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8th out of 405 books
—
247 voters
Tracks
Even readers won over by Louise Erdrich's two earlier works may be surprised by her third novel. Tracks is a stunning and powerful book: it is by far the most impressive installment."-- "Boston Phoenix
Paperback, 226 pages
Published
August 7th 1989
by Harper Perennial
(first published 1988)
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A great read - moving, evocative, really takes you into the hearts and minds of the Native American loss of culture, land, traditions and how it affected individuals on a personal, as well as community, level. In this, reminded me very much of Joseph Boyden's Through Black Spruce, esp. in its tracing of the path of divisions within native communities and the outcomes of their brutalization in addictions, madness, suicide and violence.
Overlaid here, though, is Erdrich's unique and thrilling use...more
Overlaid here, though, is Erdrich's unique and thrilling use...more
Because I loved reading William Faulkner in college, when I discovered in Louise Erdrich a similar depth of voice, honest characters and a consistent imaginative setting, I fell in love with her writing, too.
(In the interest of disclosing bias, I grew up in the farming town of Valley Center near several Indian reservations. The relationship of Argus to Matchimanito is close to what it’s like around Palomar Mountain, but that's another story.)
Tracks tells the history of Benign Neglect through t...more
(In the interest of disclosing bias, I grew up in the farming town of Valley Center near several Indian reservations. The relationship of Argus to Matchimanito is close to what it’s like around Palomar Mountain, but that's another story.)
Tracks tells the history of Benign Neglect through t...more
“We started dying before the snow, and like the snow, we continued to fall.” So begins Louise Erdrich’s Tracks, a novel which charts the lives of a native people over ten years as the boundaries of personal and physical territory slowly erode.
Erdrich is a literary mystic. Tracks is told through alternating narrators: first by Nanapush, an older, charming character who recounts the deterioration of his people and land, and by Pauline, an orphan who slowly descends into religious fanaticism and m...more
Erdrich is a literary mystic. Tracks is told through alternating narrators: first by Nanapush, an older, charming character who recounts the deterioration of his people and land, and by Pauline, an orphan who slowly descends into religious fanaticism and m...more
Tracks was written by Louise Erdich after she wrote "Love Medicine"--one of my all time favorite books--but takes place between 1912 and 1924, well before the stories of Love Medicine and give a background and context to the members of Love Medicine's families, especially Eli Kapshaw and Lulu
A major difference between the two books was the influence of magical realism which was not particularly present in Love Medicine. It sometimes worked in Tracks, especially the chapter that depicts the rape...more
A major difference between the two books was the influence of magical realism which was not particularly present in Love Medicine. It sometimes worked in Tracks, especially the chapter that depicts the rape...more
Haunting book about the disintegration of a Native American community in North Dakota in the early 20th century, as the land they live on is sold off to white developers.
Told in alternating chapters by two narrators - Nanapush, an old man of the tribe, still living as much by the old ways as he can, and Pauline, a youth at the beginning who unravels as she discards her heritage and comes under the influence of Christianity - revolving around their connections to Fleur Pillager, a fierce and inde...more
Told in alternating chapters by two narrators - Nanapush, an old man of the tribe, still living as much by the old ways as he can, and Pauline, a youth at the beginning who unravels as she discards her heritage and comes under the influence of Christianity - revolving around their connections to Fleur Pillager, a fierce and inde...more
Plot Summary: This story has different narrators for each chapter. Some chapters are told by Nanapush, the old Native American, and others are told by Pauline, a mixed blood member of the tribe. We see the view of Native Americans through the old, set in his ways Nanapush, and we see Pauline abandon the Native American ways. Throughout the story, we read about Fleur, a strange Native American with powers and we read about her experiences.
Nanapush - wants to keep Native American ways alive, makes...more
Nanapush - wants to keep Native American ways alive, makes...more
It's an adventure, reading books about one place and one set of people, but dependent on what's in the library, and what comes in on interlibrary loan. I've read about the Little No Horse rez back and forth, in all kinds of incarnations, but I'd missed Tracks until this weekend. And oh, what a beautiful book.
