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Dec 22, 2011

Will rated it:

We open with a scene of mass murder. A child (Moses, Kal-El) is spared when the killer’s weapon jams. He quiets the baby with music. Violence and music permeate the following tales and only at the very end do we learn who the baby grew up to be and the identity of the killer. There are other atrocities to come. How these events came to be and the ongoing impact of time and transformation define this book.

Multiple narrators, multiple generations, much overlap between Native Americans More...

1 comment like (7 people liked it)

Jun 23, 2011

Jennifer (aka EM) rated it:

Can I keep giving all the books I read this year four or five stars? Is my judgement becoming less and less credible (assuming it had any credibility in the first place)? May I just say that it's all Goodreads' fault, and the many Goodreaders (you know who you are) who've led me to these authors and books that so precisely fulfill my every literary desire? I'm getting ruthless at picking and choosing among my to-read pile, going only for those I *know* will satisfy me - the responsibility for More...

3 comments like (9 people liked it)

Dec 14, 2008

jo rated it:

louise erdrich wrote this with the wind of the spirit at her heels. what amazing writing. i'm going slowly, because a) the writing is too beautiful to hurry; b) the story is too intense to hurry; and, less fancifully, c) i need a solid plot-directed narrative to keep me going these days, and this book doesn't have one, so i am reading when the need for aforementioned is not too pressing.

this novel goes back and forth in time and space, focusing on a host of characters of mixed india More...

7 comments like (9 people liked it)

Aug 01, 2008

Sonja rated it:

Louise Erdrich, master storyteller and language artist, does it again, but even better this time. Louise write about the intersection of the caucasian and Obijibwe (spelling?) of the Dakotas. This book, more than anything, explores the ripples in the pond effect one horrendous action can have on future generations in a community. Other reviewers have said that the book is too confusing, too many characters, too many storylines. My response is, that if you wish to know what it is like to live More...

0 comments like (8 people liked it)

Jul 27, 2008

David rated it:

Really, really good. There are multiple narrators and each of their stories could stand independently, but somehow they also form a cohesive novel. After you read the book, you should read Claire Messud's essay on The Plague of Doves in they July 17 issue of the New York Review of Books (or NYRB - pronouced "nerb," as in "Hey John - did you see the article on The Plague of Doves in the newest issue of the Nerb?"). I think it's on the website. I also think the book will be be More...

2 comments like (4 people liked it)

May 29, 2008

Elise rated it:

Interweaves the oral history & 1st person narratives of the members of a N. Dakota town & reservation to look at the aftermath & effects of an isolated murder of a white family and subsequent lynching of several innocent Indians. I couldn't read this in one sitting, so I was finding myself having a hard time keeping all of the different threads and families straight. There seemed to be so many that by the end when a new one started, I couldn't help thinking, "yikes, when is she is going t More...

1 comment like (6 people liked it)

Jun 12, 2008

Sarah rated it:

Erdrich weaves the history of a small town in North Dakota, where over the years, the experiences of Native Americans and whites have tangled in a sometimes violent web. Some stories are more engaging and immediately grabbing than others, especially those of Holy Track who was lynched as a boy and of Marn Wolde, a woman with a passion for snakes who runs away with a preacher (who in turn develops a dangerous cult). The chapters and voices unite to create a common history of the area. Erdrich' More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

May 29, 2008

Katina rated it:

Louise Erdrich rules. I've liked her other stuff, but this book made even The Painted Drum pale in comparison. The characters in this book are complex and come alive and the narratives all weave together in unexpected and creative ways. I would recommend this for anyone, but especially for people with an interest in Native American history or folks from the Great White North (i.e., ND, SD, MN, or WI).

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

May 30, 2008

Brenda rated it:

Brilliant, as always, from Erdrich. I actually think this is her best yet, and I still recall images from the award winning Bingo Palace and Love Medicine all these years later. The mix of humor, humanity and pathos is right, yet she does not spare us the horror that humans are also capable of. Just a perfect book.

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jan 14, 2009

Ingrid rated it:

Well, I tried. An NYTimes book reviewer hailed this book as one of the top novels of the year (2008), so I bought the hype, scooped it up, and admired the cover for a long little while. Then I started reading ... and nothing grabbed my attention ... at all. And I became bored. Soon I realized I was 20-something pages in, had been introduced to a dozen characters, and felt completely unattached. Some might say I gave in too soon--that after 25 pages I should still be intently reading and wait More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Apr 08, 2011

Joy H. rated it:

RE: _The Plague of Doves_ (2008) by Louise Erdrich
[This book was a Pulitzer Prize finalist (Fiction, 2009)]
[I read this book in Jan/Feb 2009. I added shelves on 4/1/11.]

