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Indians on Vacation: A Novel by [Thomas King]

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Rating: 4.2 (632 reviews)

Thomas King

Indians on Vacation: A Novel Kindle Edition

by Thomas King (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

4.2 632 ratings

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A #1 Indie bestseller and a Canadian bestseller for 22 weeks, the brilliant latest novel from one of Canada’s foremost authors

Inspired by a handful of postcards sent nearly a hundred years ago, Bird and Mimi attempt to trace long-lost uncle Leroy and the family medicine bundle he took with him to Europe.

“I’m sweaty and sticky. My ears are still popping from the descent into Vaclav Havel. My sinuses ache. My stomach is upset. My mouth is a sewer. I roll over and bury my face in a pillow. Mimi snuggles down beside me with no regard for my distress.

‘My god,’ she whispers, ‘can it get any better?’”

By turns witty, sly and poignant, this is the unforgettable tale of one couple’s holiday in Europe, where their wanderings through its famous capitals reveal a complicated history, both personal and political.

Print length

291 pages
Language

English
Sticky notes

On Kindle Scribe
Publisher

HarperCollins Publishers
Publication date

Aug. 25 2020
File size

1286 KB
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Product description

Review

"Reading Thomas King's INDIANS ON VACATION. Great grumpy dialogue + killer one-liners! Remind me not to irritate him. @HarperCollinsCA" -- @MargaretAtwood

“The beauty of King’s writing is that, like all good authors, it seems effortless. Like those words always have and always should be in that specific order on the page, and that was the way the great literary gods planned it. . . .I like reading Tom King because he does, succinctly and cleverly, what all good writers should do – he educates, illuminates and entertains with every paragraph.” -- Drew Hayden Taylor, author of Motorcycles and Sweetgrass

“From the first page, King’s sardonic and very funny voice leads us to places we never expect to go. . . European and Indigenous history collide and there’s no one better to examine the aftermath.” -- Toronto Star

“Funny and deeply sensitive…. Indians on Vacation presses sharply against the world with humour and heart – personalized demons and all.” -- Quill & Quire (starred review)

"Indians on Vacation is a witty, funny striking story that ponders the importance of history from the smallest personal connections to big-picture politics."
-- Vancouver Sun

“As more and more Indigenous writers create new and exciting works, trailblazers like King have endured. Canada, in turn, is better for it. . . . I could spend my time dissecting the skill in King’s writing, how he layers complex ideas and themes underneath his trademark humour (which is pretty much unmatched). . . . [R]eaders find essential truths King has laced within the narrative thread.” -- Daniel A. Robertson, author of Black Water

“[Bird and Mimi] are winning, funny protagonists: bickering, falling ill, eating bad food and confronting old truths. A sly and wise book.” -- Chatelaine

“King . . . winner of the RBC Taylor Prize for The Inconvenient Indian, offers armchair travel and wry observational truths about contemporary life in equal measure." -- Zoomer Magazine --This text refers to the paperback edition.

About the Author

THOMAS KING is an award-winning writer whose fiction includes Sufferance; Indians on Vacation, which won the Leacock Award for Humour; Green Grass, Running Water; Truth and Bright Water; and The Back of the Turtle, which won the Governor General’s Literary Award. The Truth About Stories won the Trillium Book Award, and The Inconvenient Indian won the RBC Taylor Prize, as well as the BC National Book Award for Canadian Non-Fiction. King’s first collection of poetry, 77 Fragments of a Familiar Ruin, was shortlisted for the Nelson Ball Prize. A Companion of the Order of Canada and the recipient of a National Aboriginal Achievement Award, Thomas King taught at the University of Lethbridge and was chair of American Indian Studies at the University of Minnesota. Following this, he taught at the University of Guelph until he retired. King lives in Guelph with his partner, Helen Hoy.