This is the missing link between much of what I've read before - the early stories of Nanapush, Margaret, Fleur, and Lulu; the backstory to Sister Leopolda's life; the roots of the enmity be...more
This is the missing link between much of what I've read before - the early stories of Nanapush, Margaret, Fleur, and Lulu; the backstory to Sister Leopolda's life; the roots of the enmity be...more
The context of this book is the demise of the tribe in the face of the white man. The book opens with the initial wipe out due to disease and closes with the final sweeps of erasure via land foreclosure, forest clearing and the bewitching allure of white man's culture. The novel that stretches between reflects the time between the beginning and end of the end and how it transpires among the lives of several characters. Central to these characters is Fleur, the wild woman of the forest, the only...more
There are a couple of spoilers in this review... nothing that ruins the plot but even still, you have been warned.
I'm on the fence between 3 and 4 stars with this book. The only reason that I settled on the kinder of the two is because I am enamored with the character Pauline.
What do we do with such a woman? She hides behind ideologies of piety and martyrdom but Pauline is, in fact, the most wicked character in the entire novel. I can't wrap my head around Erdrich's creation. Though Pauline has...more
I'm on the fence between 3 and 4 stars with this book. The only reason that I settled on the kinder of the two is because I am enamored with the character Pauline.
What do we do with such a woman? She hides behind ideologies of piety and martyrdom but Pauline is, in fact, the most wicked character in the entire novel. I can't wrap my head around Erdrich's creation. Though Pauline has...more
I first met Louise Erdrich in "The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse" which was both different and thought provoking. Erdrich writes with insight into life in the Dakotas and among Native Americans and offers intriguing plots, lyrical prose, and very strong characterizations. This book explores the tracks of a dying culture through the eyes of a grandfather telling his granddaughter about her family. Erdrich paints the atmosphere of Native American life on the edge of civilization,...more
I have no recollection of how this book came to be in my possession. It is definitely not the kind of book I would normally buy, borrow or even be interested in reading. So when I picked it up it was with the intention of finding out what it was more so than reading it, and I am glad I did. Erdrich pulls you in from the very first page, weaving a rich story that is part history, part Native American mysticism, and all compelling.
The story is told through two different narrators, who switch off...more
The story is told through two different narrators, who switch off...more
Although it's only 226 pages, this book reads like a saga. The events it recounts are set in the early 20th century on a North Dakota reservation whose inhabitants confront dramatic historical and personal challenges and changes. I spent only a couple of days with the book's characters, so it's testimony to Erdrich's skill as storyteller that I feel as though I've known them much longer. The saga itself is really composed of a series of interlocking stories spanning a range of about 10 years, mo...more
This story of the changing world of an American Indian community in the early years of the the 20th century is filled with the complexities of assimilation, adaption, and identity. Throughout the story you are given two narratives. One belongs to Pauline, a Chippewa woman who is desperately trying to assimilate to the dominant culture via the Catholic Church. The other is Nanapush, an English educated traditionalist. The story gives reminder not only of the realities of these people in the face...more
Tracks is a very interesting and sometimes intense Native American novel. Told from the perspectives of two people throughout the book, Nanapush (the old and intelligent man who has had many wives and has lost many things along the way during the white man's take over) and Pauline (The young and misunderstood youth who turns into a lunatic by the end of the novel).
This book is filled with heaping amounts of passion and drama! IT is an excellent story about an Indian province that has suffered a...more
This book is filled with heaping amounts of passion and drama! IT is an excellent story about an Indian province that has suffered a...more
This is the sad story of Chippewa Indian tribes in North Dakota during the early part of the 20th century. They have been displaced from their homes and given allotments, which they must pay taxes on in order to keep. Unfortunately, they have no resources with which to pay the tax. In fact, they are close to starvation, and dependent upon government commodities to stay alive. in spite of this the combined Kashpaw-Pillager family managed to earn enough to pay the taxes on both of their allotments...more
Tracks is the second of four Erdrich novels dealing with Fleur Pillager, shaman and last of the Pillager clan - Ojibwe/Anishinabe Native Americans who never gave up their culture in favor of "white" ways. Tracks is another example of Erdrich's peerless writing - lyrical and violent, concrete and spiritual. It follows Love Medicine and precedes The Beet Queen and The Bingo Palace. I did some research on the cultural details - otherwise, I would have been quite lost. You don't need to be an aborig...more
Erdrich shows Native American families from 1912 to 1924 struggling with family conflicts and traditional ways, while the whites and their government make deals to take their land. Wonderful, complex characters and situations: the elder Nanapush, full of wisdom for the next generation, argues with and is bested by his wife Margaret. Erdrich’s structure is still difficult for me: as I got more and more involved with the individual stories I lost track of what was going on behind the scenes. When...more
Not sure if I read this before or if the "incident" at the Argus meatlocker is also in another book. This is one of her early novels before Pauline was Sister Leopolda and includes the usual suspects -- Father Damian, Nanapush, Margaret, Fleur, her daughter Lulu, various Pillagers and Kashpaws and the background noise of Ojibwe (still Chippewa in this book) myths, spirits, sorrows and relationships.
