Shadow Tag
When Irene America discovers that her artist husband, Gil, has been reading her diary, she begins a secret Blue Notebook, stashed securely in a safe-deposit box. There she records the truth about her life and marriage, while turning her Red Diary—hidden where Gil will find it—into a manipulative...
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When Irene America discovers that her artist husband, Gil, has been reading her diary, she begins a secret Blue Notebook, stashed securely in a safe-deposit box. There she records the truth about her life and marriage, while turning her Red Diary—hidden where Gil will find it—into a manipulative charade. As Irene and Gil fight to keep up appearances for their three children, their home becomes a place of increasing violence and secrecy. And Irene drifts into alcoholism, moving ever closer to the ultimate destruction of a relationship filled with shadowy need and strange ironies.Alternating between Irene's twin journals and an unflinching third-person narrative, Louise Erdrich's Shadow Tag fearlessly explores the complex nature of love, the fluid boundaries of identity, and the anatomy of one family's struggle for survival and redemption.
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Format: hardcover
ISBN:
9780061536090 (0061536091)
Publish date: February 2nd 2010
Publisher: Harper
Pages no: 272
Edition language: English
Probably my least favorite Louise Erdrich novel....I guess because I did not like the protagonist or her husband, did not understand their deceit or obsession, didn't care if they loved/hated/abandoned/killed each other.
Updated - July 10, 2013 - with a link to an article on George CatlinShadow Tag is, we hear tell, a novelization of the demise of Erdrich’s marriage. It is an insightful, beautifully written portrait in which the character of the marriage, Dorian-Gray-like, is revealed to be somewhat wanting. Gil and...
Another stunner from Erdrich - love, hate, abuse, addiction, obsession, manipulation. A walloping ending that I DID NOT SEE COMING. I found the trick of narration a little odd once revealed. She writes such great young female characters - so alive, so angst-ridden, who see through the eyes of artis...
Louise Erdrich has brilliantly succeeded in taking the old, tiresome story of 2 people stuck in a hurtful marriage and made it fresh and shocking. Through alternating points of view, Erdrich tells the story of Irene and Gil, married with 3 kids, who are playing an emotional tennis match- taking turn...
Erdrich is, without a doubt, a magical writer. She weaves words into images and emotions as exquisitely as her Native-American ancestors wove colourful tales into their blankets. Unfortunately, ‘Shadow Tag’ has a dark edge to it that’s not to my taste. When I think of ‘The Painted Drum’, ‘The Last R...
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