Strangers in the House: A Prairie Story of Bigotry and Belonging

Nature writer Savage (A Geography of Blood: Unearthing Memory from a Prairie Landscape) blends memoir, reportage, and history in this entertaining profile of the old house “with a view... of downtown Saskatoon” that she acquired in 1990. A deed search establishes her as the eighth owner of the home built in 1928 by Napoleon Blondin; a kitchen renovation reveals “bits of flotsam” abandoned by the Blondin family. When a pair of 21st-century Blondin sisters emerges during her research, the author meets the family, including Napoleon’s son Chuck, who greets Savage “like a long-lost cousin” and provides much of the family history the book recounts. Savage narrates how the introduction of rail travel in Canada in the late 1800s drew 400,000 Quebecois west with the promise of a better life, and charts the tension between the Protestant Orange Order and Catholic French speakers that brought in the KKK, who burned crosses on Catholics’ lawns. Despite the anti-Catholic sentiment, Napoleon’s fortunes rose in the early 20th century, but following crop failure caused by a severe drought in 1919, he was forced to move his family farther west. The book’s charm lies in its first-person narrative, which poignantly conjures the Blondin family’s challenges along with the author’s reactions to historical events. Owners of older homes will appreciate the curiosity that spurred the author to embark on this project. (Sept.)