Whatever Wednesday - The Sentence by Louise Erdrich

 cover blurb - The Sentence by Louise Erdrich asks what we owe to the living, to the dead, to the reader, and to the book. A small independent bookstore is haunted from November 2019 to November 2020. Flora, an incredibly annoying customer died on All Soul's Day and will not leave. Tookie, the owner, has to solve the haunting plus try to understand a year in Minneapolis full of grief, astonishment, isolation, and furious reckoning. 

Tookie, the bookstore owner, spent time in prison. Her first book from a teacher was a dictionary. She looked up the word "sentence" after being sentenced to sixty years. The word "sentence" sounds so easy and yet proved to be a challenge. 

Erdrich writes of rich characters and complex emotions. It's well written and interesting with the comings and going in a bookstore, with the added bonus of Flora who's seeking  attention by knocking books off shelves, sending signals from her afterlife. There is a lot of emotion  involved, flashbacks to prison time,  plus the Covid year conditions.  Well done!

Finally Friday - The Master Butchers Singing Club

 Louise Erdrich is a sublime writer. This older work (2003), The Master Butchers Singing Club, is another fine example. 

cover blurb - What happens  when a trained killer discovers, in the aftermath of war (WWI) that his true vocation is love? Fidelis Waldvogel returns home to his quiet German village and marries the pregnant widow of his best friend who was killed in action. 

As a master butcher he heads to North America with his knives and sausage skills. He sets up a successful business in North  Dakota. Eva and  four sons thrive and we learn about the community, the lives, and deaths. A stranger, Delphine, proves to be a formidable friend and lover in this small town. Erdrich brings everyday encounters to life and weaves quite a tale. 

Finally Friday - The Painted Drum by Louise Erdrich

 I bought this 2005 book at a library sale for one dollar. Oh my - Louise Erdrich's writing is worth so much more. The Painted Drum is rich in  characters, story line, description,  and life.  I have become a fan and I'm trying to read more of  her works. 

This  book stars Faye Travers and a rare moose skin and cedar drum created by an Ojibwe artisan. She finds it at an old New Hampshire  estate descended from a North Dakota Indian agent. 

cover blurb - And so begins an illuminating journey both backward and forward in time, following  the strange passage of a powerful and yet delicate instrument, and revealing the extraordinary lives it has touched and defined. 

Erdrich explores mother/ daughter relationships, the strength of family, and grief. 

I enjoyed this book and  took my time to appreciate the writing and her respect of Native American  culture. She embodies the lyrical story telling skills of ancestors, and  also shows some current conditions of the community. Open your heart and it will  soar when reading Louise Erdrich's work. 

Monday Moments - The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich

My PA gang chose this book, The Night Watchman, by Louise Erdrich as our latest book club choice and  it is a wow of a story. The writing, the characters, and the plot lines are so rich and full of history, life issues, humanity, etc. I could gush more. 

Louise Erdrich based this book on her grandfather, a night watchman who battled the government for Native American rights, to stop a new "emancipation" bill in 1953 and protect the Chippewa Nation - its land and identity. 

I admit I am not up on Native American issues, but this book, though fiction based on facts and real lives, opened my eyes.  Cover blurb - How can the government abandon treaties made in good faith 'for as long as the grasses shall grow, and the rivers run?' 

Meet Thomas, the night watchman at the local jewel bearing plant. This is a man of good stead, good heart, and a truly wise man with faith that truth will bear out. He's a thinker and truly takes his time  to research and  find the truth.  Pixie (Patrice) Paranteau is a hard worker with a tough family life. She's trying  to find her lost sister, a child, and dives deep into city exploitation, violence, and danger as a Native American woman. 

This book grapples with (cover blurb) the worst and best of human impulses, illuminates loves and lives, desires and ambitions, and does it all with compassion, wit, and intelligence.  

I truly admire Erdrich's literary talents and  her  deep dive into characters. The Night Watchman is a book club hit. Lots of food for thought and more to explore from Erdrich's rich writing achievements.