Dreamspeaker

By Cam Hubert

Book Overview

First a multiple award-winning film produced for television, then a novel and winner of the 1978 Gibson Literary Award, then a perennial bestseller, Dreamspeaker is the powerful and deeply moving story of a boy caught between two worlds, who learns too late the healing strength of faith and love. In a desperate attempt to escape the institution where he has been committed and to exorcise the unnamed evil that haunts him, Peter Baxter runs deep into the forests of British Columbia. Hungry, injured and pursued by inescapable horror, Peter is rescued by an old Native Dreamspeaker and his mute companion. Through their teachings, Peter discovers the power of the Indian spirit world--and the courage to face his terror alone.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1550173642
• ISBN13: 9781550173642
• Release Date: April 2005
• Publisher: Harbour Publishing
• Length: 128 Pages
• Weight: 0.38 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 5.2" x 7.4"

Customer Reviews

A haunting story

I first saw this as a movie on CBC's "For The Record" film series in the summer of 1977. I was hooked into the story as its many elements and circumstances paralleled my own young life. I grew up in group homes and foster homes as an aboriginal ward of various child care agencies. I didn't understand the complexities of personal identity until later in my life but this story became the catalyst of change for me. I started exploring my aboriginal roots after seeing this film and turned what was a hopeful and beautiful story that ended horribly into a long journey on my path to peace and acceptance of my aboriginal roots. Today I am a proud father of two children who I recently took to a traditional powwow for a weekend of camping and dancing to the drum with our native brothers and sisters. I remember how struck with anguish I was with tears running down my face at the end of the film but I was also hopeful and determined not to let this happen to me. I highly recommend this story to everyone and I hope they have the courage to finish it to its wrenching conclusion.

An alternative view of what psychiatry calls mental illness

I first read this book ten years ago and instanlty loved it. I took my time about buying a copy, and it went out of print. I'm correcting that mistake today! The book is about a boy who, from time to time, experiences what modern mainstream psychiatry would call psychotic events (not to imply that those people could ever agree upon a diagnosis). He has had contact with social services and the mental health profession...no luck. He then runs into a native shaman. One of the definitions of "shaman" in the dictionary I have here is: one who "divines the hidden." The shaman teaches the boy that his episodes are not symptoms of mental illness, but symptoms of being one of "the chosen." If you think street people are crazy, if you think crazy people should be at least fixed, and probably locked-up in the process, if you own stock in the drug company which make lithium...this book my help.

We are not all the same...

Over the last fourteen years, I have lent out each of the 8 copies of this novel that I have owned...I am still waiting to get ANY of them back. This is a simple (and short) story of a boy trying to find where he belongs and how modern day society, with its rules and regulations, keeps thwarting his efforts. This novel is an excellent expose of the frailties of a society ruled by bureaucracy and conformity, instead of common sense and compassion. It is also a superb metaphor for the alienation and suppression of self that is a result of our current society and its domination by "big businesses". This novel poignantly attests to the fact that we are not all the same and the same answer does not work for everyone. In many ways, this novel explores the same issues as Pink Floyd's classic album, "The Wall"