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11th out of 406 books
—
255 voters
The Beet Queen
On a spring morning in 1932, young Karl and Mary Adare arrive by boxcar in Argus, North Dakota. After being orphaned in a most peculiar way, they seek refuge in the butcher shop of their aunt Fritzie and her husband, Pete; ordinary Mary, who will cause a miracle, and seductive Karl, who lacks his sister's gift for survival, embark upon an exhilarating life-journey crowded...more
Paperback, 368 pages
Published
August 22nd 2006
by Harper Perennial
(first published January 1st 1985)
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One of Erdrich's best - just shy of Plague of Doves and The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse. It's remarkable that this is just her second. Although still episodic, The Beet Queen has a strong narrative flow and a great symmetry to the story that I found most satisfying.
Other things I loved:
- fabulous, quirky characters, including three especially strong female characters (I'm drawing a blank right now whether we meet Mary Adare anywhere else, or Dot - I think for sure the latter....more
Other things I loved:
- fabulous, quirky characters, including three especially strong female characters (I'm drawing a blank right now whether we meet Mary Adare anywhere else, or Dot - I think for sure the latter....more
16 likes · like · see review
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Recently I read Plague of Doves by Loise Erdrich (her latest novel, click on title for review). Although I enjoyed that book, I liked this more. The set up was similar, each chapter from a different character, however, the characters were more select and the time frame was always forward moving. Moving from character to character was seamless. Although I frequently like this rotating perspective, many writers do not have the skillz to carry it off. Often the pass from one viewpoint to another is...more
North Dakota sets the stage for the story of Mary Adare and her friends and family. When she and her brothers are still young, they are abandoned by their mother at a fair. Mary's infant brother is snatched from them at the fair. Left with nothing, Mary and Karl hop on a train and set off for Argus, the hometown of Aunt Fritzie and Uncle Pete and their daughter, Sita.
Mary stays in Argus and grows up in her aunt's house; Karl heads off for unknown parts. Immediately, a rivalry between Mary and S...more
Mary stays in Argus and grows up in her aunt's house; Karl heads off for unknown parts. Immediately, a rivalry between Mary and S...more
I liked this much better than Love Medicine - so think of this as a 3.5 star review! The Beet Queen is located in something like the same physical space as Love Medicine, but instead of standing on the rez looking out, we're standing in the nearby town, occasionally looking in. There are a handful of overlapping characters, but what makes this book so fresh and alive is that the perspective of the book is so very different from the last. We get a sense of the hostility between town and reservati...more
This was probably somewhere between 3 and 4 stars, actually. I liked it, and sometimes I really liked it. Louise Erdrich has such a wonderfully unique way of describing people and their observations. She hits just the perfect pitch of quirky that makes you believe in her characters wholeheartedly.
The story opens as two young children and an infant watch their mother abandon them by getting in a stunt plane at the county fair and just not coming back. They are abandoned and have to make their wa...more
The story opens as two young children and an infant watch their mother abandon them by getting in a stunt plane at the county fair and just not coming back. They are abandoned and have to make their wa...more
My latest read is The Beet Queen, by Louise Erdrich, a unique tale, and I must honestly say that I'm not sure how I feel about it.
It starts out by introducing us to Adelaide, a "kept woman," who has three children to a married man. When this man suddenly dies, it is a catastrophe for her, and one day she abandons her three children in a most unusual and surreal way. Those children, Karl, Mary, and a baby boy, end up going three separate ways.
So, in the beginning, anything can happen to these th...more
It starts out by introducing us to Adelaide, a "kept woman," who has three children to a married man. When this man suddenly dies, it is a catastrophe for her, and one day she abandons her three children in a most unusual and surreal way. Those children, Karl, Mary, and a baby boy, end up going three separate ways.
So, in the beginning, anything can happen to these th...more
Louise Erdrich is an amazing writer, and one of her strengths is creating a setting and placing characters within it that seem incredibly human. Each character is distinct and lively, with enough time for each character to feel as though you know them and understand them. No character is completely reviled or loved. Each has their faults and their assets, and in the end they become very dear.
This is the second book written in the style of an extended network of relations and families, the first...more
This is the second book written in the style of an extended network of relations and families, the first...more
The Beet Queen confirmed my observation that, in some respects, Louise Erdrich is the "Flannery O'Connor" of Native American literature. Flannery O'Connor's "Gothic" Southern characters and settings revealed life's often dark and grotesque underbelly. Louise Erdrich does much the same with her Native American characters - often born in disadvantaged conditions because the dominant culture has taken their land, the lumber and other resources from the land, leaving them with scraps. Except for a f...more
The novel begins in first person with Mary Adare narrating. She and her brother Karl, both fathered by a man married to another woman, were abandoned by their mother. Mary is astute enough to pawn her mother’s most prized and expensive belongings. She and Karl hop the trains to stay with their aunt, who is more successful than Mary’s mother.
