(This review is my own opinion and NOT affiliated with any other literary entity)
They were the berry pickers, indigenous peoples and other society cast-offs who did the physical labor of picking blueberries in Maine - the work the rich white farm owners could never bring themselves to do. Yet without them, no berries would be picked, no money would be made. An indigenous family loses a child one summer. Ruthie is there one minute, gone the next. Joe, her brother and the next youngest, feels responsible for her disappearance. He replaces Ruthie as his mother's youngest, duty bound by the loss of his sister.
Interwoven with Joe's story is the story of Norma. Norma is the only child to survive her parents many attempts at having a family. Norma is kept homebound, and as she longs for even the freedom to play with other children, she feels responsible for her mother's nervous temperament and subsequent headaches. But Norma knows her family has a secret - no baby pictures of Norma exist, her mother claiming they were lost in fire. Norma has her mother's sister Jane and Jane's companion Alice to help understand both her and her mother's emotions.
The Berry Pickers is a novel about identity and responsibility and how the two mix. Joe's identity as an indigenous person keeps him separated from white society, as both Mi'kmaq and poor. Norma's identity as her parents precious only child separates her from other children. Joe flees family and responsibility. Norma does her duty until she is freed upon her mother's death. The Berry Pickers is heartbreaking, devastating, and shows readers that life, no matter how carefully or recklessly you live, can and will surprise you.
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