Belcourt's introspective novel is poetic and powerful, illuminating experiences and letting his story unfold in unique ways.

Looking for a slow-paced but deeply engaging meditation of a book? Love quietly lyrical stories? Interested in reading more queer indigenous lit? Looking for something short but haunting? Run, don’t walk, to get your hands on a copy of A MINOR CHORUS!

The plot (insofar as it exists) is centered around our unnamed narrator, a queer Indigenous man in academia, who decides to take a break from writing his dissertation in order to return home and do some research for a novel he’d like to write. That research takes the form of him having conversations with the people on the reservation where he grew up, and the book is a kind of chronicle of his interactions throughout his trip home.

Every single thing about this book was simply gorgeous. The writing was evocative and thoughtful, and really made you feel like you had a window into the narrator’s thoughts; the characters, even those that appeared only briefly, were wonderfully realized; and there was so much to think about and turn over after I had finished reading. (I think I could reread this several times and get something new every time.)

Altogether: beautiful, heartfelt, and stunningly crafted. Highly highly recommended. My enormous thanks to W.W. Norton and Netgalley for the review copy!

Beautiful and poignant; a fierce new voice that will captivate audiences and keep them close. This is a raw, character-focused novel that will impact readers for long after they close the final pages.

This is a hard one to review because it reads somewhere between a novel and memoir, and the writing is complicated -- both in complexity of language and complexity of feelings. But if you hang in there, and continue with this, you'll find so much beauty within. I loved that it brought queer Indigenous perspectives through the unnamed narrator, and that it plumbed the depths of academia, rez life, and other complex systems of power. While it was not an enjoyable read necessarily -- it was a hard read -- I appreciated the journey that it took me on.

Thanks to WW Norton and #netgalley for an early copy of this book!

I read 25% of A Minor Chorus and set it aside because it didn't engage me. But there was something else about it that was needling me.
So, I tried again. Still the prose felt stiff and not what I expected from a celebrated poet. The story seemed to view the world through the lens of queer and indigenous persons only and the lack of connection with the broader culture seemed limiting. You cannot help it if others stereotype you but the greatest damage comes from putting yourself in the box and then engaging in one giant pity party.

Often as I was reading I felt scolded, the same way I feel when someone heaves the blame for slavery onto later generations. I realized that I wasn't highlighting sentences I found beautiful but those I found offensive and it seemed to me that what posed as psychological insight at times bordered on personal delusion. On the positive side, it certainly provoked an emotional response from me and I spent considerable time trying to process where it was coming from. Maybe that was the point?

So, A Minor Chorus obviously didn't work for me but most readers think it is brilliant and that's fine.

I received a drc from the publisher via Netgalley.

This novel had me roped in so fast with such pointed and precise prose… I apparently had to alliterate about it. It follows a young gay indigenous man writing his thesis, or at least trying to. He has conversations about academia with another queer indigenous student, he returns to his home town to be haunted by ghosts of his past and maybe also the future. This read very much like a novel written by a poet and you know what that is exactly what it is!

It was moving, it was a little devastating, and I really enjoyed it. Wonderful and moving what else can I say!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher, W. W. Norton and Company, for providing me with a copy of the book in exchange for this honest review!!

A Minor Chorus felt like a blend of memoir and novel, with beautiful prose and poetic writing. I would seek out more of Belcourt's writing after reading this.

This is one of those books that is exceptionally well-done, but that I struggled with as a reader. Belcourt's language is both poetic and academic--which kept me at a distance from his narrator and left me feeling removed from the emotional intensity of the plot. I am, however, eager to read more of Belcourt's poetry after dipping my toes into this novel.

I love that Billy-Ray Belcourt's work always forces us to slow down.

I came to this book having been astounded by A History of My Brief Body, a truly unforgettable read. In A Minor Chorus, Belcourt blurs the line between novel and memoir as his unnamed protagonist abandons his dissertation to write a novel true to Indigenous and Indigiqueer experience, musing on language and structure itself as well as love and justice along the way. I was blown away by this book, and I can't wait to read more from this author.

Thank you to W.W. Norton and Company for the e-ARC via Netgalley in exchange for my honest review.

This is a very slim novel at 160 pages, but I read it so slowly, making sure to digest and savor the language as much as possible. This is such a tender and evocative look at humanity, resilience, pain, and how best to exist as a marginalized person in a world determined to keep you down. I’m sure I missed a lot even with my careful reading (the acknowledgements alone showed there were nuances I missed regarding homages to other authors), but that just means I need to pick it up again sometime and see what hits me then. Highly recommend this book.

Thanks to NetGalley and W.W. Norton & Company for the advanced reader copy.

This week’s headline? Books can save lives
Why this book? Needed something literary

Which book format? ARC

Primary reading environment? On the couch, waiting for the bestie

Any preconceived notions? I foresee beautiful writing

Identify most with? The narrator

Three little words? “a beautiful wound” “a throbbing silence”

Goes well with? Audre Lorde’s writing
Recommend this to? PhD students

Other cultural accompaniments: https://catapult.co/dont-write-alone/stories/living-as-though-the-world-were-one-long-summer-where-billy-ray-belcourt-writes

Grade: 4/5

I leave you with this: “A novel is a body of water from which I frantically wanted to drink.”

“Some days my will to write a novel outweighed my will to live.”

📚📚📚

What an amazing debut! Short but impactful. A Minor Chorus is about a PhD student who is undecided on whether they want to continue their thesis or write a novel. I love how the unnamed narrator reads other writers’ works and contemplates the ideas behind them, figuring how it can all fit into what makes a novel, well, a novel.

A Minor Chorus will be released on October 4, 2022.

I've never read a story quite like this. Billy-Ray Belcourt has combined raw emotions and progressive ideas to create a compelling narrative that left me feeling both challenged and inspired. Driven more by character than by plot, A Minor Chorus is a modern articulation of love, longing, and the ever-changing human condition.

I absolutely loved this book. I hadn't heard of the author's biography, but I'm looking forward to reading it now.

Billy-Ray Belcourt's writing is absolutely astounding. This book is more of a character study, but the author's descriptions and observations truly make this book shine.

3.5 stars
I absolutely loved Belcourt’s memoir earlier this year and was so excited when he announced a novel.
A Minor Chorus is actually more of a novella, and Belcourt’s strong writing is what makes the book for me. the story itself is actually quite similar to his memoir, which makes me believe the protagonist was inspired by himself and it honestly made the story feel a bit like deja vu at times. I really enjoyed this for the writing but it’s definitely a character driven novel as opposed to anything plot heavy, and I didn’t quite connect with the character as much as I hoped. still a solid read and will definitely pick up from him again. I’d love to see a full length novel from Belcourt in the future

A minor chorus was an interesting book to dig into. The narrative is propelled forward by vignettes of the narrators community and almost functions more as a short story collection than as a novel. I think this is why I had trouble really sinking into it and enjoying it. The themes it is exploring are vast and it does a great job of picking mundane examples that shove them into the spotlight.

The writing was also something I struggled with. There were lines in here that were so beautiful and poetic and moving. But they were tucked in between circular stories and musings that really dragged me out of the book. It was hard to hold my focus on what was being communicated here.

Still, I think this is a unique work of art and tells a collective story that you won’t find many other places.

A History of my Brief Body was a collection of Billy-Ray Belcourt's essays on queer indigenous (Cree) lífe, published before this. His debut novel ties to the same concepts, but is also a novel about writing a novel, almost as though autofiction and metafiction combined.

Interesting read. 3.8/5