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Jan 02, 2009

bookczuk rated it:

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." More...

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Nov 22, 2008

Liz rated it:

As always, Louise Erdrich tells a fascinating story, related to the Ojibwe Native American tribe. I loved this story about how people all over the continent are connected together by a drum, and how this drum helps heal those who have suffered great loss. There are many recurring themes in this story, and the mother/daughter theme is the one that stood out most for me. The daughters sacrifice much for their mothers and yet there is compassion and understanding for the mothers as well. There More...

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Mar 30, 2011

Judy rated it:

How does one even begin to review the writing of Louise Erdrich? Her words resonate with ancient mysteries and intricate complexities which draw me into her characters' lives time and time again. This novel is no exception.

In The Painted Drum we follow the story through the eyes of different people.

Faye Travers risks her moral rectitude and her career as an Estates agent by stealing an incredible Native American drum. It called to her with a single beat and she was overwh More...

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Jul 26, 2010

Christina rated it:

The bare bones of the plot summary in this book's jacket notes made me slow to begin reading, because they suggested an elegy. But although the story includes tragedy and sadness, the mood is far from elegaic. There are many interesting and lively characters and relationships, some based in the present time and others in recent history. Some of the characters show cruelty and depravity; all are flawed but all show redeeming qualities. Relationships aren't static, but evolve in interesting ways. More...

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Aug 21, 2009

Susan rated it:

Initially I was enchanted with The Painted Drum. I found the first character’s musing interesting and the language in places was stunning. She described the eyes of a character as “peach-colored granite with specs of angry mica”. I was also intrigued by the theme of life and death, the presence of the dead in the lives of the living, particularly as influenced by Ojibwe thought.

But I was ultimately disappointed. Once the narration passed from Faye to the Ojibwe on the North Dakota re More...

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Jul 27, 2009

Mary rated it:

The Painted Drum, by Louise Erdrich 10/10 (5/5)

I know I say this about many of the books I read, but I REALLY liked this book. I liked it so much that I intend to reread it sometime soon, after it has a chance to settle somewhat. Like many of Erdrich's books, this one is about Native Americans, and the voice feels authentic and human. It is divided in four parts. In the first, we meet a mother daughter team who deals with people's estates after they die, or go in a nursing home, More...

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Apr 26, 2009

Catherine rated it:

I was falling asleep last night when I realized what a deft and meaningful thing Erdrich does in this book. By anchoring the book's beginning and end in the experience of Faye, a white woman (by culture, even if her bloodline does contain Ojibwe ancestors) Erdrich demonstrates how it's possible to love nature deeply, to revere the silence of open spaces, to believe in spirits and the agency of the dead - all without appropriating Native culture to do it. As the person who finds the drum of th More...

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Mar 26, 2009

April rated it:

Another magical tale by Louise Erdrich. I will admit, the first section disappointed me. It was too dreary for me. Told from the perspective of Faye Travers, a dull...lifeless character...a little dirty. Not engaging to me until her apple tree quote in section 4. (I read a review by a woman who said this was her favorite section. I am intrigued...) But the novel took off from there and drew me in. I loved it. The stupidity, strength, abandonment, pain, love, redemption, forgiveness. More...

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Mar 26, 2009

Will rated it:

This is a gripping, moving tale about Erdrich’s usual raft of multi-generational Native Americans. The story begins in present day New Hampshire when Faye Travers, an estate valuator, comes across the drum of the title, a large, ceremonial Native American artifact, and determines to return it to its rightful owners (not the owner of the estate she is handling). Back in time we learn the history of the man who made the drum, the stories of his family, three generations worth, and they are powerfu More...

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Oct 03, 2009

Lori rated it:

The writing is incredible and it's like putting poetry into prose with the way the words flow. Little phrases like, "he screeches between two cars" (23), "Still, in spite of my suspicions, I am leaning toward him, farther, farther" (7), and "my heart creaks shut". Louise Erdrich is a story teller who uses the richness of Indian traditions without revealing any sacred knowledge. One of the best of American Indian literature I have read to date. A novice reader, I More...

