Book Discussion Date and Time: Monday, October 7th, 2013 at 1:00 PM Discussion Leader: Candace Plotsker-Herman
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By Toni Morrison
About the Book:
A New York Times Notable Book A Washington Post Notable Work of Fiction A Best Book of the Year: NPR, AV Club, St. Louis DispatchWhen
Frank Money joined the army to escape his too-small world, he left
behind his cherished and fragile little sister, Cee. After the war, his
shattered life has no purpose until he hears that Cee is in danger. Frank
is a modern Odysseus returning to a 1950s America mined with lethal
pitfalls for an unwary black man. As he journeys to his native Georgia
in search of Cee, it becomes clear that their troubles began well before
their wartime separation. Together, they return to their rural hometown
of Lotus, where buried secrets are unearthed and where Frank learns at
last what it means to be a man, what it takes to heal, and--above
all--what it means to come home.
Toni Morrison is the author of ten novels, from The Bluest Eye (1970) to A Mercy
(2008). She has received the National Book Critics Circle Award and the
Pulitzer Prize. In 1993 she was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.
She lives in New York. Reviews from the NoveList Plus database
BookList:
/* Starred Review */ The Korean conflict is over, and soldier Frank Money has returned to the States with a disturbed psyche that sends him beyond anger into actually acting out his rage. From the mental ward in which he has been incarcerated for an incident he can’t even remember, he determines that he must escape. He needs to get to Atlanta to attend to his gravely ill sister and take her back to their Georgia hometown of Lotus, which, although Frank realizes a return there is necessary for his sister’s sake, remains a detestable place in his mind. Morrison’s taut, lacerating novel observes, through the struggles of Frank to move heaven and earth to reach and save his little sister, how a damaged man can gather the fortitude to clear his mind of war’s horror and face his own part in that horror, leave the long-term anger he feels toward his hometown aside, and take responsibility for his own life as well as hers. With the economical presentation of a short story, the rhythms and cadence of a poem, and the total embrace and resonance of a novel, Morrison, one of our national literary treasures, continues to marshal her considerable talents to draw a deeply moving narrative and draw in a wide range of appreciative readers. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: A quarter-million print run is the surest indication that the publisher is confident that a new Morrison novel is bound to be a big hit. -- Hooper, Brad (Reviewed 03-15-2012) (Booklist, vol 108, number 14, p19)
Publishers Weekly:
/* Starred Review */ In Pulitzer and Nobel Prize–winner Morrison’s immaculate new novel (after A Mercy), Frank Money returns from the horrors of the Korean War to an America that’s just as poor and just as racist as the country he fled. Frank’s only remaining connection to home is his troubled younger sister, Cee, “the first person ever took responsibility for,” but he doesn’t know where she is. In the opening pages of the book, he receives a letter from a friend of Cee’s stating, “Come fast. She be dead if you tarry.” Thus begins his quest to save his sister—and to find peace in a town he loathed as a child: Lotus, Ga., the “worst place in the world, worse than any battlefield.” Told in alternating third- and first-person narration, with Frank advising and, from time to time, correcting the person writing down his life story, the novel’s opening scene describes horses mating, “heir raised hooves crashing and striking, their manes tossing back from wild white eyes,” as one field over, the bodies of African-American men who were forced to fight to the death are buried: “...whatever you think and whatever you write down, know this: I really forgot about the burial. I only remembered the horses. They were so beautiful. So brutal.” Beautiful, brutal, as is Morrison’s perfect prose. Agent: Amanda Urban, ICM. (May) --Staff (Reviewed March 26, 2012) (Publishers Weekly, vol 259, issue 13, p)
