Product Description

A powerful coming-of-age story -- edgy, stark, and at times, darkly funny that centers around Larry, a Native teenager trying to cope with a painful past and find his place in a confusing and stressful modern world.

Larry is a Dogrib Indian growing up in the small northern town of Fort Simmer. His tongue, his hallucinations and his fantasies are hotter than the centre of the sun. At sixteen, he loves Iron Maiden, the North and Juliet Hope, the high school ìtramp.î

In this powerful and very funny first novel, Richard Van Camp gives us one of the most original teenage characters in Canadian fiction. Skinny as spaghetti, nervy and self-deprecating, Larry is an appealing mixture of bravado and vulnerability. His past holds many terrors: an abusive father, blackouts from sniffing gasoline, an accident that killed several of his cousins, and he's now being hunted and haunted by a pack of blue monkeys. But through his new friendship with Johnny, a Metis who just moved to town, he's now ready to face his memoriesóand his future.

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.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #89177 in Books
• Published on: 1996-09-01
• Original language: English
• Dimensions: .40" h x 5.56" w x 8.64" l, .39 pounds
• Binding: Paperback
• 128 pages

Books in Canada
The Lesser Blessed, by Richard Van Camp, is the first-person account of Larry Sole, a member of the Dogrib Indian tribe, who, after being sexually abused by his father, kills him in his sleep with a hammer and sets the house on fire. (The account in the Yellowknife newspaper reported that the contusions on the victim's head were a result of his falling down the stairs.) Larry is in the seventh grade when all this happens; when the novel opens he is in grade eleven, living with his mother, who is working hard to improve their lot in life by studying to be a teacher.

On the first day of school he notices a newcomer, a Métis named Johnny Beck. Johnny, with his tough-guy attitude, smart-ass remarks, and surly good looks, makes an immediate impression. Larry becomes Johnny's sidekick: "He was everything I wasn't. He was bad news but still.." This partnership leads Larry to a number of new and unexpected experiences, including standing by as Johnny dates Juliet Hope-the girl Larry himself loves.

Van Camp penetrates the lives of his characters with compassion and empathy, portraying an adolescent world that-at least in the consciousness of Larry Sole-transcends the fights, drugs, music, and sex that characterize the stereotypical high school experience. Despite their swaggering and false bravado, their pretence at indifference, Larry, Johnny, and Juliet are oddly moving, especially in their relationships with one another. Eva Tihanyi(Books in Canada)

Joseph Bruchac
"The Lesser Blessed is easily one of the most truthful, painful, powerful novels I've ever read."

About the Author
An internationally renowned storyteller and best-selling author, Richard Van Camp was born in Fort Smith, NWT, 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 BFA in Writing at the University of Victoria and completed his MFA of Creative Writing at the University of British Columbia. Richard was awarded Storyteller of the Year for both Canada and the US by the Wordcraft Circle of Native Writers and Storytellers.