Maracle’s First Wives Club released by Theytus

Renowned First Nations author Lee Maracle’s new book “First Wives Club: Coast Salish Style” has just been released by Theytus Books.

Maracle is a member of the Sto:lo Nation of British Columbia and has had a career that has spanned a period of more than 30 years.

She has produced novels, short fiction, and essays. Some of her acclaimed works include Ravensong, Sundogs, Bent Box, I Am Woman, Will’s Garden, Daughters Are Forever and Bobbi Lee, her legendary first book.

She has also co-edited My Home As I Remember and Telling It: Women and Language Across Cultures. Her work has also appeared in many anthologies.

“First Wives Club” is an amusing collection that takes you on a journey through various life experiences, as an Aboriginal woman, university professor, activist and lastly as a single mother.

One of her stories in the First Wives Club: Coast Salish Style” titled “Goodby Snauq” speaks of the mythical Raven and how the Raven has shaped us and built us for transformation. It is a transformation that Maracle relays in story about the history of her people and the struggles they had to endure from colonial contact, the disenfranchisement and “dredging and altering” of her homeland, and how they “could not gain citizenship or manage their own affairs” unless people disavowed who they were: Squamish, T’sleil Waututh, Musqueam, Cree or whatever they came from.

Maracle’s ability to weave stories together is amazing and this collection does not disappoint. She writes each story uniquely and addresses such issues as female sexuality and creative empowerment, loss and strained relations, and she fuses all genres of writing in a tone that is candid and holds nothing back.