Library Journal:
Frank Money was damaged emotionally as well as physically while fighting in Korea, then returns home to an America as racist as ever. What saves him from utter despair is the need to rescue his equally damaged sister and bring her back to their small Georgia town, a place he has always despised. But thinking over the past both near (the war) and far (his childhood) allows him to rediscover his sense of purpose. At 160 pages, this is not a big brass band of a novel but a chamber work, effectively telescoping Morrison's passion and lush language. --Barbara Hoffert (Reviewed December 1, 2011) (Library Journal, vol 136, issue 20, p96)
Kirkus:
/* Starred Review */ A deceptively rich and cumulatively powerful novel. At the outset, this might seem like minor Morrison (A Mercy, 2008, etc.), not only because its length is borderline novella, but because the setup seems generic. A black soldier returns from the Korean War, where he faces a rocky re-entry, succumbing to alcoholism and suffering from what would subsequently be termed PTSD. Yet perhaps, as someone tells him, his major problem is the culture to which he returns: "An integrated army is integrated misery. You all go fight, come back, they treat you like dogs. Change that. They treat dogs better." Ultimately, the latest from the Nobel Prize–winning novelist has something more subtle and shattering to offer than such social polemics. As the novel progresses, it becomes less specifically about the troubled soldier and as much about the sister he left behind in Georgia, who was married and deserted young, and who has fallen into the employ of a doctor whose mysterious experiments threaten her life. And, even more crucially, it's about the relationship between the brother and his younger sister, which changes significantly after his return home, as both of them undergo significant transformations. "She was a shadow for most of my life, a presence marking its own absence, or maybe mine," thinks the soldier. He discovers that "while his devotion shielded her, it did not strengthen her." As his sister is becoming a woman who can stand on her own, her brother ultimately comes to terms with dark truths and deep pain that he had attempted to numb with alcohol. Before they achieve an epiphany that is mutually redemptive, even the earlier reference to "dogs" reveals itself as more than gratuitous. A novel that illuminates truths that its characters may not be capable of articulating.(Kirkus Reviews, March 15, 2012)
Book Discussion Date and Time: Monday, September 9th, 2013 at 1:00 PM
Discussion Leader: Ellen Getreu
Haunted by the freak accident that killed
their father when they were children, Jim and Bob Burgess escaped from
their Maine hometown of Shirley Falls for New York City as soon as they
possibly could. Jim, a sleek, successful corporate lawyer, has belittled
his bighearted brother their whole lives, and Bob, a Legal Aid attorney
who idolizes Jim, has always taken it in stride. But their
long-standing dynamic is upended when their sister, Susan—the Burgess
sibling who stayed behind—urgently calls them home. Her lonely teenage
son, Zach, has gotten himself into a world of trouble, and Susan
desperately needs their help. And so the Burgess brothers return to the
landscape of their childhood, where the long-buried tensions that have
shaped and shadowed their relationship begin to surface in unexpected
ways that will change them forever.
With a rare combination of
brilliant storytelling, exquisite prose, and remarkable insight into
character, Elizabeth Strout has brought to life two deeply human
protagonists whose struggles and triumphs will resonate with readers
long after they turn the final page. Tender, tough-minded, loving, and
deeply illuminating about the ties that bind us to family and home, The Burgess Boys is Elizabeth Strout’s newest and perhaps most astonishing work of literary art. (Amazon.com)
