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A review by farenmaddox
The Sentence by Louise Erdrich
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
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? It's complicated
2.0
I genuinely feel like this is two different novels regrettably smashed into one. There is one book about indigenous identity through the lens of the bookstore and the employees who work there and the ghost, and there is a second book about indigenous identity through the lens of the current events of the Coronavirus pandemic and BLM protests, and to my mind this novel tripped over itself in trying to be both books at once. There were too many threads to follow and they all suffered from being crowded together.
In some ways, it's very reflective of real life that the story which was happening to the characters was interrupted and re-prioritized by the pandemic and by George Floyd's death, and some people may find this to be a really profound message. But to me this is not how a novel works and the story I thought was being told in the end, wasn't told properly due to the sharp turn into current events in the second half and then the sudden scramble to resolve the ghost story at the end.
I also think there is some nitpicky things that are coloring my opinion - the amount of attention given to the author self-insert character bothered me more than I can say, and the brief lapses into a different point-of-view character were glaring and weird and unnecessary, contributing nothing to the narrative and not even regular enough to seem deliberate. These things may not bother another reader.
Overall, I would still really like to read more of Erdrich's work, because there was so much potential in this book, some very compelling passages and a charmingly dark humor. But The Sentence missed the mark for me.
In some ways, it's very reflective of real life that the story which was happening to the characters was interrupted and re-prioritized by the pandemic and by George Floyd's death, and some people may find this to be a really profound message. But to me this is not how a novel works and the story I thought was being told in the end, wasn't told properly due to the sharp turn into current events in the second half and then the sudden scramble to resolve the ghost story at the end.
I also think there is some nitpicky things that are coloring my opinion - the amount of attention given to the author self-insert character bothered me more than I can say, and the brief lapses into a different point-of-view character were glaring and weird and unnecessary, contributing nothing to the narrative and not even regular enough to seem deliberate. These things may not bother another reader.
Overall, I would still really like to read more of Erdrich's work, because there was so much potential in this book, some very compelling passages and a charmingly dark humor. But The Sentence missed the mark for me.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Drug abuse, Racism, and Police brutality
Moderate: Child abuse and Death of parent