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The Bingo Palace

3.8 of 5 stars 3.80 · rating details · 2,242 ratings · 84 reviews

At a crossroads in his life, Lipsha Morrissey is summoned by his grandfather on the reservation. There he comes to terms with his heritage, his future, and his first true love in this novel of spiritual death, lyrical prose, and wild hope: the latest and most luminous work in the series begun with Love Medicine.

Paperback, 304 pages

Published August 22nd 2006 by Harper Perennial (first published 1994)

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Mar 04, 2011 Elizabeth (Alaska) rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: erdrich-louise

Lipsha Morrissey is probably the least likely of all central characters. He is a ne'er-do-well extraordinaire. He sweeps the floors at the bingo palace and is sometime night watchman. But he loves Shawnee Ray Toose and we cannot help but feel for him. Not sorry for him, but want him to find a way to make a life with her. But she's not having anything to do with him - he is a Morrissey for one thing.

The Bingo Palace is so much more than this love story, it's impossible to put into words. I think...more

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Aug 09, 2008 Gina rated it 4 of 5 stars

Recommended to Gina by: Rachel...from whom I swiped it.

OH LOUISEY, YOU DAWG! IT'S SO HARD TO EVEN BEGIN TO REVIEW THIS BOOK, BUT WE POOR SUBLUNARY CREATURES WANT TO UNDERSTAND WHAT'S GOIN ON UP THERE IN THE EXALTED SPHERES.

Okay no more shouting Alleluias in bold face: let's get down to work: I follow the dictums given to my students eons ago to decipher the novel's meaning. We deconstruct according to five topics:

SETTING: We are somewhere in and around The Dakotas. Fargo is mentioned but the setting becomes very "Pan's Labyrinth" so we are deep i...more OH LOUISEY, YOU DAWG! IT'S SO HARD TO EVEN BEGIN TO REVIEW THIS BOOK, BUT WE POOR SUBLUNARY CREATURES WANT TO UNDERSTAND WHAT'S GOIN ON UP THERE IN THE EXALTED SPHERES.

Okay no more shouting Alleluias in bold face: let's get down to work: I follow the dictums given to my students eons ago to decipher the novel's meaning. We deconstruct according to five topics:

SETTING: We are somewhere in and around The Dakotas. Fargo is mentioned but the setting becomes very "Pan's Labyrinth" so we are deep into the woods, in sweat tepees, in dusty arenas hosting Native American dance competitions. We are most importantly in the harrowing, barren but sometimes ravishing landscapes of the characters' minds. All of these places are unforgettable in details that pique and arouse the senses. Even Erdrich's description of a seemingly tiny item like a baby's moccasin shimmers in its singularity.

CHARACTER: I wasn't going here until last but it's hard to keep from proclaiming: what a cast! Shakespeare would have been proud to set these folk in motion. Yes, there is the flawed hero and his fair lady--Lipsha Morrissey and Shawnee Ray Toose. Witches and villains abound and all of the above (who are connected by rather incestuous ties) enact the most incredible deeds. They are informed by their ancient Chippawa customs and lore and tainted by the encroaching Western World, so stay tuned for the outcome of an epic battle between good and evil.

THEMES: check the last paragraph above about characters. Good novels cover most of the basic themes and they are popping up here: the power of love to defeat hate; the injustice of social repression; the evils of racism; the destructive power of greed, lust, envy, gluttony, pride, and the other two capital sins which elude me at the moment.

TONE: You want sad; it's here. You want hilariously funny; ditto, and surreal and frightening finish off Erdrich's palatte. The segment in which Lipsha and his n'er-do-well father, Gerry Nanapush steal and car (and a baby) and drive through a blizzard stands out as well as the scene where Fleur Pillager, the Ancient Matriarch of the tribe comes to town to gamble in a white cadillac accompanied by a ghostly young avatar of herself. These examples are not spoilers, just tantalizing coming attractions. Great novels run the gamut of tones. Dip your toes into this one; the water's fine.

PLOT: Well, we are all adults and are use to the modernist techniques of jumping about. Our minds, which hopefully do not run along linear paths (lest we die of boredom), are habituated to the flashback, the flash forward, the leap into the surreal, the change of narrators, as well as allusions to previous books involving these characters. That proposition being accepted, readers (with a bit of back-tracking),will follow the yellow brick road to the end. And what an ending. I think it ended really well.