Pulitzer Prize–winning Strout (Olive Kitteridge, 2008) delivers a tightly woven yet seemingly languorous portrayal of a family in longtime disarray. Brothers Jim and Bob Burgess, and sister Susan, are mired in a childhood trauma: when he was four, Bob unwittingly released the parking brake on the family car, which ran over their father and killed him. Originally from small Shirley Falls, Maine, the Burgess brothers have long since fled to vastly disparate lives as New York City attorneys. Egoistic Jim is a famous big shot with a corporate firm. Self-effacing Bob leads a more low-profile career with Legal Aid. High-strung Susan calls them home to fix a family crisis: her son stands accused of a possible hate crime against the small town’s improbable Somali population. The siblings’ varying responses to the crisis illuminate their sheer differences while also recalling their shared upbringing, forcing them finally to deal with their generally unmentioned, murky family history. Strout’s tremendous talent at creating a compelling interest in what seems on the surface to be the barest of actions gives her latest work an almost meditative state, in which the fabric of family, loyalty, and difficult choices is revealed in layer after artful layer. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: This is the first novel from Strout since her Pulitzer Prize–winning, runaway best-seller, Olive Kitteridge, and anticipation will be high. -- Trevelyan, Julie (Reviewed 01-01-2013) (Booklist, vol 109, number 9, p33)
Publishers Weekly:
Strout’s follow-up to her 2009 Pulitzer Prize winner Olive Kitteridge links a trio of middle-aged siblings with a group of Somali immigrants in a familiar story about isolation within families and communities. The Burgesses have troubles both public and secret: sour, divorced Susan, who stayed in the family’s hometown of Shirley Falls, Maine, with her teenage son Zachary; big-hearted Bob, who feels guilty about their father’s fatal car accident; and celebrity defense lawyer Jim, who moved to Brooklyn, N.Y. When Zachary hurls a bloody pig’s head into a Somali mosque during Ramadan, fragile connections between siblings, the Somalis, and other Shirley Falls residents are tested. Jim’s bullish meddling into Zach’s trial hurts rather than helps, and Susan’s inability to act without her brothers’ advice cements her role as the weakest link (and least interesting character). Finally, when Jim’s neurotic wife, Helen, witnesses the depth of her husband’s indifference and Bob’s ex-wife, Pam, finds the security of her new life in Manhattan tested by nostalgia for Shirley Falls, Zach’s fate—and that of the Somalis—becomes an unfortunate afterthought. Strout excels in constructing an intricate web of circuitous family drama, which makes for a powerful story, but the familiarity of the novel’s questions and a miraculously disentangled denouement drain the story of depth. Agent: Lisa Bankoff, ICM. (Apr.) --Staff (Reviewed February 4, 2013) (Publishers Weekly, vol 260, issue 05, p)
Library Journal:
/* Starred Review */ The Burgess siblings are in disarray. Decades earlier, the "boys," Jim and Bob, fled their childhood home of Shirley Falls, ME, to practice law in New York City. Jim is a flashy uptown defense attorney who once won a high-profile celebrity murder case. His meek younger brother, Bob, the ultimate agent of conciliation, is a Legal Aid lawyer. When Bob's twin sister, Susan, calls from Shirley Falls to say her odd teenage son, Zachary, has thrown a pig's head into the mosque of the community's Somali population, an unspeakably offensive violation of the Muslim faith, the brothers scramble to throw down legal cover. Events spin out of control, Zachary's crime goes national, tensions rise, and charges against the boy escalate. Meanwhile, the abrasive relationship among Jim, Bob, and Susan erodes as the shattering moment of their childhood—the death of their father, which was blamed on four-year-old Bob—bubbles to the surface. VERDICT Pulitzer Prize-winner Strout (Olive Kitteridge ) takes the reader on a surprising journey of combative filial love and the healing powers of the truth. [See Prepub Alert, 11/12/12.]— Beth Andersen, Ann Arbor Dist. Lib., MI --Beth Andersen (Reviewed April 15, 2013) (Library Journal, vol 138, issue 17, p77)
Kirkus:
