The Chancellor has chosen Louise Erdrich’s LaRose for his September book club pick, and I was really excited. I read it for CBR8 last year, and I gave it a solid 4.5 stars. I was still on a readers’ high from The Round-House, which colored my judgment of LaRose. The beauty of a re-read is that you can really dig into major themes and ideas, because you know how the book already ends. Since I reviewed this book last year, I won’t reiterate the plot […]
Instead of the language being beaten out of me, I’ve tried for years to acquire it.
Books and Islands in Ojibwe Country by Louise Erdrich
I am not sure I would recommend this book to someone as a starter for Louise Erdrich. I do think I would recommend it as an interesting journey around upper Minnesota/southern Ontario/Manitoba. And I would definitely recommend it to someone seeing a somewhat more open side of Erdrich. In this short travel narrative, Louise Erdrich travels around the physical terrain of Ojibwe Country at the intersection of Manitoba, Minnesota, and Ontario, but also in the more metaphysical world of history, language, and literature. She ruminates […]
Before Gone Girl there was the horribly sad dying marriage in this novel
Shadow Tag by Louise Erdrich
This is kind of a brutal novel. It’s been generally been reviewed far less positively than many of her other novels. I first reviewed The Beet Queen and if I didn’t know much about the author, I don’t know that I could identify them as the same person. That said, I do think this is a strong novel in a lot of ways, but it’s not a fun novel, or really a beautiful novel. But it is powerful and terrifying and has a real energy […]
(No Spoilers about who the Beet Queen is)
The Beet Queen by Louise Erdrich
2016 could have easily been my year of Louise Erdrich. I went from being suspect of her to reading as much of her stuff as I could stomach to sitting up the morning of the Nobel announcement having convinced myself she was about to win. I hope and think some day she will. She really is that good. In this previous year, I have read seven of her novels and look to read the remaining seven this year. For whatever reason, for this time in […]
Ending the Circle of Revenge
We are chased into this life. We are chased by what we do to others and then in turn what they do to us. We’re always looking behind us, or worried about what comes next. Margaret Atwood, Toni Morrison and Louise Erdrich form the holy trinity of contemporary writers for me. They each produce impeccable novels on a regular basis, featuring strong but very human characters who are dealing with complicated and heartbreaking situations, and usually ending with pain tempered by some small hope. Race, […]
A fine new Erdrich novel
It’s always exciting when an author you love comes out with a new book. I’ve been working my way through Louise Erdrich’s canon, and I was pleased to see that she had a new novel, written within the same universe as some of her earlier works, including Plague of Doves and The Round House (which is my favorite Erdrich novel to date). I was curious to see how LaRose stacked up, and I’m pleased to say that it did not disappoint in the least. I […]
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