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Aug 22, 2007

Lizzy rated it:

Favorite.
Erdrich is a remarkable historian, storyteller, poet... A magical concept, the inheritance of history through place, time, and objects is powerful and also telling of Erdrich's personal experience as a Native American woman. The book also places importance on female geneology, a common theme in many of her books. Each sentence and moment is stark and revealing, much like her poetry, movement and beauty flow from her fingertips.

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Feb 05, 2009

Bookmarks Magazine added it

Not her best, not her worst, say critics of Erdrich's 10th novel. Yet though it's leaner than works like The Master Butchers Singing Club and not as brilliant as others, it's pure Erdrich, full of grace, legend, and mysticism. Here, she weaves together three stories, each about mother-child relationships, over time and place. Critics agree that Ojibwe elder Bernard Shaawano's story is the strongest and most memorable; Erdrich renders reservation life impeccably. Faye's story, by contrast, is a l

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Apr 04, 2009

Dawn rated it:

This book was fine, and I don't really feel like I wasted my time listening to it, but it didn't quite live up to my expectations. The brief synopsis on the audiobook jacket indicated that it would follow the path of a drum through time and see how it impacted the lives of those who had come in contact with it. To be fair, it did do that, but I had incorrectly assumed that it would go back for many generations when the drum was first built by Native Americans, and tell stories of many differen More...

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Jun 13, 2011

Lee rated it:

This was an interesting story, and not like anything I've read in the recent past. The culture and stories and setting of a Native American tribe made the text more lovely than it might have been otherwise, and the author certainly has a lyrical way with words. The characters were messy and imperfect and real - and that was wonderful.

The main challenge I found in reading this book was feeling like the middle section of the book was very disconnected from the first and last sections. More...

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Mar 20, 2011

Kate rated it:

Erdrich tells us one story set in the present in white society, another taking us back a couple of generations in a Native American tribe, and a third relating the poignant story of a mother and her children living in poverty on a reservation. The Native American sections use stories containing a fluid sense of reality, a mystical quality that I found appealing: can a drum influence human events? Can wild animals give us specific information? As I read the stories of past generations, I was s More...

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Apr 17, 2010

Jane rated it:

I'd gone to the library hoping to get Erdrich's latest book, Shadow Tag. Of course there is a waiting list for it, so I checked out The Painted Drum instead.

In an interview I heard Louise Erdrich say the themes of Shadow Tag are love, survival, and memory. The same can be said for Painted Drum. Especially the love/guilt bond between mothers and daughters.

The book has three distinct stories. The first is how a mother-daughter team of antique dealers of Ojibwe decent ac More...

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Sep 26, 2009

Linda rated it:

I really enjoyed this book with interesting characters unlike any in my own world, and I learned more about native American culture and folklore. This story involves a sacred healing drum and the three or four generations of people connected to it. It is told from different perspectives, some which is oral history handed down from generation to generation. Supurb description, occasional humor, and crafted writing except for occasional confusing transitions between scenes and characters.
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Feb 04, 2011

Patience rated it:

I listened to this book on an audio tape. It was really well read by an expressive person. The Painted Drum is a carefully crafted realistic fiction which interweaves a plot of three mother/daughter relationships. At the beginning one mother and daughter who live in New Hampshire find the drum in the estate of a gentleman who dies unexpectedly. The daughter is drawn to take the drum and becomes caught up in a magical spell by its ancestral mysticism. The story shifts back and forth to the Ojib More...

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Jul 29, 2011

Cyndi rated it:

Most favorite part of the book:

Life will break you. Nobody can protect you from that, and living alone won't either, for solitude will also break you with its yearning. You have to love. You have to feel. It is the reason you are here on earth. You are here to risk your heart. You are here to be swallowed up. And when it happens that you are broken, or betrayed, or left, or hurt, or death brushes near, let yourself sit by an apple tree and listen to the apples falling all around you i More...

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Jan 29, 2012

Cyndie rated it:

A mother and daughter live a quiet life in rural New Hampshire. They make a living by buying and selling antiques. While accessing the estate of a man who was a descendant of a North Dakota Indian agent, the daughter (Faye Travers) steals a mysterious drum. She has never done anything like this but is powerfully compelled to not only take it - but to find a way to return it to the tribe it came from. Within this narrative the story of the drum and its creation is revealed. The Drum's pow More...

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Mar 17, 2010

Lori rated it:

Erdrich is a gifted storyteller and writer. She is insightful and thoughtful. All the characters were created with such respect and care. I look forward to reading more of her novels.