This is not a Harlequin Romance.
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Sep 20, 2009 Nick rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: western

I reread The Bingo Palace with hopes of inching it into four star territory. But upon second reading, I still can’t in good conscience give the novel anything but three. The first half of the book is great. It positions at the center of the narrative a good old-fashioned love story that begins at a pow-wow which the author describes wonderfully, where the two protagonists meet and Lipsha develops his all-consuming passion for Shawnee Ray. Erdrich keeps this love story central while she whirls th...more I reread The Bingo Palace with hopes of inching it into four star territory. But upon second reading, I still can’t in good conscience give the novel anything but three. The first half of the book is great. It positions at the center of the narrative a good old-fashioned love story that begins at a pow-wow which the author describes wonderfully, where the two protagonists meet and Lipsha develops his all-consuming passion for Shawnee Ray. Erdrich keeps this love story central while she whirls the stories of the various characters, familiar from her other novels, around its axis.

The second half of the novel is more problematic. It is, in essence, a series of vision quests, dreams and hallucinations. In the middle of these, the love story remains paramount, for the most part. But a long digression occurs involving a jail break, a plane crash, and getaway in a stolen car on a snowy night – all of which may or may not be “real” in the line of the story. (I guess the events are real, for in the epilogue-like fragmentary last chapters other characters hear about these things from the police and on the radio. But the exact occurrences are very confusing. And their relationships to the previous events of the story are nebulous.)

Among these hallucinatory sequences are some beautiful images. My favorite is the story that comes from the sweat lodge vision of Lyman Lamartine, Shawnee Ray’s other boyfriend and Lipsha’s rival for her affections, who happens to be Lipsha’s uncle. His brother Henry had died by drowning, probably complicated by PTSD left over from his Vietnam experience, and Lyman had in sorrow taken Henry’s “fancy dancing” clothes and worn them when he danced at pow-wows. During his sweat lodge experience, Lyman dances for the first time without wearing Henry’s clothes; it’s a moving experience of the shedding-of-grief while at the same time embracing it.

But the beauty of these, and other, dreams and their effect on the protagonists, doesn’t help in discerning what actually happens in the second part of the story. I’ve read reviews where readers who approached the book long ago say that today they can’t remember what happened – and I was much the same way. Upon rereading, I’ve come to believe that we can’t remember things happening – because they didn’t actually happen.
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Dec 03, 2008 bookczuk rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: bookcrossing

You know, I think I'm just going to give up on Louise Erdrich. I liked The Master Butcher's Singing Club, and was okay with The Beet Queen and with parts of The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse. But with each of her books, it's a chore for me to read. It takes weeks, if longer occasionally. I pick them up and put them down. Sometimes, I'm rewarded with a line like "In her eyes I see the force of her love. It is bulky and hard to carry, like a package that keeps untying." (The Beet...more

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Nov 14, 2012 Judi rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: read-in-1999

Lipsha Morrissey, what can his people say about him except, "Who he is is just the habit of who he always was, we warned Marie. If he's not careful, who he'll be is the result." Lipsha is summoned home when his grandmother sends him a copy of his father's Wanted poster. He arrives during the Intertribal song at the winter powwow. He sees his cousin Albertine dancing and then can't help but notice Shawnee Ray. And from this moment on he is consumed with her.

But as pure and hungry as his love seem...more Lipsha Morrissey, what can his people say about him except, "Who he is is just the habit of who he always was, we warned Marie. If he's not careful, who he'll be is the result." Lipsha is summoned home when his grandmother sends him a copy of his father's Wanted poster. He arrives during the Intertribal song at the winter powwow. He sees his cousin Albertine dancing and then can't help but notice Shawnee Ray. And from this moment on he is consumed with her.

But as pure and hungry as his love seems to be, it is far from simple. The father of Shawnee Ray's son is Lipsha's own uncle-brother Lyman Larmartine. Out of the overpowering goodness of her heart, Zelda Kapshaw took in the pregnant Shawnee Ray and now feels that it is her job to watch out for Shawnee's life. One thing is for sure, Shawnee would be better off marrying Lyman, the reservation's "big cheese" and Zelda sets events in motion to discourage Shawnee's interest in Lipsha. To complicate matters even further, Lyman gives Lipsha a job as a night watchman at his bar/bingo hall/blackjack parlor. So now he is competing with his blood relative and boss. And he comes to discover that Lyman is also hopelessly in love with Shawnee Ray.