Fleur is described as being "hefty" and I'd always pictured her as being slight. Pauline is a reli...more
Fleur is described as being "hefty" and I'd always pictured her as being slight. Pauline is a reli...more
"We started dying with the first snow, and like the snow, we continued to fall..." So begins Tracks by Louise Erdrich, my favorite book by the Minnesota-born, Anishinabe / Lakota Sioux author. Through the conflicting narratives of Nanapush and Pauline, we become woven into the story of Fleur Pillager, an orphaned Anishinabe woman whose life is as hard as the times she is born into, on her ancestral land at Matchimanitou. Throughout the story, she and the other characters use humor and the streng...more
Tracks took me a bit longer to get into than I would've liked, but I'm glad I kept reading. The only other book I've read recently about this time period is One Thousand White Women, by Jim Fergus, another book that didn't hook me until a few chapters in.
I loved Nanapush from the get-go, but with the exception of Pauline -- who I couldn't stand throughout -- the rest of Louise Erdrich's characters won me over as they aged, particularly Fleur Pillager, who I'm still not sure I understand, though...more
I loved Nanapush from the get-go, but with the exception of Pauline -- who I couldn't stand throughout -- the rest of Louise Erdrich's characters won me over as they aged, particularly Fleur Pillager, who I'm still not sure I understand, though...more
Jul 26, 2011
Matt Ambs
added it
A story which reaches toward the past as it is inescapably dragged toward the future. Erdrich is an extremely skilled writer and possesses a patient and, at times tentative, soul which allows the story to unfold itself in a natural and very free manner, not contrived but drifting beautifully from narrative to narrative. We see the spiritual homelessness of a people whose traditions have been endangered by their changing world, who struggle to leave their tracks back to a home which dissipates. E...more
I should perhaps have read this before "The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse" and "Four Souls", but no matter. It was the first book in the saga of the Kashpaws, Pillagers, Lazarres and Morrisseys of the Ojibwe reservation. The story is told alternately from the viewpoints of Nanapush and Pauline Puyat (later to become Leopolda) and focuses on the years before Fleur Pillager left for the city to get back what was rightfully hers. Consumption has the people dropping like flies, food...more
Here's the thing about "Tracks": it's expertly written and is one of the more complex and interesting pieces of Native American literature to ever be published. People are absolutely correct when they compare Erdrich to Faulkner. That said, I didn't actually enjoy this book nearly as much as I wanted to. Quality doesn't necessarily make a book fun to read. I actually began to loathe most of the characters in the book by its final chapters, and couldn't wait to be done with it so I never have to...more
For some reason, I thought of Louise Erdrich as some kind of washed up book club author. She's not. The opening few pages of "Tracks" were a little off-putting - like a cliche of a novel about Native Americans. But then it wasn't, or I got used to it and didn't care. The characters are interesting and intense. Fleur as a symbol (lost mother, spirit of the tribe, visceral woman) but also, always, as a human, flawed and sweet. Fleur looms in this novel, but it's more about the world around her, an...more
It's a really interesting book which illustrates changes in Native American community that took place at the beginning of XX century.
