Secret Path by Gord Downie, Jeff Lemire

​I wasn’t familiar with Gord Downie’s work and picked up this book solely based on Jeff Lemire’s name. Now Lemire’s work I know well and love, as both writer and artist. In this slim volume, he’s employed as only the latter. The inimitable craggy features and large expressive eyes are all Lemire.
But turns out, it isn’t just a book. More of a properly illustrated expanded booklet that a CD might come with. And what I originally thought were poems are actually songs. Which makes perfect sense, because their musicality was noticeable and notable upon reading.
The book is structured in a way that it actually doesn’t need words to its art or art to its word, which is to say both aspects of it are self-contained, but in tandem they work perfectly, telling a sad and poignant tale of a young indigenous boy who died fleeing one of those horrible reeducational schools that Canada used to have.
It’s nice that Canada is finally reckoning with its ugly past. Just recently the country made the news for a significant payout to the indigenous families who were victims of their oppression. This book contributes to the awareness and recognition, which is always good.
It does it in such a gut-wrenching, heart-rending fashion that it sticks in your memory like a good song album. Which, of course, it is. Recommended.