographical Society's Explorer-in-Residence.
Waubgeshig Isaac Rice is an Anishinaabe writer and journalist from the Wasauksing First Nation near Parry Sound, Ontario. Rice has been recognized for his work throughout Canada, including an appearance at Wordfest's 2018 Indigenous Voices Showcase in Calgary.
Sheila North is a Cree leader and journalist, who formerly served as Grand Chief of Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak.
Paul Rabliauskas is a Canadian stand-up comedian, most noted as the star of the 2022 sitcom Acting Good.
Naawi-Oodena is an urban reserve in Manitoba. Jointly controlled by the Brokenhead, Long Plain, Peguis, Roseau River, Sagkeeng, Sandy Bay and Swan Lake First Nations, the 64-acre parcel is located near the River Heights and Tuxedo neighbourhoods of southwest Winnipeg, and is the largest urban reserve in Canada.