From the Ashes: My Story of Being Metis, Homeless and Finding My Way

From the Ashes is a remarkable, powerful, and deeply moving memoir by Métis-Cree author Jesse Thistle.

Using vivid detail and stunning prose, Thistle describes his life as a young Métis-Cree boy growing up in Canada. He shares his experiences with poverty, neglect, homelessness, addiction, and incarceration leading to his breakthrough as he rebuilds his life through recovery, education and reconnecting with his Métis heritage to becoming an Assistant Professor of Métis Studies at York University in Toronto.

Thistle's voice is authentic, his words and poetry beautiful, and his story is equally heartbreaking, courageous, and inspiring. He shares his darkest moments through the various stages of his life illustrating how family issues, trauma, personal decisions and a disconnect from one's culture, can significantly impact the trajectory of a person's life. He also shows how Canadian systems are influenced by systemic racism, classism, and overrun institutions.

From the Ashes is an outstanding memoir and it's no surprise that it was a finalist in the CBC Canada Reads 2020 and is A Globe and Mail Book of the Year. Well-written, honest, and full of heart, Thistle's life is a story about his tenacity, perseverance, and hope. This is a must-read.

My Rating: 5 stars

Author: Jesse Thistle

Genre: Memoir, Indigenous, Canadian

Type: eBook from public library

Publisher: Simon and Schuster Canada

First Published: August 6, 2019

Opening Line: The dead silence screamed danger.

Book Description from GoodReads: In this extraordinary and inspiring debut memoir, Jesse Thistle—once a high school dropout and now a rising Indigenous scholar—chronicles his life on the streets and how he overcame trauma and addiction to discover the truth about who he is.

If I can just make it to the next minute . . . then I might have a chance to live; I might have a chance to be something more than just a struggling crackhead.

From the Ashes is a remarkable memoir about hope and resilience, and a revelatory look into the life of a Métis-Cree man who refused to give up.

Abandoned by his parents as a toddler, Jesse Thistle briefly found himself in the foster-care system with his two brothers, cut off from all they had known. Eventually the children landed in the home of their paternal grandparents, but their tough-love attitudes meant conflicts became commonplace. And the ghost of Jesse’s drug-addicted father haunted the halls of the house and the memories of every family member. Struggling, Jesse succumbed to a self-destructive cycle of drug and alcohol addiction and petty crime, spending more than a decade on and off the streets, often homeless. One day, he finally realized he would die unless he turned his life around.

In this heartwarming and heartbreaking memoir, Jesse Thistle writes honestly and fearlessly about his painful experiences with abuse, uncovering the truth about his parents, and how he found his way back into the circle of his Indigenous culture and family through education.

An eloquent exploration of what it means to live in a world surrounded by prejudice and racism and to be cast adrift, From the Ashes is, in the end, about how love and support can help one find happiness despite the odds.