For my comments about this book, please see the following discussion thread:
http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/1102...

Below is the my first post at the link above:
=================================================
Last night, our town library book group discussed _The Plague of More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jun 16, 2011

Jessica rated it:

Lately I've been trying not to read too much about a book before I read it, though I wish I'd read something about this one. If I had just read here or over at Amazon, I would have figured out this was written in almost scraps, as stories, and not been so confused (I listened to it) as the story moved in tiny, episodic pieces. All delightful, well-crafted, and beautiful, but incomplete, at least in terms of what a novel might do.

That said, Erdrich is brilliant in the small moment, More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 30, 2009

Suzanne rated it:

I'm a little bit behind on my Louise Erdrich, but reading this book reminded me of why she's always been one of my favorite writers. First, there's the gorgeous prose, then the wonderful stories which border on fantastic, and the quirky cast of Catholic and/or Native American characters. This one had a little bit more sex than I remember from previous books.

3 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jun 06, 2008

Carolyn rated it:

louise erdrich is an extraordinary writer--the way she puts words together is like beautiful beading, and i already miss the characters, want to know more, will soon read the book again just to get back in that town. she moves around between characters and times and how the past affects the present, sometimes tangentially, sometimes full on in the solar plexus. her works altogether (and of course i have read every book)are creating a four (at least four...) dimensional spiral, a little galaxy. More...

2 comments like (2 people liked it)

Apr 15, 2009

Charly rated it:

I picked this up on a whim and found a very entertainiung piece about the workings of a small town at the edge of an Indian Reservation. It is a bit of a mystery but not really suspense. As the story unravels it begomes more and more intersting.

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jun 01, 2008

Amy rated it:

I enjoyed this book. The writing was rich and poetic. The plot was a little tiresome based on the fact that Erdrich cast a wide net in this novel that is less than 400 pages. Each chapter was a different perspective and time. Sometimes I found myself enjoying what I was reading but a little confused with context ("how exactly did I get here?").
Also the jacket blurb leads the reader into thinking there is a mystery to be solved. There is but it seems like a minor part of the plot More...

1 comment like (3 people liked it)

Jul 23, 2008

Kerfe rated it:

Erdich always tells a good story, and this is no exception.

A cast of thousands, all related by birth, marriage or trouble. Native Americans. Murders, births, tragedies, comedies, imprisonments, escapes, loves, hates--pieces of local history related from multiple points of view until they form a branched river that wanders off and circles ever back again to join in a muddy whole. Magic. Mystery. Numbing reality. Sex. Drugs. and of course, violins.

And the answer to " More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jun 06, 2008

Erica rated it:

I don't think Louise Erdrich can write a bad book, but this wasn't one of my favorites of hers. All the elements of a great book were there, but I felt like they didn't tie together. There were too many narrators that were too unrelated. The central "mystery" of the book wasn't played up enough. But there was some beautiful writing and character development in there. I would recommend for Louise Erdrich fans, but if you've never read her, start with Love Medicine or Tracks, and if you More...

1 comment like (3 people liked it)

Jan 28, 2009

satsuma rated it:

Once when I lived in Sitka Alaska and was roaming around looking for a smoke, a man wearing a utilakilt (a canvas utility kilt made in Seattle) walked towards me on the sidewalk in front of the Pioneer Home, a curl of smoke issuing from his right hand. As it turns out he was in town to perform as part of a advant-garde ensemble at the Sheet'ka Kwaan Naa Kahídi Tlingit center later that day. I went to see the performance that had movie shorts accompany the shifting musical score. One short fea More...

4 comments like (1 person liked it)

Aug 10, 2011

Elphaba rated it:

I was impressed with the amazingly beautiful writing and the characterizations. The characters who grew up during the course of the story were particularly endearing - easy to relate to the innocence and also deviousness of Evelina, Joseph and Corwin as they navigated with difficulty through their childhood in a community where secrets and clannishness and bigotry were prevalent.

Also, appreciated was the humor portrayed by characters such as Mooshum, Evelina's grandfather who enjoyed i More...

