rebadee's review against another edition
5.0
Poetic, descriptive, heartrending, and immensely funny. Louise Erdrich's awe-inspiring ability to create characters with drive and humanity made it difficult to put this book down. I cried when it ended, and am heartened to be able to continue following their stories in her linked books. I was already a fan of Erdrich before reading Love Medicine, but it deepened my appreciation for her skill as a writer.
lesbianism_is_awesome's review against another edition
15000/10 Amazing book, instantly one of the best I've ever read.
sittingwishingreading's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
lisagray68's review against another edition
4.0
Well I wouldn't put up with this kind of book from anyone except Louise Erdrich!! So much going back and forth in time, so many characters you can't keep track of them even with a family tree posted in the front, it's confusion, confusion, confusion!! But somehow, Erdrich makes it worth it to slog through it all. There's magic in her stories, I just can't explain why I love them so. Another book in this format would drive me crazy. It's probably because she's from Minnesota, that must be it! :)
izzyruby's review against another edition
4.0
Probably more of a 3.5. Enjoyable but probably not the first book I would recommend by Erdrich. I enjoy a sweeping family drama, but the long list of characters and lack of a central story arc kept the stories feeling a bit surface level.
stefanicox's review against another edition
4.0
Erdrich's writing and the way she weaves metaphors into her stories is really beautiful. I wasn't quite as drawn into this one as Plague of Doves, but I still very much enjoyed it.
rileykjones01's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
tidybookshelf's review against another edition
Just couldn't get into it. Maybe come back to it later?
lizmart88's review against another edition
Tbh, it took me two tries to get through this book, but it was so worth it. I highly recommend really reviewing the family chart at the beginning of the book to understand the complicated connections between people. Understanding those relationships made the stories much easier to understand.
The book is classified as a novel. To me, it felt like a set of really interconnected short stories, featuring recurring characters. I loved this structure.
The stories feature members of the Kashpaw, Lamartine, and Pillager families who all live in the same town. Centered in Native American experiences, the families experience the push and pull of colonization as they fall in and out of love, raise children, and find their place in the world. It's set in 1960s-1980s.
The structure was genius because you see later stories reveal new facts and perceptions from earlier stories. You see the same story from multiple perspectives (though never wholesale same story, usually snippets). And Louise Erdrich is a master of dropping tidbits in stories that slowly lead to a revelation.
Definitely recommend picking this up. She has written about 30 books - this was one of her first. I'm excited to check out later ones. There's even a few books that feature some of the characters from this book!
The book is classified as a novel. To me, it felt like a set of really interconnected short stories, featuring recurring characters. I loved this structure.
The stories feature members of the Kashpaw, Lamartine, and Pillager families who all live in the same town. Centered in Native American experiences, the families experience the push and pull of colonization as they fall in and out of love, raise children, and find their place in the world. It's set in 1960s-1980s.
The structure was genius because you see later stories reveal new facts and perceptions from earlier stories. You see the same story from multiple perspectives (though never wholesale same story, usually snippets). And Louise Erdrich is a master of dropping tidbits in stories that slowly lead to a revelation.
Definitely recommend picking this up. She has written about 30 books - this was one of her first. I'm excited to check out later ones. There's even a few books that feature some of the characters from this book!
befrazzledenby's review against another edition
5.0
Continually in awe of Erdrich’s ability to tell a story.