What is fun about this book is the narration changes, from first person to third, from Mary’s to Karl’s to others’ point-of-view. Louise Erdrich makes it wor...more
What is fun about this book is the narration changes, from first person to third, from Mary’s to Karl’s to others’ point-of-view. Louise Erdrich makes it wor...more
The Beet Queen is the story of one family told over four decades. Predominantly a story of abandonment, the Beet Queen is slow moving with an emphasis on character development. Erdrich uses a shifting first person narrative to that end, at times retelling the same incident from a different perspective to create a new story.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The characters, though well developed, in the end become incomprehensible as their motives shift and their personality traits become more rigi...more
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The characters, though well developed, in the end become incomprehensible as their motives shift and their personality traits become more rigi...more
Feb 08, 2010
Claire S
added it
Recommended to Claire by:
One that I got from my Mom's 'done' pile, perhaps?
First read: 2/7/10
Really enjoyed! Will try and write a more complete review in the days ahead. I actually turned around and started my second time through it a few hours later! Once I learned that the most odd character in it is.. the author, according to her. And that this is her most autobiographical book.
Her work kind of unsettles me - I read her 'Love Medicine' (or part anyway) long ago: and remember it as a struggle. Something about it makes me feel uncertain of things or insufficiently eng...more
Really enjoyed! Will try and write a more complete review in the days ahead. I actually turned around and started my second time through it a few hours later! Once I learned that the most odd character in it is.. the author, according to her. And that this is her most autobiographical book.
Her work kind of unsettles me - I read her 'Love Medicine' (or part anyway) long ago: and remember it as a struggle. Something about it makes me feel uncertain of things or insufficiently eng...more
Neve-wed mom Adelaide Adare and her three children, twelve year-old Karl, ten-year old Mary, and infant (who is later named Jude) attend a fair in Minneapolis. Mom abandons the children to run away with a barnstorming pilot. When Jude gets hungry and begins to cry, a man takes the child, promising to feed him and bring him back. He never does, he's kidnapped the baby to assuage the grief of his wife, whose own baby died a-birthing. Karl and Mary hop a train to Argus, North Dakota, where their au...more
This book was interesting in that the first character you meet is Mary and the first chapter is told entirely from her point of view. Being the first voice creates a lot of empathy for her, but much of that is lost later in the book as her adult character becomes a rather unlikeable person. Some of this might be that the main storyteller becomes another main character, Celestine, so that the shift in empathy may just be a result in a different viewpoint. That shift was nicely done. I liked the t...more
I have been rereading louise erdricks books, and in this, her second, she really starts to show the amazing quality of her storytelling. two young orphans find their way to their aunt and uncle in north dakota, and even before they reach the door of the butcher shop their lives diverge and they go on to face their fates alone. the story is told by different characters in different times, from their own unique perspectives, and they all join to make this an incredible reading experience. all the...more
Character development really stood out to me in this novel. Louise's creation of Karl Adare in particular drove the book, and Karl's sister Mary and daughter Dot were strong characters as well. The plot was interesting, but I kept reading because of the characters. Each chapter is told from the point-of-view of a different character, a bit unusual, but I thought it worked because you get different perspectives on the same events. Louise also slipped in sentences here and there that made me think...more
The adoption content is the setup for the story, that when the mother of three children abandons them during the Great Depression, each of the three ends up in a different situation. One ends up with relatives, another has several pivotal moves before being placed in an orphanage, and the third is raised in a secret (and not so legal) adoption.
The longer story unfolds from several perspectives and I really enjoyed seeing the change in the characters and their town as time passes. Especially int...more
The longer story unfolds from several perspectives and I really enjoyed seeing the change in the characters and their town as time passes. Especially int...more
Mar 02, 2011
Deana Young
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
EVERYONE!!!!
Shelves:
native-american-indian-lit
I love Erdrich's books -- they are quirky but weave a brilliant story amidst their characters. You see each characters' flaws and secrets and thoughts and desires. She fleshes them out and brings them all into and out of themselves so we can switness them and touch them. But she also has this wonderfully outlandish sense of humor that there are parts to "The Beet Queen" that are so ridiculous and hilarious that you laugh out loud and can't believe that some of the characters are careening so bad...more
f I described this book in one word, it would have to be quirky. The characters are quirky, the story line was quirky and the ending seemed quirky. But ... I really liked it. I was never bored with it. I liked how each character told in first person and not all at once, bits of their life which interweaved together with each other (sometimes unknowingly). This really helped each character develop into a real person you felt you could (at least partially) understand. For some reason though, the e...more
Really not sure if this was some dark comedy, a coming of age, a surrealist book, but it does have it's charms. Unfortunately, that's not enough. It was more confusing that charming for me because (for me anyway) the multiple speaker, non-linear plot could have been better weaved. I've seen that done in a couple of other books and do well that this book palls in comparison.
