Title: Medicine Walk
Author: Richard Wagamese
Publisher: Milkweed Editions
Publication Date: May 11, 2015
Format: Kindle (via Libby)
Category: Literary Fiction
What begins as a journey through the wilderness becomes a meditation on love, loss, and legacy.
Some books demand your attention: Medicine Walk by Richard Wagamese simply asks for your stillness. This book isn’t loud or showy, but it reaches somewhere deep, to the kind of place only honesty can touch. This story is chock full of this and will leave a reader feeling reflective.
Most of the story is narrated in third person by “the kid,” Franklin Starlight. His largely absent, alcoholic father reaches out because he’s dying and wants Franklin’s help finding a place in the wilderness where he can be buried in the Warrior Way. The reader never gets the impression that Franklin’s thoughts are shallow; this kid is an old soul, and his deep thinking reflects it. He’s honest to a fault, even when he doesn’t understand what’s going on inside his head or heart. The characters in this novel are gritty and raw, and they feel tangible. You can tell these are hardscrabble folk. Wagamese has created a cast with real depth and complexity, with flaws and virtues that feel earned.
The setting is its own character, too. Wagamese writes with great descriptive detail, and nature feels as alive as it is. His metaphors aren’t abstract; they live in the body, in movement and touch, like “The river was a dark vein through the valley, carrying the pulse of the land.” The reader truly feels as if they’re on the trail with Franklin and his father, feeling the breeze on their face, smelling fish cooking over the campfire, and hearing the wolves call as night settles in.
Medicine Walk isn’t a long book by any measure, coming in at only 258 pages. Yet the weight of the story makes it feel much longer. This is a novel that asks the reader to sit with it, to let the words and silences wash over them. The pace unfolds naturally, unrushed but never idle. You feel in the thick of it within the first ten pages, that’s how heavy the story sits on the heart.
At its heart, this novel is about a son and father trying to bridge the space that absence and pain have carved between them. Reconciliation isn’t sentimentalized but shown as a hard, uneven process, more about truth than apology. Franklin is also searching for his own place in his father’s story. Wagamese explores how identity is carried in stories, told, untold, and lost, and how knowing where you come from shapes who you become. The land has its own role in this, serving as both mirror and guide. The titular term Medicine Walk refers to both the physical and emotional journey. “Medicine” here isn’t pharmaceutical; it’s truth, connection, and acknowledgment. Wagamese suggests that healing comes not just through speaking but through listening to others, to the land, and to oneself.
This book is beautiful in an honest, raw, and gritty way. There is violence and death within its pages, as well as heavy substance abuse. It isn’t for the faint of heart, but for readers who can sit with those truths, it’s well worth the time spent reading and reflecting. It’s to this sort of reader that I offer my highest recommendation.
Nerd Rating: 🤓🤓🤓🤓 – A small book about a father and a son that packs a heavy punch.
Let’s Discuss: Have you ever read a book that felt small in scope but emotionally massive in impact?
Find out more about Medicine Walk on Milkweed Edition’s site.