Two squabbling brothers confront their demons, their crumbling love lives and a hate crime case that thrusts them back to their Maine roots. The titular boys of this follow-up to Strout's Pulitzer-winning 2008 short story collection, Olive Kitteridge, are Jim and Bob Burgess, who are similar on the surface--lawyers, New Yorkers--but polar opposites emotionally. Jim is a high-wattage trial attorney who's quick with a cruel rejoinder designed to put people in their place, while Bob is a divorcé who works for Legal Aid and can't shake the guilt of killing his dad in a freak accident as a child. The two snap into action when their sister's son in their native Maine is apprehended for throwing a pig's head into a mosque. The scenario gives Strout an opportunity to explore the culture of the Somalis who have immigrated to the state in recent years--a handful of scenes are told from the perspective of a Somali cafe owner, baffled by American arrogance, racism and cruelty. But this is mainly a carefully manicured study of domestic (American and household) dysfunction with some rote messages about the impermanence of power and the goodness that resides in hard-luck souls--it gives nothing away to say that Jim comes to a personal reckoning and that Bob isn't quite the doormat he's long been thought to be. Speeding the plot turns along are Jim's wife, Helen, an old-money repository of white guilt, and Jim and Bob's sister, Susan, a hardscrabble repository of parental anxiety. Strout's writing is undeniably graceful and observant: She expertly captures the frenetic pace of New York and relative sluggishness of Maine. But her character arrangements often feel contrived, archetypal and predestined; Jim's in particular becomes a clichéd symbol of an overinflated ego. A skilled but lackluster novel that dutifully ticks off the boxes of family strife, infidelity and ripped-from-the-headlines issues.(Kirkus Reviews, March 15, 2013)
Discussion Date: Tuesday, August 13 at 11:00 AM (Summer Schedule) Discussion Leader: Ellen Getreu
When her notorious, hilarious, volatile, talented troubled, and agoraphobic mother goes missing, teenage Bee begins a trip that takes her to the ends of the earth to find her.
/* Starred Review */ Bernadette Fox, practically a
shut-in, who’s hired a virtual assistant in India to remotely arrange
every task, from hiring a gardener to planning the trip to Antarctica
she’s promised her star-student daughter, Bee seems pretty crazy. But
don’t be fooled. Suspicions that madcap Bernadette is as clever as her
last name implies will be confirmed heartily. When she’s party to some
unfortunate events, her erratic behavior leads her husband, Microsoft
guru Elgin Branch, to commit her to a local mental-health facility. But
Bernadette intercepts his plan at the pass, escapes the staged
intervention, and disappears without a trace. Though much of the story
is told through documents—e-mails, letters, magazine articles—precocious
young teen Bee as narrator is great company, entertaining and
convincing in her comportment. TV writer Semple (Arrested Development)
pokes fun at the Pacific Northwest as only a Seattlelite can and
concocts a caper that, if seen from outer space, might be a mess but in
the minutiae of its tangles is clear and rewarding. Under the guise of a
hilarious romp, Semple explores the universal questions of why we do
what we do and love what we love to some sweet and unexpected ends. --
Bostrom, Annie (Reviewed 07-01-2012) (Booklist, vol 108, number 21, p25)
Publishers Weekly:
/* Starred Review */ In her second novel (after This
One Is Mine), Semple pieces together a modern-day comic caper full of
heart and ingenuity. Eighth-grader Bee is the daughter of Microsoft
genius Elgin Branch and Bernadette Fox, a once-famous architect who has
become a recluse in her Seattle home. Bee has a simple request: a family
cruise to Antarctica as a reward for her good grades. Her parents
acquiesce, but not without trepidation. Bernadette’s social anxiety has
become so overwhelming that she’s employed a personal assistant from
Delhi Virtual Assistants Intl. for tasks as simple as making dinner reservations. How will
she survive three weeks on a boat with other live human beings? Maybe
she won’t; a day before the trip, Bernadette disappears, and Bee gathers
her mother’s invoices, e-mail correspondence, and emergency room bills
