This is my favorite Erdrich book (so far), and it leaves me full of satisfaction. All the characters are completely believable individuals, with their own histories, motivations, and style of expressing themselves. The technique of telling the story from different viewpoints works perfectly here. You see different aspects of situations depending on who's doing the looking (and you learn about people from their choices of what to look at and what to ignore). There's a certain amount of skipping back and forth in time, too. So there are quite a few surprises as seemingly unrelated elements slide neatly into place and explain each other.

In a way this reminds of of Eudora Welty's 'Losing Battles,' a favorite, because of the way family secrets are gradually revealed over the course of the book. But you would never confuse the two; Erdrich writes with her own distinctive voice, which helps bring her characters to life and adds to the pleasure of reading her.

A final note: the cover of this edition is so beautiful it's hard to believe it's a photograph. But check page 5 of the P. S. section.

Media Mail this morning to Flewry as part of jnpert's Trade Paperback VBB.

Arrived safe and sound - thanks so much! This is a new author for me and this book looks great.

I finished this a couple days ago and have still been trying to gather my thoughts on it. My appreciation is actually increasing, the more thought I give it.

This is the first Erdrich I have read. I requested the book from Ms. Slump because it sounded like a great book, it is included in the revised 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die, and I've read so little Native American literature. Expanding one's horizons, and the like.

Well, I started reading it when I was very busy and rather stressed out. It didn't suck me in right away, and I picked it up and put it down off and on for several months, enjoying it when I thought about it but not missing it when I didn't. About halfway through, though, I started to feel its power, and it became harder to put it down. It peaked for me with "Crown of Thorns." In this story, Gordie deals with the pain of losing a loved one by attempting to drink it away. Not such a sympathetic premise, but Erdrich write his pain so vividly, and by now we've spent so much time with his family and background, you can't help but identify and feel...

Beyond that, this book will always symbolize for me odd synchronicity and the crazy turns life can take. I requested it from a VBB before I had any thought at all of moving to the region where it is set, or ever imagined that I would have the privilege of meeting in person the wonderful BookCrosser who sent it to me. Yet, less than a year after receiving it, I began reading on the plane as I traveled to Minneapolis to start a new life. Life is crazy, right?

This is heading to Shroffland, who selected it in the General Lit VBB. I am SO SORRY for the long delay in sending it to you. Hope it travels quickly!

Thank you, flewry! This is a new author for me, and i'm looking forward to reading her work.

For bookstogive's General Literature VBB

On it’s way to jlautner. Enjoy!

I chose this from bookstogive's general lit book box. It arrived a week or so ago, while I was out of town. Thank you, Schroffland!

At first I had the impression that this was a book of short stories. The chapters are narrated by different people and take place in different years. I was a little put off, not sucked in intially. But there are common threads that started to become apparent, and as I read on I was rewarded.

Through the words of different members of two Native American families whose lives weave together in a complicated family tree (shown in the front of the book), the individuals tell what they know and what they suspect, and little by little revelations are made. Life over the years, from 1934 to into the 1980s, holds challenges for everyone, in no small part because they are raised on a reservation, scrabbling for dignity in homes that often do not belong to them, obtaining food from surplus collections brought by truck.

In spite of the forced westernization, the individuals retain much of their heritage. The stories they tell are often funny, sometimes sad, usually insightful. Erdrich, Ojibwe herself, gives us fully formed characters whose speech patterns feel right, whose stories read right, who are each distinct. She provides us with a sense of the importance of love and family in these tribes, and thereby raised my understanding of the time and place and people. It's a lovely book.

On a table inside.