The way in which the book is written is original and at the same time makes it an easy and interesting read. Changing point of views of two characters - an elder Nanapush who can be considered a trickster and a madwoman Pauline - introduces an uncommon structure to the book and what makes it even more original is the fact than none of the narrators (even though it...more
The way in which the book is written is original and at the same time makes it an easy and interesting read. Changing point of views of two characters - an elder Nanapush who can be considered a trickster and a madwoman Pauline - introduces an uncommon structure to the book and what makes it even more original is the fact than none of the narrators (even though it...more
This is the first Erdrich novel I have read. I enjoyed the technique of using different narrators that tell variations of the same framestory, while providing their own insights and experiences.
Nanapush is my personal favorite on this first reading, but I found the insanity of Pauline to be really funny, which may or may not be due to my sick sense of humor.
I read an essay where Leslie Marmon Silko was dismissive of Erdrich's writing style in The Beet Queen, which I have not read. However, I h...more
Nanapush is my personal favorite on this first reading, but I found the insanity of Pauline to be really funny, which may or may not be due to my sick sense of humor.
I read an essay where Leslie Marmon Silko was dismissive of Erdrich's writing style in The Beet Queen, which I have not read. However, I h...more
This is a story narrated by two different characters, Nanapush, an Ojibwe Indian, and Pauline, a woman of mixed blood. Nanapush is the "grandfather" of the tale. Pauline is confused and crazy with a desire to be
white. It is very much a story about women, Pauline, Fleur, Lulu and Margaret. Although it is very well
written, I found it hard to follow. To really get the most out of this book, I would have to read it a second
and perhaps a third time. At times it seems more like a collection of interre...more
white. It is very much a story about women, Pauline, Fleur, Lulu and Margaret. Although it is very well
written, I found it hard to follow. To really get the most out of this book, I would have to read it a second
and perhaps a third time. At times it seems more like a collection of interre...more
Greetings, this is a review of the book "Tracks." I've read it before, or at least a part of it, in a foreign school, and I remember bits of the beginning, but none of the rest.
This is an excellent book with vivid imagery, crossing lines of perspective (and character) as well as walking into the realms of magic and through time. It is delightful to imaginative people. The author has a clear and narrative voice which is quite enjoyable to read.
Although the plot is somewhat disturbing at times, it...more
This is an excellent book with vivid imagery, crossing lines of perspective (and character) as well as walking into the realms of magic and through time. It is delightful to imaginative people. The author has a clear and narrative voice which is quite enjoyable to read.
Although the plot is somewhat disturbing at times, it...more
I was introduced to Louise Erdrich some years ago when I took a course in Ethnic American Literature. I found this book on sale at my favorite local used book store and decided to get re-acquainted with Erdrich.
"Tracks" is a sad, but well-told story of the disintegration of one slice of the Native American life/culture. Set in North Dakota in the early 1900s, it is told by alternating narrators - Nanapush, a tribal elder, and Pauline, a young girl of mixed blood. They also represent conflicting...more
"Tracks" is a sad, but well-told story of the disintegration of one slice of the Native American life/culture. Set in North Dakota in the early 1900s, it is told by alternating narrators - Nanapush, a tribal elder, and Pauline, a young girl of mixed blood. They also represent conflicting...more
(I can't seem to find the edition I have in hand.)
I found this book both fascinating and disturbing. Extremely sad, as well. The tale of these Native Americans is truly tragic, vulnerable and ill-equipped as they are to confront the modern enemies they are beseiged by. The sections narrated by Pauline were the most difficult for me to read, with her madness claiming any shred of compassion she might have had for others. Woe to the poor children she's meant to teach! Fleur was probably my favorit...more
I found this book both fascinating and disturbing. Extremely sad, as well. The tale of these Native Americans is truly tragic, vulnerable and ill-equipped as they are to confront the modern enemies they are beseiged by. The sections narrated by Pauline were the most difficult for me to read, with her madness claiming any shred of compassion she might have had for others. Woe to the poor children she's meant to teach! Fleur was probably my favorit...more
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| a good order for erdrich? | 3 | 17 | Mar 08, 2012 01:57pm |
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
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“We started dying before the snow, and like the snow, we continued to fall.”
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“I tried out the unfamiliar syllables. They fit. They cracked in my ears like a fist through ice.”
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