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A Fair Country (2008)

by John Ralston Saul(Favorite Author)
3.85 of 5 Votes: 2
ISBN
0670068047 (ISBN13: 9780670068043)
languge
English
publisher
Viking Canada/Penguin Group (Toronto)
review 1: John Ralston Saul is not an author you quickly read and I must confess, the first time I tried to read this book I gave up after about 100 pages. BUT I knew there was something there I needed to understand and learn. So I opened it again and approached it as if I were in conversation with Saul. Suddenly the pages came to life and I was gobbling up the book. Saul's respect for the First Nations of Canada is profound and inspiring. I love his articulation of Canadian society and how it is rooted in aboriginal engagement--a high place from which we have sadly fallen. He convincingly places the success of Canada's diverse society in the roots of our nation that go back 400 years--well beyond the BNA. His argument that we are fundamentally a metis society--that the subcons... morecious of Canada that drives our engagement with the world is neither European nor American but Aboriginal melded with French and British migration--is as refreshing as it is groundbreaking. If you read only one book about Canada, make it this one.
review 2: If I were to go on and write on every line Saul provides to the great Canadian public I feel rather dumbed daily on how this man appeals. His arguments are all riddled. So much for an intellect, ever Aboriginal person is his brother, why it's quite fair to disagree. It's appalling for "the" representative of Canada on the most donned intellectual is only 70% right most of the time, or all the time. Disappointed, we are all so easily sold on our fantasies. Not cynical or rhetorical or madly negative rather just glad I am thinking. This book took me back to 1997 Siamese Twins, A Triangular reality, you'd think we'd learn. less
Reviews (see all)
pop
This book taught me things I didn't know, and put them together in a unique and valuable way.
Flame
many of these essays describe Canada as a metis culture; dry writing
Charlie
Ispiring, depressing, controversial... loved it. Must read!
Mary
Dumb. Don't waste your time.
decemberlord
Painful
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