The Lesser Blessed - by Richard Van Camp (Paperback)

About the Book

"With two additional stories and a new introduction by the author"--Page 4 of cover.

Book Synopsis

PEOPLE MAGAZINE'S TOP 10 'ESSENTIAL FICTION, NONFICTION,
MEMOIR AND SHORT STORIES BY NATIVE AMERICAN AND INDIGENOUS AUTHORS TO ADD TO YOUR LIST'

The coming-of-age Indigenous cult classic.

Internationally praised and the subject of a critically
acclaimed film, Richard Van Camp's bestselling novel about coming of age in
Canada's North has achieved the status of an Indigenous classic. This special
20th anniversary edition features a new introduction from the author, as well
as two short stories that follow the lives of the novel's main characters.

The Lesser Blessed tracks the exploits of Larry Sole, a
Dogrib teenager living in the small Northern town of Fort Simmer. After losing
much of his memory in a violent accident, what he loves more than anything is
reading, hearing and collecting stories. With no interest in booze or sports,
he floats on the edges of high school life, sustained by his love of Iron
Maiden and a hopeless passion for school hottie Juliet Hope. When good-looking,
trouble-seeking Johnny Beck moves into town, he shakes up Larry's dreamy
existence and leads him into a life of sex, drugs and violence, bringing him
face to face with memories that he's done his best to lose.

The Lesser Blessed is an eye-opening depiction of what it is to be a young
Dogrib man in the age of AIDS, disillusionment with Catholicism, and a growing
world consciousness.

Review Quotes

"Its halcyon moments are cigarette scorched, and it has teeth--lots of them. The Lesser Blessed stood apart in 1996, and there has yet to be anything like it." --Booklist

"I believe in very few things, yet The Lesser Blessed, as dark as it is bright, is the only book I've ever read that had me thinking a paradise exists." --Morgan Talty, award-winning author of Night of the Living Rez, in People magazine

"Van Camp really shows how to write about youth with trauma, and his book was not only instructive for my own writing but also revelatory in the ways it helped me articulate things I couldn't before--the ways it opened me up to my own past and healed me with the power that is fiction." --Morgan Talty in Shondaland

"The Lesser Blessed is a treasured time capsule, but one that is still relevant and familiar today. Few elements have changed in Canada's North. It's rough, raw and real. It's about finding ground and losing ground, reaching for a lost language and finding a new one that sometimes only love and ravens understand." --Vancouver Sun

"...the writing is in places startingly original, and the story completely compelling...This novel, like all challenging fiction, is filled with awful, unavoidable truth." --Quill & Quire

"In this powerful and very funny debut novel, author Richard Van Camp gives us one of the most original teenage characters in Canadian fiction...This 20th anniversary edition of a true Canadian literary classic from Douglas & McIntyre is unreservedly recommended." --Midwest Book Review

"Van Camp doesn't turn away from the experiences high school kids have with drugs, sex, and fights, but he doesn't glorify these moments either." --American Indians in Children's Literature

About the Author

An internationally renowned storyteller and best-selling author, Richard Van Camp was born in Fort Smith, Northwest Territories, and is a member of the Dogrib (Tlicho) Dene Nation. He acted as a cultural consultant for CBC Television's North of 60. A graduate of the En'owkin School of Writing in Penticton, he completed his Bachelor of Fine Arts in Writing at the University of Victoria and completed his Master's of Creative Writing at the University of British Columbia. His new baby book Welcome Song for Baby: A Lullaby for Newborns is the official selection of the Books for BC Babies program and was given to every newborn baby in British Columbia in 2008. Richard was awarded Storyteller of the Year for both Canada and the US by the Wordcraft Circle of Native Writers and Storytellers.