Chiwid

Sage Birchwater's Chiwid presents a wide variety of collected memories concerning the life and times of Chiwid, an eccentric Native woman who spent the majority of her life living outdoors. Resilient and sturdy, Chiwid consistently braved -40 degree weather with nothing more than a thin sheet and a blanket of snow. I enjoyed the work because the voices of its multiple narrators were presented raw and uncut, their idiosyncratic grammatical and orthographical nuances unedited and intact. The historical, cultural, and sociological changes undergone by the Chilcotin plateau throughout Chiwid's lifetime form a substantial backdrop to the story, refreshingly provided by its local inhabitants.