in the hopes of finding clues as to where she went.The result is a
compelling composite of a woman’s life—and the way she’s viewed by the
many people who share it. As expected from a writer who has written
episodes of Arrested Development, the nuances of mundane interactions
are brilliantly captured, and the overarching mystery deepens with each
page, until the thoroughly satisfying dénouement. Agent: Anna Stein,
Aitken Alexander. (Aug.) --Staff (Reviewed May 14, 2012) (Publishers
Weekly, vol 259, issue 20, p)
Library Journal:
What does a genius architect do when the neighbor with
whom she's been feuding destroys her greatest work of art? In Semple's
second novel (after This One is Mine ) she moves from the scene of the
crime (Los Angeles) to a city where she's less likely to get into
trouble (Seattle). Bernadette, the genius architect, is married to
Elgin, also a genius, who has taken a job at Microsoft. Unfortunately,
Bernadette manages to get involved in some serious neighbor drama in her
new city—even though she barely leaves her house. Owing to the madness
in LA, Bernadette has lost her creative drive, which has been replaced
with an insanity that affects everyone around her, including her
teenaged daughter, Bee. Eventually, Bernadette flees Seattle with the
help of an unlikely ally. Then it is up to the ones who love her the
most to answer the question the title poses. VERDICT Interestingly
written in the form of emails, memos, and articles with very little
narrative prose, this fun read is filled with quirky characters and
eccentric circumstances. With elements similar to an Anne Tyler novel or
a Wes Anderson film, this is sure to be a hit with readers who
appreciate offbeat characters and an original story. --Karen Core (Reviewed July 1,
2012) (Library Journal, vol 137, issue 12, p78)
Kirkus:
...a cleverly
constructed Internet-age domestic comedy about a wife/mother/genius
architect who goes a little nuts from living in that cesspool of
perfection and bad weather called Seattle. Bernadette left Los Angeles
years earlier after a professional disaster: After she won a MacArthur
grant for building a house using only materials that originated within
20 miles of the site, vengeful neighbors had the house destroyed. Now
she lives in Seattle with her equally genius husband, Elgie, who is
working on a big project in artificial intelligence at Microsoft, and
their genius eighth-grade daughter, Bee, whose devotion to her mother is
one of the novel's least credible plot points. Bernadette may be
brilliant and funny, but she is also mean-spirited and self-absorbed,
with a definite case of entitlement that the author too frequently seems
to share. She certainly hates everything about Seattle, especially the
other mothers at Bee's crunchy-granola private school. Because she hates
to leave her house, a crumbling ruin she's never bothered to renovate,
she has hired a personal assistant in India to run her life via the
Internet. After her vendetta against one of her Seattle mommy-enemies
goes terribly awry, Elgie begins to wonder if she is having a mental
breakdown. Meanwhile, Bernadette decides she wants to get out of a
planned family trip to Antarctica. Days before the trip, in the middle
of an intervention Elgie has plotted with his adoring administrative
assistant, Bernadette disappears. To makes sense of the disappearance,
Bee creates a book by collating the Internet postings, public records
and private emails she has received from an anonymous source. Although
there are wonderful scenes of deadpan absurdity--Semple wrote for
Arrested Development--Seattle, already the butt of so much humor lately,
seems an awfully easy mark. The tone is sharply witty if slightly
condescending, but ultimately Semple goes for the heartstrings. A fun
beach read for urban sophisticates or those who think they are.(Kirkus
Reviews, August 1, 2012)
Serena: a Novel, by Ron Rash Discussion Date: Tuesday, July 23 at 11:00 PM Discussion Leader: Edna Ritzenberg Traveling to the mountains of 1929 North Carolina to forge a timber business with her new husband, Serena
Pemberton champions her mastery of harsh natural and working conditions
but turns murderous when she learns she cannot bear children.