Lipsha's legacy is that he was raised by his grandmother Marie Kapshaw, after his own mother, June Morrissey, tried to drown him in the slough as an infant. The fact that he didn't drown is the mystery. June, now dead herself, visits Lipsha one night at the bar. She's decided that she wants the car he bought with her insurance money. In exchange she leaves him some very lucky Bingo cards. Lucky enough that is, to win him a plush new van and lots of cash. But not enough luck to win the girl or to break the habit of getting in harm's way. In the end, we find that it is each of his grandmothers including his great-grandmother that control the events of the bigger picture. We find that not even Zelda is in control but is just one more of the players.

As should be expected with a book called The Bingo Palace, there are many references to chance and luck. Many of the chapter's describe somebody's luck ("Lipsha's Luck," "June's Luck," "Lyman's Luck"). In most cases, the luck is not of the good kind, or if it appears good, it doesn't last. And those with the luck, such as Fleur, are not the one's you want to mess with. The title also has another more obvious context, that of the Indian Gaming Industry as we find out that Lyman Larmartine is working towards building a Bingo Parlor on some undeeded land.

Reading The Bingo Palace is a wonderful experience. Every sentence is a masterpiece, evidence of a poet writing fiction. However, this book requires patience and many sections require re-reads in order to keep track of the many relations and to truly understand the ending. In the end I probably read the book twice, by the time I had gone and back and forth a few times.

Love Medicine, The Beet Queen and Tracks all involve the same three families as The Bingo Palace in the fictional town of Argus, Dakota. These I must read, for now that I have been introduced to these people I want more. (from MostlyFiction, 1999)(less)

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Dec 08, 2010 Kate Barber rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: contemporary-native-american-litera

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. The Bingo Palace takes place over the course of roughly a year, from one winter to the next. In relation to events within her previous novels and with regards to the Indian Gaming Act we can place the novel around the late 1980s. There is a strong difference shown between the present actions of the characters, and the past which continues to haunt and affect them now. For example Fleur’s age does not add up, having cheated death three times prior to this novel it would make her at least 100 year...more

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Oct 31, 2010 Erin rated it 4 of 5 stars

Interesting (though not all that surprising!)to find a fellow classmate here.
I just finished reading the novel. While I have enjoyed (for the most part) the assigned reading for the course, I've never read any work by American Indian authors before. Therefore, I find myself needing to change the way I look at and experience these novels. Erdrich's book has been a welcome bit of brain-relaxation - she still makes me think, but writes at a more "all humanity-encompassing" level. Some things are d...more

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Feb 10, 2010 Bucket rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: culture, generational-epic, literary, love, magical-realism, religion, sex, reviewed

I have a favorable impression now that I've finished, but in the beginning I really wondered if I would like this. There are so many characters within the first ten or so pages and I absolutely could not keep them straight - especially since they are all inter-related in various ways. As the book went on, I figured out which ones mattered here and ignored the rest, but before I got to that point I did a lot of looking back. I wonder if this problem would have been less apparent if I had read the...more

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Jun 30, 2010 Michael rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: collectible, historical, own-it, new-york-times-best-seller, read-in-2010, reviewed, series, signed-edition

This is the story of the growth and maturation of Lipshaw Morrisey.

He is the illegitimate son of June Kashpaw and Gary Nanapush. He's summoned back to the reservation by his grandmother, Lulu Lamaratine. Her method of summons is a wanted poster with his father's photo on it.

This effective wake up makes Lipshaw examine his existence. He considers his life with his dead end job, his world of drugs and bleak future. Then he packs his car and heads back to the res.

When he was a child we learn that h...more

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Apr 15, 2009 Catherine rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2009, 50books_poc, ojibwe_country

I confess to not really understanding a lot of what went on in this book. Whatever theme or narrative arc Erdrich was following was lost on me, especially when I got to the end and found so many threads of the story still hanging. Ending the book as she did can't have been accidental - but I missed the clues that would have made it make sense to me. I need to think on it some more, see if I can't remember things I've missed.