This is one of the finest novels I have ever had the privilege to read. It's one of those works of art that requires intense savoring of every scene, every chapter and every section of the story before moving forward to see how it is all brought together.

I like her direct and honest approac More...

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Jan 16, 2012

Sandie rated it:

Terribly well writte, and a good read, although not as plot-driven as I usually prefer. It did have this great paragraph though:

Life will break you. Nobody can protect you from that, and living alone won't either, for solitude will also break you with its yearning. You have to love. You have to feel. It is the reason you are here on earth. You are here to risk your heart. You are here to be swallowed up. And when it happens that you are broken, or betrayed, or left, or hurt, o More...

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Jun 18, 2009

Siria rated it:

Its deftly calibrated prose and well-sketched characters are the real joys of The Painted Drum. Erdrich has a skill at writing about deep emotions, yet modulating them with a perspective and a wry humour which ensures that they don't become over-bearing or maudlin. Her view of the world is realistic, but hopeful. The book is probably best seen as three linked novellas rather than one novel, though, and for me its weakness was that just as I was becoming truly engaged with a character, Erdrich wa More...

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Mar 06, 2011

Brian rated it:

I think Louise Erdrich writes as well about Native North Americans in The Painted Drum as well as anyone I've encountered. Her characters are etched with compassion and truth. She confronts the problem of Spirit as directly as I think one can. She describes political realities without blinking and at the same time without preaching. She tells a good story for the most part. I was fully engaged in her beginning and ending sections, but the novel bogged down a bit for me in the middle. The More...

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Sep 16, 2009

Sandy rated it:

I have finished this mesmerizing, thought provoking book. It is an almost delicate and tragic read about the rich and spiritual traditions of Native Americans that have spiraled down to poverty and alcoholism in poor reaches of this land. It is a richly detailed story of memory, loss and hope. It is the first book by Erdrich that I have read, and, having now done so, I am very pleased that a Native American author writing has achieved such reknown as a writer. It is an important voice about thin More...

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Mar 22, 2011

Catherine rated it:

I read this book for the first time about three years ago, and just reread it for one of my book clubs. I have to say that the first time I read it, I didn't like it very much, but I liked it better this time. The book has three distinct parts, and the first part starts with the narration of a New Hampshire antique dealer/estate sale manager who is 1/4 Native American and not a happy camper. Her self-centered whining is a bit tiring after a while, but when the book moves to North Dakota and N More...

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Jan 31, 2011

Colleen added it

The drum is thought to be able to cure illness. It can also call out people---the story of 3 children who are left in a Great Plains winter while mother goes to look for food. They try to keep warm and end up burning the house down. They go toward the cal of the drum to find help. Takes place between Fargo and Minneapolis. Page 183 "All we crave is a simple order. One day and then the next day and the next after that if we are lucky, to be the same. Grief is chaos. ---illness th More...

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May 30, 2009

Cheryl rated it:

To say that this book helped me understand Native American identity seems like the worst kind of over-simplification--but by juxtaposing the stories of various struggling Ojibwe tribe members with those of local animals (ravens, wolves, a dog with "one hungry eye and one friendly eye" who escapes her yard but caries her heavy chain leash with her until her death), Erdrich shows how all kinds of creatures can maintain dignity and a lust for life in the face of innumerable cruelties. The More...

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Aug 05, 2009

Marvin rated it:

Erdrich tells 3 related stories related to the discovery of an Ojibwe ritual drum in the New England estate of a descendant of an Indian agent & its repratriation to the reservation where it was, before its sale, and becomes, after its return, intimately involved in the lives of the extended families that Erdrich has focused on in several of her novels going back to Love Medicine. Erdrich is, as always, a master storyteller but, as in several others in the set of novels, some stories within the More...

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Jun 27, 2009

Teresa rated it:

"Life will break you. Nobody can protect you from that, and living alone won't either, for solitude will also break you with its yearning. You have to love. You have to feel. It is the reason you are here on earth. You are here to risk your heart. You are here to be swallowed up. And when it happens that you are broken, or betrayed, or left, or hurt, or death brushes near, let yourself sit by an apple tree and listen to the apples falling all around you in heaps, wasting their sweetness. Te More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

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