Keeper'n Me

Marjorie Retzleff teaches English at Champlain College in Quebec.

Keeper ’n Me is not a novel—at least not in the traditional sense.
Rather, it is a description of the spiritual journey of a young Ojibway,
Garnet Raven. What exists as plot and conflict is almost drowned in
lengthy descriptions of the spiritual core of the Ojibway
culture—virtually sermonizing—as Garnet seeks to rediscover himself
as an Indian.

Garnet Raven of the White Dog reserve in Ontario is taken from his
family when he is three years old. In and out of foster homes, he
eventually finds a family in a group of urban black people. After a
stint in prison, he is reunited with his mother, sister, and brothers on
the White Dog reserve. There, with the help of his family and a reformed
alcoholic known as Keeper, Garnet learns how to become a true Ojibway.
Within two years, Garnet reaches a significant point in his quest: he
goes on a spiritual retreat to his father’s old trapping cabin, prays
according to Ojibway custom, and is rewarded by a significant dream.
Following this climax of the story, a large feast is held in Garnet’s
honor, and the reader knows that Garnet is now truly a redeemed Indian.

From a cultural-anthropological point of view, this is a moving and
informative book, and the reader learns much about what it means to be
Ojibway. However, as a work of fiction, it is too discursive, too
repetitious. It also is a bit tediously “noble savage” in many
passages, as Wagamese constantly contrasts good Indian ways with bad or
with seriously flawed white ways. None of the characters, not even
Garnet, ever really engages the reader’s interest or sympathy. Nor do
they reveal themselves through action or dialogue. The voice of Keeper
would be indistinguishable from that of Garnet except for the italics
and Keeper’s characteristic “Heh, heh, heh.” Throughout the book,
the educated voice of the author dominates, and the potential for humor
is frustratingly underdeveloped. Richard Wagamese has a long way to go
before being taken seriously as a writer of fiction.