But still, it is quite charming a story... just don't try to pick up one train of thought too closely/far because this book...more
But still, it is quite charming a story... just don't try to pick up one train of thought too closely/far because this book...more
Louise Erdrich is my favorite author but this book kind of fell flat for me. It was good in parts, but nothing like her earlier work. I was reading two of her books at the same time and I feel this way about both of them (Shadow Tag being the second). The character development at the start of this book was rich and by the end it felt inconsistent and as if the characters changed with no real explanation or catalyst. I still love the author though, even though this is not her best work by far, it...more
I'm glad I read Love Medicine first, because I think it allowed me to appreciate this book much more deeply than I would if I hadn't already fallen in love with Erdrich's writing and the world she has created -- and, as always, it is so evocative of familiar landscapes I've loved and places that have shaped me. (Reading a book like this, along with books like Love Medicine and The Last Report of the Miracle at Little No Horse make me understand why she is so often compared to Faulkner.) There is...more
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A strong, sweet, strange little book that is very much family/character-driven with its main focus being the everyday happenings of the mundane. It's not the kind of thing I would usually read (it was in fact lent to me, I didn't pick it out myself), but I don't think it can ever hurt to broaden your literary horizons! Ultimately I found the narrative a bit all over the place which, when combined with the lack of plot, meant that occasionally the pace was just a bit too slow. The characters howe...more
My only previous experience with Louise Erdrich is Shadow Tag, which was written fourteen years after this one and is at least semi-autobiographical. This one paled in comparison to her later work, which is to be expected.
One of my book group members recommended this book when she was in the midst of reading it, so I don't know how she enjoyed it overall. The premise is gripping -- in 1932, a mother simply abandons her three children: a fragile 14-year-old boy, a tough-as-nails 11-year-old girl,...more
One of my book group members recommended this book when she was in the midst of reading it, so I don't know how she enjoyed it overall. The premise is gripping -- in 1932, a mother simply abandons her three children: a fragile 14-year-old boy, a tough-as-nails 11-year-old girl,...more
I really enjoyed this book. It was a bit hard to get into, because I had been reading a very different kind of book before this. This is a NOVEL, a great American novel, with rich characters that get stuck with you and that make you think about the kind of person you are and the kind of choices you make and how you act towards other people. This is the kind of book that makes me want to write a novel.
I love Native American themes, characters, and plots. I feel it is such a big part of the Ameri...more
I love Native American themes, characters, and plots. I feel it is such a big part of the Ameri...more
I loved the cast of quirky characters and enjoyed this book much more than Plague of Doves. It just seemed a bit more accessible while still retaining such beautiful language and lots of underlying symbolism and themes.
Erdrich’s character development is superb…I loved all of the individual stories (told sometimes by the characters, sometimes by a narrator) that build up over the years that then lead to the culminating “crowning of the Beet Queen” scenes at the end. I was definitely pulled in to...more
Erdrich’s character development is superb…I loved all of the individual stories (told sometimes by the characters, sometimes by a narrator) that build up over the years that then lead to the culminating “crowning of the Beet Queen” scenes at the end. I was definitely pulled in to...more
I'm giving it three stars, because I liked it. I liked her language and writing style, some of the characters, the setting, and the story. I'm not giving it more, because I didn't feel as though it fulfilled it's potential, and some of the characters really did seem to be a stretch. I will definitely read more by this author, because of the things I did like. i thought author, created a very real world in the little Minnesota town and carried the feel of the town through the story as the town gr...more
Nov 05, 2011
Dorothy
rated it
5 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
Lovers of good writing
Shelves:
contemporary-literature
It's only within the last year that I've begun reading the works of Louise Erdrich. Don't ask me why I waited so long. After all, The Beet Queen was published in 1986 and Love Medicine in 1984. She was always on my radar, but there are always so many books to read and so little time. Belatedly, I have entered Erdrich's world and I'm very glad to have finally made it here.
Louise Erdrich writes about ordinary people. They are not superheroes, or even heroes (for the most part) in the common unders...more
Louise Erdrich writes about ordinary people. They are not superheroes, or even heroes (for the most part) in the common unders...more
Good books are good because we get lost in the characters' journeys, the little moments that make the big ones mean something. The Beet Queen has a definite absence of little moments. The book is full of destinations. Things happen in this book. I remember some of them. Most of them come out of nowhere and go nowhere. Some of them seemed like they would develop (Karl realizes he is attracted to men and later has an affair with Celestine; Wally realizes he is gay; Sita wears her husband thin cari...more
What can I say, Erdrich is a magician. Her novels you can not only sink your teeth into, but bury your nose in, sink up to your ankles in, and wallow completely in.
Erdrich is masterful at the point-of-view chapters that alternate between characters. Her characters are so totally flawed, despicable, hateful even, but sympathetic their own pitiful ways. Their self-criticism makes them all the more appealing. While they are only human, they participate in otherworldly events that make The Beet Quee...more
Erdrich is masterful at the point-of-view chapters that alternate between characters. Her characters are so totally flawed, despicable, hateful even, but sympathetic their own pitiful ways. Their self-criticism makes them all the more appealing. While they are only human, they participate in otherworldly events that make The Beet Quee...more
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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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“But then as time passed, I learned the lesson that parents do early on. You fail sometimes. No matter how much you love your children, there are times you slip. There are moments you can't give, stutter, lose your temper, or simply lose face with the world, and you can't explain this to a child.”
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