--This text refers to the paperback edition.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B082T2BQTK
Publisher ‏ : ‎ HarperCollins Publishers (Aug. 25 2020)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 1286 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 291 pages

Best Sellers Rank: #70,928 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #93 in U.S. Humorous Fiction
- #232 in Native Canadian Literature
- #288 in Native American Literature (Books)

Customer Reviews:
4.2 632 ratings

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Thomas King

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Thomas King is an award-winning novelist, short story writer, scriptwriter, and photographer. His many books include the novels Medicine River; Green Grass, Running Water; Truth and Bright Water; two short story collections, One Good Story, That One (Minnesota, 2013) and A Short History of Indians in Canada (Minnesota, 2013); nonfiction, The Truth About Stories (Minnesota, 2005); and the children's books A Coyote Columbus Story, Coyote Sings to the Moon, Coyote's New Suit, and A Coyote Solstice Tale. King edited the literary anthology All My Relations and wrote and starred in the popular CBC radio series, The Dead Dog Café. He is the recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award (2003), and was made a member of the Order of Canada in 2004. He has taught Native literature and history and creative writing at the University of Lethbridge, the University of Minnesota, and the University of Guelph and is now retired and lives in Guelph, Ontario.

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Customer reviews

4.2 out of 5

632 global ratings

5 star		49%
4 star		30%
3 star		15%
2 star		3%
1 star		3%

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Top reviews from Canada

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Kyle

Enjoyed the flashbacks throughout the story

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on November 8, 2022

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I enjoyed the way Bird and Mimi's past travels and experiences were interspersed with their current trip to Prague. Some of these flashbacks felt like they didn't add much to the plot, but it was cool to have glimpses into their past. I was waiting for it to come out that Bird was actually schizophrenic or something though. It seemed like his "demons" were too real. Also the way Mimi never met Oz had me suspicious.

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Rod in Forfar

You'll like the book, despite the cover.

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on November 6, 2022

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I didn't know what to expect from this book, my only clue being that King won the Leacock Award for humour. What I found was a pleasingly witty travelogue which my wife and her friends also liked.

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on January 27, 2021

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Last year, I decided to pick up a book by one of Canada's foremost authors. Thomas King is a household name amongst Canadians in the same way as Margaret Atwood is. Born a Californian, King spends most of his career teaching in Canada. His book, The Inconvenient Indian demolishes the false history and narratives about Native Americans in the US and First Nations people in Canada.
One of my goals this year is to read more books from Native American authors. It's not because I'm harboring some kind of obligation but because I know my ratio of books from different races versus white authors is a little wonky. Expanding my horizon, if you will. As well, I noticed how biased my choices are in learning about World History. I'm a Canadian who didn't go to school here, and who rarely follow our politics. This was my way of trying to learn: read more books from Canadian authors, particularly from Indigenous descent.

This book, is perhaps, an easy favourite. Not only for the ease of King's narrative, but also for the way he discussed social issues of class, race, displacement, and mental health so seamlessly that you won't noticed until you go back a few sentences to re-read. This book follows Bird and Mimi. They're on a quest to find some relic from Mimi's uncle. Clues were left via mail and post cards from Europe, and so the couple found themselves in Prague first.

From there, we see a perspective from this couple about their own history and their marriage as they witness the world around them. Throughout the story, we see Bird fall slowly to his illness; some sort of rheumatological disease that affects mostly Asian and Indigenous people. We also see him stroll all over Europe with the accompaniment of his "demons" -- which for us mere mortals, represent all the self defeating attitudes and mindsets that plagued us day in and day out.

As they run into Syrian refugees who came by boats to Greece, they're confronted by how easily they turn away from the needs of others. It also affected me in a way. Especially now that we are in a raging pandemic. People busking for coins on the street or intersections and I easily ignore them and say, well, I can't open the car door or window, now can I? Further reinforcing the fact that we could find excuses not to help out. Don't get me wrong, this book didn't come off preachy. It was just how we should think about our actions next time and how we could balance the good and the bad.

