When we are young, the words are scattered all around us. As they are assembled by experience, so also are we, sentence by sentence, until the story takes shape.
Happy 63rd birthday, Louise Erdrich! A member of the Chippewa tribe, the National Book Award winning novelist is a significant figure in the Native American Renaissance. Many of her books take place in the same North Dakota reservation community, which is based on her hometown.
Reading some of the reviews, I think that I might be the only one not really loving this book?
I mean, I almost feel bad writing that, because of the theme of the book, and because of the afterword, but the book just didn’t grab me in any noteworthy way.
It’s about Joe, a 13 year old boy in 1988. And it’s about how his life changes, one summer, when his mother is raped and almost killed. You get the story from Joe’s POV… and also from a sleeping Grandfather, or was that the Bison’s POV? Or the kid who became one with the Bison?
Wait.. What?
Joe is a Native American and he lives with his family on a reservation. This book did teach me that normal “laws” apparently don’t work on reservations as they do outside? This, of course, is not right, and Joe, even as a 13 year old, really want to make things right, so he starts his own investigation.
I felt like the actual story was only like 40% of the book, and then we just got random stuff in between. Like when we got a “4 page click” (I read it on a Kindle and clicked next 4 times) grocery shopping trip, before.. something happens..
I mean.. 4 clicks of grocery shopping? How exciting can tomatoes and cream be? Btw, the answer is: Not that exciting.
This book is also written without any “ ”’s, so you have to really pay attention to when they are talking and when Joe is thinking.. So. Annoying.
If any future authors are reading this, please, please use “ “’s when your characters talk. For the love of God, please!
2 stars.
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