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The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse - the discussion
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Philip,I very much enjoyed reading your review. You hit many of the high points of the book, I think.
Gabrielle,
I picked up my book and reread the letter from the Pope. I think it added to the Father Damien myth, and it was treasured by Mary Kapshaw in particular. I loved that Mary would sharpen Damien's razor each day just to keep up appearances.
I had to return the book to the library (with an overdue fine of $6) but decided to persist and took it out again. I often have trouble with Erdich's books. I loved Painted Drum but couldn't get through Love Medicine. I didn't identify with the characters of The Beet Queen either. But I immediately was taken with Agnes and her sensuality when playing music. The sequence of bizarre events and coincidences are plausible (my life has had such sequences and coincidences) and even her decision to take on the role of Father makes sense considering her struggle to free herself from the restrictions placed on women at that time and the struggle between sensuality and spirituality. What I do question is her articulate, eloquent letter writing since she was mostly late to reading and self-taught. I believe Erdich uses a form of magical surrealism that is common in Latino or indigenous cultures; to tell you the truth, until I experienced those cultures myself, I had trouble appreciating this way of looking at life. But it is good to remember that the Native Americas don't see stories as linear, but more circular. The referral back to characters in previous books adds to my enjoyment but I don't think you have to know who they are to get what they are about. Erdich does a good job of bringing her characters to life, although sometimes they seem more representative of a type than specific. You have to slow down to really appreciate her work. Maybe living in MN helps as well!
Janet wrote: "Gabrielle wrote: "...Back to the book, which I am liking more and more as the discussion goes along: What did anyone think of the letter from the Pope at the end of the book? I thought it was nice ..."I can understand your feelings, Janet. I didn't find it all that believable, either, but like Marian and Jane, I did like it and I was glad Erdrich ended the book that way.
Jane, I thought it added to the book, too. I was just glad it made the people happy. They were a very likable people, and I wanted to see them happy.
Coming very late to this -- my reading of Erdrich was interrupted by Hotel at the Corner of Bitter and Sweet -- and, although my reading experience was probably diminished by the disjointed way I read the book, I enjoyed it immensely nonetheless.Like Gabrielle, I am a devout Catholic, and I was delighted that the book was not a long diatribe on how horrible the Church is for not allowing women (like Agnes) to be ordained. In fact, I found some aspects of the book -- such as Agnes's mystical experience when saying Mass -- to be deeply rooted in Catholic theology. (In that example, it was a powerful expression of Paul's teaching on the church as the "Body of Christ.") I was not at all offended by the fact that Fr. Modeste was actually a woman.
What I appreciated most in the book, I suppose, was Erdrich's style. I did not mind the generally light tone she used to address both the wonderful and the horrible things she narrates. Just a matter of taste, but I did not find it arch or too precious or overwritten.
I also thought she did a good job of developing character. We know so many aspects of the very complicated Agnes, and how she changes -- and doesn't change -- over time. (I loved the scene on the island, when she is suddenly overwhelmed with sadness for the life she lost when her husband was murdered, while appreciating the richness of the life she lived as a result of his death. That struck me as being very true.) Fr. Jude was also a well-developed character. Stolid and dull, and suddenly overwhelmed by an unexpected passion, to which he initially reacts as an adolescent: I must leave everything to follow this bliss! And Mary Kashpaw, silent, grieving, powerful and with so deep a loyalty and capacity for love.
I had a harder time with the portrayals of some of the other characters. I didn't "get" Lulu. We are told how great she is, but I, for one, didn't see it. Same thing with Fleur. Maybe I lost something because of my break in reading. And the meandering pacing of the book was sometimes a weakness. The gaps in the story, or stories, seemed a weakness to me as well, though perhaps those "gaps" are filled in in her other novels.
As others have noted, the ending was terrific.
I had been meaning to read this since it came out (intrigued by a review), and am very glad I did. I've added more Erdrich to my too-long TBR list!
Thanks for posting those observations, Mary Ellen, you brought back several parts of the book that I remember liking when I read the book last year.
I expect parts of this book will stay with me for a while, too, Philip.
I was wondering what people thought of the penultimate action of the book: Fr. Damien's death. Whose work-worn hand grasped his? Did he escape the black dog?
I'm sorry, Ruth, but when someone says "you aren't who you say you are," I..."An update on the lawsuit in question is in order, as Gabrielle introduced the subject here. Gabrielle's suit was recently dismissed. Alas, there will be no taking of houses, cars, or wages. I cannot affirm that there was no craziness or stalking, but the judge did not find any such on the part of the defendant.
Rather than burden yet another forum with the distasteful but oddly entertaining saga, I recommend that, if curiosity overcomes you, you google the name under which the lawsuit was filed, and you will find more than enough to keep you occupied.
When a crazy person, and I mean the Defendant in my lawsuit, has been stalking and libeling me, my husband, and our family members all over the Internet for more than a year, it's going to take a Federal Judge to tell her to cut it out and clean up her act, and at this point, I don't care if she is paying me for the rest of her life. At this point, I'll gladly take her house, her car, and part of her wages each month. All she had to do was shut her mouth, and she couldn't do that. If I were "so" litigious, I guarantee you I would not have waited a year to file a lawsuit. I would have done it after the first malicious and libelous remark. In the past, I tended to give people a LOT of leeway with me. That has not worked out for me. From here on, I'm giving them little leeway when it comes to libel and stalking.My lawsuit bears the name "Gabrielle Renoir-Large."
http://dockets.justia.com/docket/ohio...
So maybe you should call the court and tell them I'm not who I say I am. That would interest them greatly, I'm sure. It might also interest the people who issued my birth certificate and my marriage certificate, certificates the Defendant "knows for a fact" don't exist."
Without wishing to disturb the peace unduly, this post should not be left to stand without comment or update. Gabrielle lost this case; she got nobody's house, car, or wages, and convinced no federal judge that anyone had said anything remotely libelious or engaged in any stalking.
You might want to open another thread , if you wish to discuss a lawsuit. This is a book discussion about " The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse".
After all of my spouting off about real life being stranger than what people will find acceptable in fiction you might be surprised by my response to this.
The Pope’s letter seemed a bit too contrived and inconsistent with the rest of the story for me. For the entire lifetime of Father Damien there was no response at all from any of the Pontiffs at the Vatican, not even a rote form letter from an underling, and then after the arrival of the mysterious donation of the fax machine a letter from the Pope arrives as soon as it is plugged in. I didn’t find that part credible.