/*Starred Review*/ Rash's short stories and previous
novels are all set in Appalachia and enriched by the region's unique
history. This is his most gripping work yet, a sweeping saga of
unfathomable greed and revenge that grabs the reader's attention from
the first page. The Depression-era tale is centered on newly married
George and Serena Pemberton, owners of a logging company in the
mountains of North Carolina. Their operation is aimed strictly at
maximizing profits, with no regard for either the safety of their
workers or the future of the land they're pillaging. The tragic result
of environmental disregard looms large in all of Rash's fiction, and the
Pembertons are his worst villains to date in that respect—leaving
behind a "wasteland of stumps and slash and creeks awash with dead
trout." Side plots involve the drastic means, including murder, the
couple employs to avoid losing land to environmental groups and Serena's
unflagging pursuit of the young girl who bore George's son shortly
after he and Serena were married. With a setting fraught with danger,
and a character maniacal in her march toward domination and riches,
Serena is a novel not soon forgotten. -- Donovan, Deborah (Reviewed
09-01-2008) (Booklist, vol 105, number 1, p48)
Publishers Weekly:
Depression-era lumber baron George Pemberton and his
callous new wife, Serena, are venality incarnate in Rash's gothic fourth
novel (after The World Made Straight ), set, like the other three, in
Appalachia. George—who coolly kills the furious father of Rachel Harmon,
the teenage girl pregnant with George's bastard son—is an imperious
entrepreneur laying waste to North Carolina timberland without regard
for the well-being of his workers. His evil pales beside that of Serena,
however. Rash's depictions of lumber camp camaraderie (despite deadly
working conditions) are a welcome respite from Serena's unrelenting
thirst for blood and wealth; a subplot about government efforts to buy
back swaths of privately owned land to establish national parks injects
real history into this implacably grim tale of greed and corruption gone
wild—and of eventual, well-deserved revenge. (Oct.) --Staff
(Reviewed May 19, 2008) (Publishers Weekly, vol 255, issue 20, p30)
Library Journal:
This is a violent story about ambition, privilege, and
ruthlessness played out in an Appalachian timber camp in North Carolina
during the Depression. The novel opens with the camp's wealthy owner,
George Pemberton, returning from Boston with his new bride, Serena. He
is met on a train platform by his business partners—and by camp kitchen
worker Rachel, who is carrying his child (and meeting the train with her
angry father). When George leaves the platform, Rachel's father is
dead, and Rachel herself has been spurned and humiliated. The novel is
richly detailed, and many of the characters are skillfully drawn by Rash
(The World Made Straight ). Unfortunately, though, the Pembertons—who
are rapacious and monstrously self-absorbed—often seem one-dimensional
and implausible. Serena is particularly hard to believe at times. Still,
parts of the novel are superb, particularly the final section when
Serena turns violently against Rachel and her son. The Pembertons create
a wasteland in these beautiful mountains, and Rash also renders that
loss powerfully. Though flawed, this manages to be an engaging read.
Recommended for libraries with large fiction collections.—Patrick
Sullivan, Manchester Community Coll., CT --Patrick Sullivan
(Reviewed June 1, 2008) (Library Journal, vol 133, issue 10, p93)
Kirkus:
/* Starred Review */ The latest from Rash (The World
Made Straight, 2006, etc.) is a fine melodrama about a wealthy homicidal
couple, latter-day Macbeths, in Depression-era Appalachia.The book is
an artful expansion of "Pemberton's Bride," the brilliant standout in
Rash's story collection Chemistry (2007). The opening is unforgettable.
Pemberton and his bride Serena return from Boston to Waynesville, in the
North Carolina mountains. Waiting at the train station is Abe Harmon
and his pregnant daughter Rachel. Harmon has vowed to kill her seducer
Pemberton, but the latter knifes the drunk old man to death as Serena
watches approvingly. Pemberton has no fear of the consequences, for he
owns the lumber company on which Waynesville depends and has the local
officials on his payroll, all except his nemesis, sheriff McDowell. He
has a worthy mate in Serena, daughter of a Colorado lumber baron; her
entire family died in the 1918 influenza epidemic. No sentimentalist,
she burnt down the family home before moving East. Eventually she too
will bloody her hands, killing an innocent and strengthening her bond
with Pemberton. The mercilessly exploited workers soon realize she is
Pemberton's full partner; his former partner is killed in a hunting
"accident." When she saves the life of a foreman, Galloway (felling
trees is dangerous work), he becomes her lifelong slave, and hit man;
the incompetent doctor who causes Serena to miscarry is just one of
Galloway's victims. But the novel is not just a trail of blood. Rash
also focuses on the quiet dignity of Rachel (now a single parent raising
Jacob, Pemberton's son) and shows an unforced reverence for nature,
hideously despoiled by Pemberton's relentless clear-cutting. The lumber
king's one soft spot is his feeling for Jacob, but that proves too much
for Serena. The last hundred pages are thrilling, as mother and son take
flight; McDowell supports them heroically; and Pemberton…well, see for
yourself. Should be a breakthrough for this masterful storyteller.
