The Round House in Overdue Podcast

Feb 09, 2024 Jason rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: own, favorites, 2024-top-10

“This so gnawed at him on some nights that he lay awake wondering just how many unknown and similarly inconsequential accidents and bits of happenstance were at this moment occurring or failing to occur in order to ensure he took his next breath, and the next.”

A gripping book that is full of complicated, messy characters, damaged and striving, just trying to live and regain some peace and control over their lives. Erdrich has a meandering way about her stories. There is a core story about an
“This so gnawed at him on some nights that he lay awake wondering just how many unknown and similarly inconsequential accidents and bits of happenstance were at this moment occurring or failing to occur in order to ensure he took his next breath, and the next.”

A gripping book that is full of complicated, messy characters, damaged and striving, just trying to live and regain some peace and control over their lives. Erdrich has a meandering way about her stories. There is a core story about an assault and rape, a family seeking justice and finding it wanting, but every character has a unique history, influences, relationships, motives and we delve into each of them, even if only for a passing glance. This is simultaneously a coming-of-age story of Joe, our thirteen year-old protagonist who's family is wrecked by the act of violence. Erdrich is a master of deflection and side-stories that enriches everything that came before and comes after. I can see where some might find some of the seemingly dead-end side-stories to be frustrating (looking at you, Father Travis), but I think it feels more real this way, more honest, it's a layering effect and it also adds to the ratcheting tension of the book - it is a rare thing indeed to have a clean, linear story arch in life.

“The Larks were bumbling entrepreneurs and petty thieves, but they were also self-deceived. While their moral standards for the rest of the world were rigid, they were always able to find excuses for their own shortcomings. It is these people really, said my father, small-time hypocrites, who may in special cases be capable of monstrous acts if given the chance.”

Erdrich writes a story that is brutal and cruel, but also filled with love, even when that love is tortured and the source of so much pain. She is an excellent writer of emotion and internal conflict, shame and guilt misplaced or not.

At times this book made me thinkin turns of Sag Harbor with it's portrayal of shameful clumsy adolescence, Beartown with how it dealt with a violent act and a desire for unfulfilled justice (vengeance even?), and also Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI when we take a close look at the failings of law and how US government has repeatedly harmed native peoples and continues to do so today through the law, often in the name of precedence. Erdrich manages to bring together all of these seemingly disparate ideas and themes into one book and do it better that all those others (at least for this reader). We care more about the coming-of-age of Joe than I think we do with Benji, because there are higher stakes and we wish to protect Joe from losing something that he will never be able to get back. While Fredrik Backman does a good job with how he handles an act of violence and it's impact on a small community, his approach seemed slightly more plotted and simple in some ways for the individuals. The injustice of the Anishinaabe people is explored with such empathy and heart because of the focus on this one family in particular as opposed David Grann's investigative journalistic approach that keeps those harmed at a slight distance.

“And here was the thing I didn’t understand then but do now—the loneliness. I was right, in that there was just the three of us. Or the two of us. Nobody else, not Clemence, not even my mother herself, cared as much as we did about my mother. Nobody else thought night and day of her. Nobody else knew what was happening to her. Nobody else was as desperate as the two of us, my father and I, to get our life back. To return to the Before.”

Not an easy read in the subject matter, but very readable in the style. Erdrich interweaves plain, even at times crass, dialogue with superb description. All the stars for this well told, if a bit shaggy, tale. A beautifully told mess. ...more

3 likes · Like · see review

Jul 27, 2020 Chandler rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: 2-star, books-i-own, historical-fiction, standalone-fiction, national-book-award, adult-fiction, 301-499pgs

When it comes to the world of National Book Award novels, they are either ones that I love or I just think are fine… not anything great, but fine. When it comes to The Round House, by Louise Erdrich, I feel like this is the first of the National Book Award Winners that I really dislike. As much as the premise of the novel let me into the text, it did not do enough to keep me there, with annoying writing choices, and irritating deviations from the plot.

I liked how the tale of Joe growing up is h When it comes to the world of National Book Award novels, they are either ones that I love or I just think are fine… not anything great, but fine. When it comes to The Round House, by Louise Erdrich, I feel like this is the first of the National Book Award Winners that I really dislike. As much as the premise of the novel let me into the text, it did not do enough to keep me there, with annoying writing choices, and irritating deviations from the plot.

I liked how the tale of Joe growing up is handled. We see him come of age where he realizes, both directly through his mother’s case, and indirectly through reading old court files, that the law is not perfect. More to the point, tribal law is not perfect as it is often a barrier to Native Americans receiving justice for crimes committed on them or their land. Joe learns this through the novel and it works as a way to show his coming of age, and understanding that the world is not the perfect place it can be where the good guys always win, like in Star Trek: The Next Generation, of which Joe is a big fan.

Now we come to the more objective part of this review: other than the main premise of the book, where Joe tries to find out who harmed his mother, I did not like anything else.

Firstly, there was the lack of punctuation marks denoting dialogue. Bear in mind when I say ‘lack’ I mean none whatsoever, throughout the entire novel. I don’t care who the author is, or the subject matter for the story, I have never like this style of writing, and I am likely to say that I never will.

Then there were the constant deviations from the main story. We get to see the back story and adventures of a great many characters in Joe’s life, including his family, friends, mentors and even schoolboy fantasy crushes. Then we also get deviations into Native American lore and other explanations into their culture. The problem is this seems to have little to do with the overall plot of the novel, or why I began to read it in the first place. Every time I began to read another story that had little to do with finding the criminal, I would trudge on, thinking that I would understand how it would connect with the story if I read just one more page. If it did, many times, I could not find it. Honestly, feels as though I am missing something in this text, and I am thoroughly frustrated by it.

In the end, while this text is good enough to win the National Book Award, the back story into Native American lore, and the adventures with other characters did not keep me interested. Couple this with the lack of dialogue quotations, and I feel like this is a book is one I will not remember in a week. I give it a two out of five.
...more

Like · see review