The first book finished in a New Year is typically a good one for me. It's usually a book that I've wanted to read all year, and I'm counting on those holiday days (especially the 2020 kind) to let me read. Though this wasn't my first choice, this was the book I needed to read for my book club. It was cool though, because I've read some of Erdrich's work and really respect her writing. Love Medicine was a book I had to read in AP English in High School back in '93. It was unlike any book I had read before. I read The Antelope Wife when it came out and loved it. It seemed a more than fitting time to catch up.
The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich
(Harper, 2020)
In 1953, a Reservation and its people were facing termination in the US Senate. It was given names that made it sound like a good thing, calling it emancipation and elevation, trying to cover up what it really was by wrapping it up in shiny paper. This is a document of how they saved their lands from extinction and protected what was rightfully and lawfully theirs.
Through a host of varied characters, the reader is brought into their lives like an observing spirit. You spend time with them, sometimes doing only ordinary things, but things that feel important. The reader feels connected, feels the pain inside each character, and knows they are strong enough to survive. That's what great books do. Great books create shared experiences between the reader and the fiction. This is a great book.
No comments:
Post a Comment