(Kirkus Reviews, August 15, 2008)
Gathering at their Berkshires summer home to mourn the loss of youngest sibling and journalist adventurer Leo, who was killed while on assignment in Iraq, the Frankels endure shared grief and private challenges that shape their views about family.
When his mother, a tribal enrollment specialist living on a reservation in North Dakota, slips into an abyss of depression after being brutally attacked, fourteen- year-oldJoe Coutts sets out with his three friends to find the person that destroyed his family. "Written with undeniable urgency, and illuminating the harsh realities of contemporary life in a community where Ojibwe and white live uneasily together, The Round House is a brilliant and entertaining novel, a masterpiece of literary fiction. Winner of the National Book Award.
/* Starred Review */ In her intensely involving
fourteenth novel, Erdrich writes with brio in the voice of a man
reliving the fateful summer of his thirteenth year. The son of a tribal
judge, Bazil, and a tribal enrollment specialist, Geraldine, Joe Coutts
is an attentively loved and lucky boy—until his mother is brutally
beaten and raped. Erdrich’s profound intimacy with her characters
electrifies this stunning and devastating tale of hate crimes and
vengeance, her latest immersion in the Ojibwe and white community she
has been writing about for more than two decades. As Joe and his father
try to help Geraldine heal and figure out who attacked her and why,
Erdrich dissects the harsh realities of an imperiled yet vital culture
and unjust laws reaching back to a tragedy in her earlier novel The
Plague of Doves (2008). But it is Joe’s awakening to the complexities
and traumas of adult life that makes this such a beautifully warm and
wise novel.Through Joe’s hilarious and unnerving encounters with his
ex-stripper aunt, bawdy grandmothers, and a marine turned Catholic
priest; Joe’s dangerous escapades with his loyal friends; and the
spellbinding stories told by his grandfather, Mooshum, a favorite
recurring character, Erdrich covers a vast spectrum of history, cruel
loss, and bracing realizations. A preeminent tale in an essential
American saga. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Best-selling Erdrich’s
exceptional new novel will be actively promoted with a national tour and
a coordinated blog tour as well as extensive print, radio, and
social-media appearances. -- Seaman, Donna (Reviewed 08-01-2012)
(Booklist, vol 108, number 22, p25)
Publishers Weekly:
/* Starred Review */ Erdrich, a Pulitzer Prize
finalist, sets her newest (after Shadow Tag) in 1988 in an Ojibwe
community in North Dakota; the story pulses with urgency as she probes
the moral and legal ramifications of a terrible act of violence. When
tribal enrollment expert Geraldine Coutts is viciously attacked, her
ordeal is made even more devastating by the legal ambiguities
surrounding the location and perpetrator of the assault—did the attack
occur on tribal, federal, or state land? Is the aggressor white or
Indian? As Geraldine becomes enveloped by depression, her husband, Bazil
(the tribal judge), and their 13-year-old son, Joe, try desperately to
identify her assailant and bring him to justice. The teen quickly grows
frustrated with the slow pace of the law, so Joe and three friends take
matters into their own hands. But revenge exacts a tragic price, and Joe
is jarringly ushered into an adult realm of anguished guilt and
ineffable sadness. Through Joe’s narration, which is by turns raunchy
and emotionally immediate, Erdrich perceptively chronicles the attack’s
disastrous effect on the family’s domestic life, their community, and
Joe’s own premature introduction to a violent world. Agent: Andrew
Wiley. (Oct.) --Staff (Reviewed July 16, 2012) (Publishers Weekly, vol
259, issue 29, p)
Library Journal:
/* Starred Review */ Set on an Ojibwe reservation in
North Dakota in 1988, Erdrich's 14th novel focuses on 13-year-old
Joseph. After his mother is brutally raped yet refuses to speak about
the experience, Joe must not only cope with her slow physical and mental
recovery but also confront his own feelings of anger and helplessness.