0 comments like

Dec 17, 2010

Rebecca rated it:

Thank God for Louise Erdrich! I especially love the way she explains how the old Indian men deal with the priest.
My favorite parts (I'll write them down, but I hope to carry them around in my head):

p10 Evelina explains the bathtub alphabet.

p23-27, 30-34, 37-42 Mooshum and Shamengwa talking with Father Cassidy:
p25 "Impure thoughts," said Shamengwa. "Dear priest, could you explain to us--exactly what are these impure thoughts you mention? . . . ." More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Nov 28, 2010

Jenny rated it:

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/20...

Erdrich starts anew
Author leaves Nanapush behind to tell fresh tales of another family's history
By Jenny Shank, Special to the Rocky
Published May 8, 2008 at 7 p.m.

In her new novel, "The Plague of the Doves," Louise Erdrich thinks, as always, in terms of generations.

There's a clue to the way Louise Erdrich's mind works in a note at the beginning of her new novel, The Plague of Doves.

It's a More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Nov 27, 2010

Carol rated it:

I just finished reading The Plague of Doves and can't quite make up my mind about it. Definitely not on my Top Ten, but in some ways, a worthwhile read. I found it very difficult to get into, but after a while, I was beginning to feel closer to some of the characters. Evalina and Mooshum were my favorites. (I would like to read more about Evalina's future.)

I was amazed at the author's switch from comic to tragic conversations! Her writing, as I've discovered from two of her other books More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Nov 05, 2010

Tania rated it:

A friend of mine lent me this book over two years ago saying I had to read it - he loved it and was certain I would too.

I picked it up and started reading it many, many times. More than I can count. And while I really enjoyed Erdrich's style of writing - it's wonderfully composed - for some reason I was never able to get hooked and would let myself trail off. By the time I returned to the book, I had forgotten the key characters and their relationships which is why I felt compelled to More...

2 comments like (1 person liked it)

Aug 05, 2010

Judy rated it:

Another great story from Louise Erdrich, told through the eyes of three different characters. Thus does the author demonstrate the tangled threads of Native Americans, French explorers and other European immigrants who have woven their destinies together. In generations past, in North Dakota, the slaughter of a white farming family was blamed on Ojibwe Indians, but the truth of the incident lives on in fragments among both the white and Native American descendants.

One of these More...

0 comments like

Apr 10, 2010

Linda rated it:

I've enjoyed Erdrich's books for many years. However, this one is not one of my favorites.
Usually I'm a careful reader and can follow several story lines in a book, but I got lost in this one too many times. I wish I had taken notes as I read.
The book begins with the murder of five members of a family near the town of Pluto, North Dakota. Later the reader learns that three innocent Indians were lynched for the crime. The real murderer is unknown during the whole book. Several More...

0 comments like

Nov 16, 2009

Keith rated it:

Another very strong offering from Louise Erdrich. I am amazed by the breadth of her story telling, the way she makes each character take on a life of her or his own, telling dark tales with such humor that you are comfortable with them as you are with your next door neighbor, even if they have "interesting" lives, and sometimes clouded pasts. Family secrets are elevated to the level of art, and are related sans judgement. I love this writer, and have since "Love Medicine" f More...

0 comments like

Oct 04, 2009

Catherine rated it:

I changed my mind about this book about a dozen times in the reading of it. I began it and set it aside once; began it again and let great pauses accumulate between reading a string of chapters at once. It didn't compel me as other Erdrich books had - I had no good idea why I was reading the stories I was reading, and felt confused by the swirl of characters and places that seemed so disjointed and removed.

Yet now that I've finished the book, I have the whole story - I understand More...

0 comments like

Oct 03, 2009

Kerri rated it:

Originally written as a response to Dana's review:

I adored this book, and am still visiting the world Erdrich has created. This is a poetic novel, not a plot driven one. I'm convinced that the plot confusions are authorial choices that carry meaning. Near the end of the book a character talks about a stamp collector, "Octave Harp had gone into disasters--that is, stamps and covers (envelopes and similar materials) that had survived the dreadful occurrences that test and destr More...

2 comments like

Jul 29, 2009

Lisa rated it:

I love Louise Erdrich, but this wasn't my favorite book of hers. When great critics and writers call a work like this "her masterpiece" they intimidate anyone to disagree. Honestly, I think she has a few potential novels in this one novel, which ultimately makes it feel less whole.

Many of the sections of this book were previously published as short stories (not novel excerpts) and they really do stand alone with an amazing depth and breadth of imagination, but what they cr More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

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