I especially love the relationship between Mimi & Bird. They've been married for a long time and it hasn't been roses and rainbows. But they remind me of how a marriage takes work, and understanding each other's flaws and misgivings only strengthen it over time. Indians on Vacations has its moments of seriousness and sharp humour, a perfect blend of sarcasm and realness that cut through its message laced with a slight flavour of world politics and banal married life.

10 people found this helpful

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Bob

Laugh aloud funny page after page

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on November 10, 2021

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My first Thomas King novel and I'll be quickly ordering a couple more....
Blackbird Mavrias and Mimi Bull Shield make one hell of a pair; he an American Cherokee with mixed Greek parentage, and she an Alberta Blackfoot. After meeting in California he is enticed - or shall we say charmed - into following her back to Canada, and they eventually settle and retire in Guelph, Ontario.
Now "Bird" is really a stay-at-home kind of guy who finds contentment in exploring his own 'backyard', but Mimi - somewhat driven by her mother but more largely be her adventuresome nature - loves to travel, broadly. Her quest is find a find a bundle (of undetermined contents) that her uncle Leroy took with him as he toured Europe with a wild west show a hundred years ago. The clues to his travels exist only as post cards he sent home from his travels. Bird, largely against his will, tags along and with him brings an assortment of personal demons (which Mimi has taken joy in giving human names) that make his life more than just occasionally unpleasant.
Anyway, it's a story of familial relationships that is mostly funny but also quite reflective, and interestingly shapes itself as a travelogue that introduces - or reminds - the reader of some very interesting people and places that exist outside our own sphere of existence.
More than happy - actually quite thrilled, to give Mr. King a double thumbs-up and (for whatever worth or weight it may carry) my highest recommendation! Read it and laugh, constantly.....

3 people found this helpful

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Mark S. Peppler

Layers of story, humour and fun

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on July 16, 2022

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King is really fun to read. He's pithy and thoughtful but has such a great sense of humour. I learn things even as he entertains me. I read The Inconvenient Indian first, and really appreciated that non-fiction foray into the history of settler privilege. It helped me understand KIng's sense of the modern, living Indian that he is. So it was only fitting I would read some of his fiction for which he is better know. I have really enjoyed this book.

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Carolyn

European trip. Conversations about systematic racism in North America

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on June 2, 2021

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Blackbird Mavrias, partly of Cherokee heritage and his long-time partner, Mimi Blackfoot are travelling through Europe. They are in search of a bundle of herbs and family souvenirs that Mimi's uncle brought with him to Europe when he joined a travelling circus a hundred years before. Bird is a writer but is stalled in his craft. He exhibits many moods, ranging from depression, despondency, distress, and discontent. Mimi has given each of these 'demons' separate names. He also has some pain, probably psychosomatic and diabetes. She is much more energetic and enthusiastic, always rushing off to popular tourist sites and trying to calm Bird's dark moods.

In this book, they are touring Prague we get flashbacks of their visits to other European countries, and to their lives back in Canada and the USA. In part, this works as a travel guide, with descriptions of sites of interest to the tourist, and ones to avoid. It was sometimes uncomfortable reading about their conversations which made me feel like an eavesdropper. It also touches on systematic racism, mistreatment of Indian people and tribes, and injustice in North America. .

3 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

T. J. Bryant

Thomas King goes walkabout

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on December 16, 2020

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My son, who passed away 4 months into the quarantine spoke eloquently about Thomas King’s ‘The Inconvenient Indian last year when we hiked together in BC. It led me to read and deeply appreciate this gifted writer who lives in the town I was born in. I wish I could talk to my son about this recent book from the mind of this Canadian treasure. He gets high marks from me.

4 people found this helpful

Ginny

Bad copy- some pages not printed!

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 29, 2022

Verified Purchase

Had to try to read it for book club!

Sandy Kiefner

Loved it

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on November 28, 2021

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Loved this book!

Dave the Rave

An inconvenient book

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on December 21, 2020

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a humorous take on post-covid travel.

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Indians on Vacation: A Novel Kindle Edition

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