Wow.
This is another book that I waited on too long to read. Joseph Boyden deserves all the praise this book received.
Three Day Road is about two Cree boys who join the Canadian efforts in World War I. Their bush skills and hunting are easily transposed to the trenches and sniper shooting and both become renowned for their kills.
The novel shifts between present day , Xavier’s Aunt’s visions and efforts to save her nephew from the morphine that is silently killing him while also keeping him alive , and Xavier’s flashbacks of his war days with his boyhood friend Elijah.
Elijah is the talker, the charmer and ultimately the one who is a little too good at killing.
What struck me most was the idea that there are men who are very good at war and when (if) they return to civilian life are unsettling and unsettled. Those who are good at war have difficulty that maybe those who are just lucky don’t have.
One of the characters “Fats” is perhaps lucky whereas Xavier is good. My inference is that Fats’ dumbluck will haunt him differently than the visions of killing that Xavier must contend with in his post-war days.
But the story isn’t about Fats, it’s about Xavier. And that story is very, very good.