Split Tooth

304 pages

English language

Published July 8, 2019 by Penguin Random House.

ISBN:
978-0-14-319805-5
Copied ISBN!

View on OpenLibrary

4 stars (10 reviews)

From the internationally acclaimed Inuit throat singer who has dazzled and enthralled the world with music it had never heard before, a fierce, tender, heartbreaking story unlike anything you've ever read.

Fact can be as strange as fiction. It can also be as dark, as violent, as rapturous. In the end, there may be no difference between them.

A girl grows up in Nunavut in the 1970s. She knows joy, and friendship, and parents' love. She knows boredom, and listlessness, and bullying. She knows the tedium of the everyday world, and the raw, amoral power of the ice and sky, the seductive energy of the animal world. She knows the ravages of alcohol, and violence at the hands of those she should be able to trust. She sees the spirits that surround her, and the immense power that dwarfs all of us.

When she becomes pregnant, she must navigate all …

1 edition

Actual rating 3.5

3 stars

I'm new to poetry. A lot of it goes over my head, but I do know that styles and subtleties can vary heavily between each poet. The poetry in this seemed lyrical. I enjoyed it and found it beautiful with being able to hear the emotion and intent behind each story portrayed by Tagaq. Highly recommend going with the audiobook so you can hear it, with an added bonus that she does throat singing between the sections. With that said, I did not grasp a lot of what was being told. I felt like I understood it completely but then when sitting down to think on it, I realized I didn't truly get what was being told. I'm not sure if it is due to the story not being meant for me or if I'm just a little too dense for deep lyrical stories.

I immediately want to re-read this

5 stars

Hold this memoir carefully in your hands knowing its sharp edges will cut you as you rush to turn the page. There is nothing fantastical about the myths that Tagaq blends into her story, only an undeniable truth. Euphoria and despair, curiosity and fear: opposites hold hands in this book and make the world whole.

Like Memory, Dream, Legend, Song

5 stars

I'm not even sure I can call this a novel so much as an experience. Intensely poetic and crass, the main character's narrative slips in and out of dreams and, by the end of the book, a character of legend. The unflinching look at childhood trauma can be difficult to read.

Review of 'Split Tooth' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

This was really good. In the middle of reading it I looked up the author’s throat singing on Spotify, and enjoyed adding that to the experience.

I did not fully understand what I read. I’m not sure how connected this is to indigenous stories and how much is the author’s imagination. When I started it I was like, woah, this will be an experience!

It’s a mix of poetry and prose. Poetry is not my strong suit, so I enjoyed the prose more. As the story goes on it gets more and more surreal. I feel like there’s so much to mull over. The style could have tipped over into “overwrought” for me, but it didn’t. The language was pretty simple, but so much was expressed, which is my favorite kind.

I do prefer books where I have more access to a character’s internality, but that may be a Western …

avatar for meeg

rated it

2 stars
avatar for isposdef

rated it

5 stars
avatar for elunedli

rated it

5 stars
avatar for samnabi

rated it

5 stars
avatar for LiminalFlares

rated it

5 stars

Subjects

  • Inuit literature
  • Poetry
  • Memoir