Half-Bads in White Regalia
A Memoir
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Narrated by:
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Cody Caetano
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Written by:
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Cody Caetano
About this listen
*WINNER OF THE 2023 INDIGENOUS VOICES AWARD FOR PUBLISHED PROSE IN ENGLISH*
*FINALIST FOR THE 2023 EDNA STAEBLER AWARD FOR CREATIVE NON-FICTION*
*LONGLISTED FOR THE 2023 LEACOCK MEDAL FOR HUMOUR*
*LONGLISTED FOR CANADA READS 2023*
*LONGLISTED FOR THE 2023 TORONTO BOOK AWARDS*
NATIONAL BESTSELLER
A family tries to learn from the mistakes of past generations in this whirlwind memoir from a wholly original new voice.
The Caetanos move into a doomed house in the highway village of Happyland before an inevitable divorce pulls Cody’s parents in separate directions. His mom, Mindimooye, having discovered her Anishinaabe birth family and Sixties Scoop origin story, embarks on a series of fraught relationships and fresh starts. His dad, O Touro, a Portuguese immigrant and drifter, falls back into “big do, little think” behaviour, despite his best intentions.
Left alone at the house in Happyland, Cody and his siblings must fend for themselves, even as the pipes burst and the lights go out. His protective big sister, Kris, finds inventive ways to put food on the table, and his stoic big brother, Julian, facilitates his regular escapes into the world of video games. As life yanks them from one temporary solution to the next, they steal moments of joy and resist buckling under “baddie” temptations aplenty.
Capturing the chaos and wonder of a precarious childhood, Cody Caetano delivers a fever dream coming-of-age garnished with a slang all his own. Half-Bads in White Regalia is an unforgettable debut that unspools a tangled family history with warmth, humour, and deep generosity.
What the critics say
"*WINNER OF THE 2023 INDIGENOUS VOICES AWARD FOR PUBLISHED PROSE IN ENGLISH*
*LONGLISTED FOR THE 2023 LEACOCK MEDAL FOR HUMOUR*
*LONGLISTED FOR CANADA READS 2023*
“Memoirs are a difficult alchemy of testimony and confession, scene-making and character-building. They have to soften the hard things and show the way through at every turn—or at least they should—and that’s what Cody Caetano does in Half-Bads in White Regalia. No one gets off easy, but everyone is drawn with unflinching love and respect. Nothing seems wholly remarkable, yet everything is turned to see its beauty. Poetry permeates this prose, poetry and this wholly unique voice and style that somehow made me laugh and cry often, and in the oddest places. Read it. You won’t regret it. Telling you.” —Katherena Vermette, author of The Strangers
“A brilliant and devastating debut. This book hurtles towards difficult understandings about love and violence and family. At times I didn’t know whether I should laugh or cry, but Caetano fills each moment with such character and humanity that it’s impossible not to fall in love.” —Jordan Abel, author of NISHGA
“Caetano’s voice leaps off the page with a rhythmic, hip-hop style right from the first page. . . . [It] gives this memoir energy and descriptive heft.” —Toronto Star
What listeners say about Half-Bads in White Regalia
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Anonymous User
- 2022-10-05
A film
It was like watching a film, but a very special one, the ones one sees at the small theatre, short period of screening, but the one that hounds you for good, in a the best way possible.
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- Anonymous User
- 2022-06-06
Goosebumps
Cody’s voice is poetic and hypnotizing, he’s an artist arranging imagination into a sea of childhood wonder.
As a fellow half bad, this resinated not just emotionally but spiritually, to be in tune with his frequency left me reflecting on my own big do’s and when the buckle came for me.
10/10
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- Brolin J Devine
- 2023-06-11
So good
So we’ll written and well read. Everybody should listen to this and then buy the paper copy!
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