This was a DNF at 30 percent. I really tried to get into this one and just gave up in the end. I heard nothing but great things about it, but I think it just jumped around too much for me to really get invested. The first couple of pages read as bizarre and I think I just got annoyed because I thought this was going to be a ghost story in a bookshop. And I don’t know. I just kept reading and reading and hoping the writing/plot/something kept me engaged. I just didn’t want to keep putting this book on hold for another couple of months because I could not get into it.
“The Sentence” follows Tookie, a main character we meet as they tell us how they got arrested and sent to jail for years, for something as far as they are concerned, was not their fault. The whole set-up was bizarre and I kept going who would do this? Well Tookie would. I just don’t think Erdrich built this character up at all in my mind. Tookie is a First Nation person and I don’t know, maybe I am an idiot, but I thought that would make them a more interesting character. It did not.
The little bit of dialogue/convo that I read up til the 30 percent mark just read to me like stories I hear when I go to the bar and there’s some barfly that is just telling you something and all you want to do is read your book and get them to leave you alone, but nope, they got something to say and you will hear it. That was this book and Tookie.
I started this book way back in April, it is June, I think at this point I tried my best.