A beautiful and vibrant book that swept me away like a current with its effortless, beguiling prose. Sentences that make you shake your head in amazement. A novel for writers and would-be’s, for sure. And such a delightfully complex heroine: smart, grateful, fierce. Contradictory and forgivably flawed. So many wonderfully colorful characters and scenes, some painfully so. Notably: Erdrich conveys the horror and heartbreak of rape without ever using the word “rape”. Really masterful stuff here. My favorite things about it (other than the incredible waterjack storyline) is the sense of kinship and cooperation in the Turtle Mountain culture, community, and families that flows so beautifully throughout. It’s all so comforting and inviting; I felt like I was there, and I didn’t want to leave. Oh, and there’s an entire chapter written from the perspective of two horses who run off from a parade and mate in the woods – and it is amazing. 

Thoughts for discussion:

Inherited, shared knowledge and the passing down of traditions between generations. How even the goings-on of individuals (a coworkers getting her tonsils out, Gerard’s vision of Vera) is known by everyone, but not in a gossipy way. How does this sense of shared concern and purpose speak to the larger community’s values?

Recurring motifs. Water (wells that run pure and clean where Thomas and Patrice live, alcohol as “firewater”, the lake Patrice threw herself into to escape Bucky, bathing and swimming as purification etc). Clocks (Thomas’s punch cards, Patrice’s broken clock, the passage about time as  philosophical concept). Is time a commodity or a threat?

Barnes. What is his purpose in the story? Is the “white man foil” or is it more complicated than that? 

Sensory details. Erdrich describes things like food and clothing and the natural world with so much love and in such depth. You can truly taste, see, and feel flavors, sounds, and textures. 

The role of anger. Pixie’s “night bird” that disfigured Bucky. Her and her mother’s anger toward’s her father. Thomas finally allowing himself to feel the vastness of his resentment for the suffering of his people. 

Words!

muntin: a bar or rigid supporting strip betwen adjacent panes of glass

sinter: a hard, siliceous or calcerous deposit precipitated from mineral springs

cremello: a horse having a pale, cream-colored coat, light blue eyes, and pink skin