It was, as ever, wonderful to spend time with the people of Little No Ho...more

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Aug 11, 2009 Monique rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Fans of Erdrich, people interested in Native Americans

It's so funny, I just looked over my other reviews of Louise Erdrich books and every review starts out with how beautifully written the novels are. And that's the first time I had ever gone back to compare my reviews of her work. Anyway, The Bingo Palace is no exception in terms of Erdrich's writing ability; this novel is as beautifully written as the others...but this novel didn't grab at my gut the way the other books did. It's a solid effort, but I think the plot was just not as compelling to...more

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Jan 09, 2013 Patricia rated it 5 of 5 stars

The fourth in a quartet of related novels, The Bingo Palace features Lipsha Morrissey, the son of June Kashpaw and Gerry Nanapush, characters from all of the interconnected families in Erdrich's previous books. The Bingo Palace is the main symbol of the story - a structure planned for a site on an Objiwe reservation - a site considered sacred to Native Americans. The bingo palace is a double-edged sword in that it will benefit the tribe financially at the same time that it will destroy another p...more

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Jan 19, 2009 Nicole rated it 4 of 5 stars

i inadvertently checked out two books from the library with the word palace in the title, so I guess that summarizes my current escapist tendencies. I've heard this is one in a sequence of novels by Erdrich, but the story stands fine by itself. I personally enjoyed the open ending -- not knowing whether the characters fall in love and live happily ever after, left wondering whether the tribe will build a large casino on the res or not. Erdrich is a really gifted writer and has a way of making ch...more

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Jul 19, 2012 Brittany Wilmes rated it 4 of 5 stars

OK, so I didn't start in the best place when choosing an introduction to Erdrich, but it was her only tome on the shelves of my local library. Erdrich's writing is lovely and generous and wild, evoking a people and a way of living that I can only wistfully imagine. I loved her characters' stubborn faults, their ability to imagine and strive and stumble within their limits, and their rich, wild language of love.

Her writing sometimes made me nervous (for all the ways hearts can leap and bolt and t...more

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Mar 01, 2013 Melissa Luna rated it 4 of 5 stars

This time we get to spend a lot of time with Lipsha, Zelda and Lyman. Guest appearances by Albertine, Gerry, the deceased June and Fleur Pillager! And some wonderful new characters like Shawnee Ray. There's more "magical realism" (if you want to call it that) in The Bingo Palace than in Love Medicine or The Beet Queen. In general it is more along the lines of The Last Report..., which is why this is now my second-favorite Erdrich novel. It's a gorgeous journey and a wonderful book, but the endin...more

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Sep 21, 2010 Paula Hebert rated it 4 of 5 stars

in this fourth book of louise erdrick's we are once again taken back to the reservation. this time to watch modern day decendants of the clans, whose lives are so interwoven by marriages that everyone seems to be related. as they try to integrate the present and future, and still somehow honor their past traditions, all generations make decisions that have long term impact. filled with heartache, humor, love and the wisdom of the ages, it's a beautiful story that will stay with you long after yo...more

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Nov 04, 2010 Matt rated it 4 of 5 stars

Recommended to Matt by: Laura Furlan

Required reading for Am. Ind. Lit., Prof. Laura Furlan, UMASS-Amherst.

Erdrich is good. I'd only read "Love Medicine" before this, and didn't remember enjoying it as much as this, but I was probably just being a wiener when I read "Love Medicine".

I was surprised with all the comparisons Erdrich gets to Faulkner, but I see it, and agree with it in the sense of creating a fictional place and characters and using them across a decade plus of novels.

Erdrich is really funny. Legitimately funny novels...more

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May 24, 2010 Rena Jane rated it 5 of 5 stars

This will go down as one of my favorite books by Louise Erdrich, but it's part of a trilogy, and its so long since I read the first two, that now I want to go back and read them, and put it into context.

