Description
A Quality of Light is Richard Wagamese's second novel published in 1997. It deals with identity issues and features an Aboriginal boy (Joshua Kane) raised by adoptive white farming parents and a white boy (Johnny Gebhart) who lives in a small town and whose father is an alcoholic. While Joshua is protected by his loving parents whose Christian faith becomes his belief, Johnny finds life a miserable existence with his only refuge in books whose heroes are Indians. The two become friends. Later in life they two meet again. This time Joshua is a Christian minister with a loving family of his own and Johnny is now a militant occupying an Indian Affairs office. The novel is complex and in the end very sad but the narrative draws on ideas of identity and healing throughout.