Questions of jurisdiction and treaty law complicate matters. Doubting
that justice will be served, Joe enlists his friends to help investigate
the crime. VERDICT Erdrich skillfully makes Joe's coming-of-age both
universal and specific. Like many a teenage boy, he sneaks beer with his
buddies, watches Star Trek: The Next Generation , and obsesses about
sex. But the story is also ripe with detail about reservation life, and
with her rich cast of characters, from Joe's alcoholic and sometimes
violent uncle Whitey and his former-stripper girlfriend Sonja, to the
ex-marine priest Father Travis and the gleefully lewd Grandma Thunder,
Erdrich provides flavor, humor, and depth. Joe's relationship with his
father, Bazil, a judge, has echoes of To Kill a Mockingbird , as Bazil
explains to his son why he continues to seek justice despite roadblocks
to prosecuting non-Indians. Recommended. [See Prepub Alert, 4/23/12.]—
Christine DeZelar-Tiedman, Univ. of Minnesota Libs., Minneapolis
--Christine DeZelar-Tiedman (Reviewed August 1, 2012) (Library Journal,
vol 137, issue 13, p83)
Kirkus:
Erdrich returns to the North Dakota Ojibwe community she
introduced in The Plague of Doves (2008)--akin but at a remove from the
community she created in the continuum of books from Love Medicine to
The Red Convertible--in this story about the aftermath of a rape. Over a
decade has passed. Geraldine and Judge Bazil Coutts, who figured
prominently in the earlier book, are spending a peaceful Sunday
afternoon at home. While Bazil naps, Geraldine, who manages tribal
enrollment, gets a phone call. A little later she tells her 13-year-old
son, Joe, she needs to pick up a file in her office and drives away.
When she returns hours later, the family's idyllic life and Joe's
childhood innocence are shattered. She has been attacked and raped
before escaping from a man who clearly intended to kill her. She is
deeply traumatized and unwilling to identify the assailant, but Bazil
and Joe go through Bazil's case files, looking for suspects, men with a
grudge against Bazil, who adjudicates cases under Native American
jurisdiction, most of them trivial. Joe watches his parents in crisis
and resolves to avenge the crime against his mother. But it is summer,
so he also hangs out with his friends, especially charismatic,
emotionally precocious Cappy. The novel, told through the eyes of a
grown Joe looking back at himself as a boy, combines a coming-of-age
story (think Stand By Me) with a crime and vengeance story while
exploring Erdrich's trademark themes: the struggle of Native Americans
to maintain their identity; the legacy of the troubled, unequal
relationship between Native Americans and European Americans, a
relationship full of hatred but also mutual dependence; the role of the
Catholic Church within a Native American community that has not entirely
given up its own beliefs or spirituality. Favorite Erdrich characters
like Nanapush and Father Damien make cameo appearances. This second
novel in a planned trilogy lacks the breadth and richness of Erdrich at
her best, but middling Erdrich is still pretty great.(Kirkus Reviews,
September 1, 2012)
A fast-paced, fictional account of William Francis Sutton, America's most successful bank robber and the first criminal to appear on the FBI's most-wanted list. Blending extensive research with vivid imagination, Pulitzer Prize-winner J.R. Moehringer (author of The Tender Bar) brings Willie Sutton back to life.