Sometimes Erdrich's cultural perspective to keep the story cyclical loses me at the end of her books, but this one made perfect sense. And the strength and determination of absolute, all-encompassing love is beautifully demonstrated in Lipshaw's mother and father, as well as in his own life. Fle...more

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Dec 27, 2009 Lindsay rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The masochist in me has developed a strange yearning for Erdrich when the blistering winter chill starts to scrape St. Louis. Not that this place gets nearly as cold and for not nearly as long as her Dakota climes, but there's such a mysteriously gratifying level of sympathy, longing, and ironic warmth I get out of her world. I think this started when I read most of Tracks one December day three years ago, smothered in blankets next to a drafty window in a former apartment, when my heat had gone...more The masochist in me has developed a strange yearning for Erdrich when the blistering winter chill starts to scrape St. Louis. Not that this place gets nearly as cold and for not nearly as long as her Dakota climes, but there's such a mysteriously gratifying level of sympathy, longing, and ironic warmth I get out of her world. I think this started when I read most of Tracks one December day three years ago, smothered in blankets next to a drafty window in a former apartment, when my heat had gone out due to a nasty ice storm the night before. And now that time has come again to take in another story.

I've had this book on my shelf for at least two and a half years, maybe longer. In my quest to read Erdrich's novels chronological in order of publication, this was the fourth stop on my trip. Only, it took me a few tries to really get through it, and in the meantime I broke the frustration of my chronological resolution and read a couple others that had been specifically recommended (Master Butcher and Last Report) (and both of those were superb). Something about The Bingo Palace just didn't jive well with me, but for a while I couldn't really put my finger on it. The strange thing was, though, between all attempts to read this, I remembered so much of the story I never had to back track to refresh my memory. Over the past couple years, whenever my mind wandered over to Erdrich, I would always think of this incomplete novel I could never seem to finish. I couldn't just let it be. So, as we've dipped plenty below freezing already this December, I picked it up again, and this time it wasn't any problem. In fact, I rather enjoyed it. Part of it, at least--I think I've identified what didn't rest well with me previously. It's the choppy narration. I'm down with different points of view, but it's tricky, and she's done it better in other novels of hers. Mainly, I found myself craving Lipsha's point-of-view, tearing down the pages as he told his story. I liked the other reporting alright, but it always seemed to feel like a slight disappointment to wander away from Lipsha's ravenous crush.

I can't say for sure, but I think in this last shot I gave it, the measures of insanity driven by feelings of lust or love really stirred up more empathy in me than before. I mean, like it really drove some of these people crazy. I blame it on my friends and family (and me, too, I guess...). I've witnessed it enough in my own life by now, and especially recently, that I felt a lot more comfortable with the characters.

But alas, since it took me so long to get through this novel, I don't feel any super-strong attachment to it like I have with ones prior. It's got its really driving moments for sure, but enough bumps in the road to average it out to OK. It was good enough to keep my winter soul searching for more Erdrich, and I'll leave it at that.(less)

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Jan 11, 2012 Rita Varian rated it 4 of 5 stars

I love the way she writes. The only other book of hers I've read so far is Love Medicine, so now I've got some things to add to my to-read list! Starting with whatever comes after this one, because she left me hanging a bit at the end. I don't remember when I read Love Medicine; it's been years, and before I started this one, I didn't remember the plot, just a couple of scenes and that it was sad and really good. But now, coming back to some of the same characters, I remember more of the first b...more

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Jul 24, 2011 Mary Newcomb added it

What a great book! The story is compelling, I love the ongoing worries and escapades of her cast of characters in this deeply and richly textured tale.

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Dec 08, 2009 Rob rated it 3 of 5 stars

Erdrich tackles some weighty Native American issues in this book--politically, spiritually, and emotionally. It was an ambitious attempt to backlight contemporary Native Ameican life at the time this novel was written. However, for me, it is a good but not great book. If you're a fan of Erdrich, yes, you'll find aspects to like about it. But it won't mesmerize you like her great works of fiction.

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Jul 13, 2010 Sandra rated it 3 of 5 stars

Too real, too close: the sense of ennui and all the relatives, and on the reservation, they are all relatives, and they need attending to. The story is probably like a poem that needs to be reread to be fully appreciated. Maybe I have known too many bingo players, and how all in their immediate life goes to the wayside to get to the evening game. The title is right on.

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Dec 28, 2008 Jinger rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2008

I remember reading Love Medicine in high school and being amazed. Something's missing in this follow-up, possibly because The Bingo Palace tends to follow mostly one character's story, rather than the sprawling epic that I expected. I'm definitely going to pick up a copy of Love Medicine again soon, though.

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Apr 01, 2009 Pennydublin added it

Story of ill-fated life and love of Lipsha Morrissey, with tantalizing fragments of the stories of all the other characters in the tribe, developed more in her other books. Interesting, but not as good as Miracle at Little Horse or Master Butcher’s Singing group….

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Jun 05, 2009 Nikki is currently reading it

Erdrich has a great "feel" and voice as you move through her novels. I love how you can feel intimacy and yet mystery with her characters. Will I be able to keep reading with my class coming up? Who knows? Chances are, this will be an all summer read.

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Sep 16, 2009 lisa rated it 3 of 5 stars

I am not loving it as much as I loved Love Medicine, and I'm not sure if that's because it's not as compelling, or because I read Love Medicine ten years ago and would have loved that less if I read it now. But I do think she's pretty great.

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Oct 07, 2012 Julie Howley rated it 5 of 5 stars

I think this is my favourite Erdrrich book. Lipsha Morrissey is a wonderful character and the humour ( wonderful!) & tragedy are finely balanced within a whole that is spiritual, poetic & always compassionate.

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Jan 29, 2013 Caroline Mcphail-Lambert rated it 3 of 5 stars

In places, reminded me of times on the Rez. Some things just remain the same. Really got lost at the end, but wasn't feeling well, so perhaps that's why. For the most part, enjoyable.

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Mar 27, 2009 Barb rated it 2 of 5 stars

We did this for our book discussion but it was a difficult read. The writing style was obscure and the group members had difficulty thinking of topics to discuss with the book.

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About Louise Erdrich

Karen Louise Erdrich is a American author of novels, poetry, and children's books. Her father is German American and mother is half Ojibwe and half French American. She is an enrolled member of the Anishinaabe nation (also known as Chippewa). She is widely acclaimed as one of the most significant Native writers of the second wave of what critic Kenneth Lincoln has called the Native American Renais...more Karen Louise Erdrich is a American author of novels, poetry, and children's books. Her father is German American and mother is half Ojibwe and half French American. She is an enrolled member of the Anishinaabe nation (also known as Chippewa). She is widely acclaimed as one of the most significant Native writers of the second wave of what critic Kenneth Lincoln has called the Native American Renaissance.

For more information, please see http://www.answers.com/topic/louise-e...

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Author Biography:

Louise Erdrich is one of the most gifted, prolific, and challenging of contemporary Native American novelists. Born in 1954 in Little Falls, Minnesota, she grew up mostly in Wahpeton, North Dakota, where her parents taught at Bureau of Indian Affairs schools. Her fiction reflects aspects of her mixed heritage: German through her father, and French and Ojibwa through her mother. She worked at various jobs, such as hoeing sugar beets, farm work, waitressing, short order cooking, lifeguarding, and construction work, before becoming a writer. She attended the Johns Hopkins creative writing program and received fellowships at the McDowell Colony and the Yaddo Colony. After she was named writer-in-residence at Dartmouth, she married professor Michael Dorris and raised several children, some of them adopted. She and Michael became a picture-book husband-and-wife writing team, though they wrote only one truly collaborative novel, The Crown of Columbus (1991).

The Antelope Wife was published in 1998, not long after her separation from Michael and his subsequent suicide. Some reviewers believed they saw in The Antelope Wife the anguish Erdrich must have felt as her marriage crumbled, but she has stated that she is unconscious of having mirrored any real-life events.

She is the author of four previous bestselling andaward-winning novels, including Love Medicine; The Beet Queen; Tracks; and The Bingo Palace. She also has written two collections of poetry, Jacklight, and Baptism of Desire. Her fiction has been honored by the National Book Critics Circle (1984) and The Los Angeles Times (1985), and has been translated into fourteen languages.

Several of her short stories have been selected for O. Henry awards and for inclusion in the annual Best American Short Story anthologies. The Blue Jay's Dance, a memoir of motherhood, was her first nonfiction work, and her children's book, Grandmother's Pigeon, has been published by Hyperion Press. She lives in Minnesota with her children, who help her run a small independent bookstore called The Birchbark.

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Quotes from The Bingo Palace

“We do know that no one gets wise enough to really understand the heart of another, though it is the task of our life to try.” — 851 people liked it

“Cold sinks in, there to stay. And people, they'll leave you, sure. There's no return to what was and no way back. There's just emptiness all around, and you in it, like singing up from the bottom of a well, like nothing else, until you harm yourself, until you are a mad dog biting yourself for sympathy. Because there is no relenting.” — 30 people liked it

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