Yes! I haven't read those above, but I'm interested in eventually reading all of her books. She works with her own Native American family mythos, and I find them fascinating reads. I adored The Antelope Wife last year, and have read Love Medicine and Tracks. I'm trying to read them in published order from hereon out, though I'm not sure it matters.

I read Love Medicine and found it depressing so I haven't tried any others. It seemed like the characters were so hopelessly destined to have sad lives. I was born on an Indian reservation in Northern Manitoba. I am not Indian, my dad's job required us to be there. I have seen so much prejudiced and misunderstanding between the Indians and the whites it makes it hard see hope in the novel. Perhaps I put too much of my own bias in it.

I love to read Louise Erdich and just finished her last novel which was wonderful. It is called "The Plague of Doves". Loiuse Erdich's personal life in these last ten years has been tragic and her writing reflects it. "The Plague of Doves" is a complex and sad mystery involving the murder of a farm family in North Dakota.

I have a couple of Erdich's books in my TBR pile and so will have to move them up a few notches. I have heard good things about her writing...

I cannot say that I love this author, but I did read her "Beet Queen." I always associate Erdrich with tragedy, as she was married to Native American author Michael Dorris, who committed suicide in 1997. I did read one of their joint authorship books: "The Crown of Columbus" and liked it. Dorris was equally talented: what a sad loss!

Her books are sad... but there is something very beautiful in her writing than is at times ironic, at others redemptive, and sometimes just cathartic, but always poetic. The Antelope Wife is the novel she completed just before Dorris committed suicide. If you read that novel, it is hauntingly prescient; one of those tragic cases of art mirroring real-life (or is it the other way around?). Erdrich has also written some beautiful poetry as well. She's also written a lot of short stories that get reworked into her novels, so some of her novels can feel cobbled together, but I find that with her particular writing style I don't mind.

I remember liking Master Butchers Singing Club, but have had difficulty with any other titles I've tried. Her writing is beautiful but very sad. I also think about the history with Michael Dorris, and can't seem to separate that from her writing.

I did not know that about her husband, I would imagine it would affect her writing. One thing I did like was the way she put the chapters together, going back and forth. For some reason it didn't bother me in this novel like it did in Time Traveler's wife.

I liked her book The Beet Queen, and I also enjoy Master Butchers Singing Club. I believe she was separated or divorced from Michael Dorris when he killed himself. It was all a tragic family story.

I liked his book Yellow Raft in Blue Water even better than her books. But I think she's a very good writer.

I tried to read the book they wrote together and just couldn't get into it.

I am afraid I had never heard of Louise Erdrich and after a quick check at the UK site of Amazon I find not much information on her there either.
But then I had never heard of Ayn Rand and several RP'ers suggested I wasn't missing much . . . so perhaps not worth a special order from the library?

Here's a poem of hers that I think is quite nice (reminds of that earlier thread about people's thoughts to their younger selves):

Advice to Myself

Leave the dishes.
Let the celery rot in the bottom drawer of the refrigerator
and an earthen scum harden on the kitchen floor.
Leave the black crumbs in the bottom of the toaster.
Throw the cracked bowl out and donÂt patch the cup.
DonÂt patch anything. DonÂt mend. Buy safety pins.
DonÂt even sew on a button.
Let the wind have its way, then the earth
that invades as dust and then the dead
foaming up in gray rolls underneath the couch.
Talk to them. Tell them they are welcome.
DonÂt keep all the pieces of the puzzles
or the dollÂs tiny shoes in pairs, donÂt worry
who uses whose toothbrush or if anything
matches, at all.
Except one word to another. Or a thought.
Pursue the authentic-decide first
what is authentic,
then go after it with all your heart.
Your heart, that place
you donÂt even think of cleaning out.
That closet stuffed with savage mementos.
DonÂt sort the paper clips from screws from saved baby teeth
or worry if weÂre all eating cereal for dinner
again. DonÂt answer the telephone, ever,
or weep over anything at all that breaks.
Pink molds will grow within those sealed cartons
in the refrigerator. Accept new forms of life
and talk to the dead
who drift in though the screened windows, who collect
patiently on the tops of food jars and books.
Recycle the mail, donÂt read it, donÂt read anything
except what destroys
the insulation between yourself and your experience
or what pulls down or what strikes at or what shatters
this ruse you call necessity.
 Louise Erdrich, from Original Fire: Selected and New Poems.

*****

Veer, Erdrich has been around and active in the American literary and academic community longer than people realize. I think she graduated from Dartmouth in the 70s and obtained her Masters in Creative Writing from Johns Hopkins Uni. I think she also owns (or did) a bookstore in her hometown in Minnesota. Some of her books, but not all of them, have a magical realist strand, so I'm doubtful she would be to your liking, but I tend to like those sorts of books, so...

georgia, what a great poem! Thanks for sharing it. I will have to take another look at the work of Erdrich, as I did not know she wrote poetry....

For some reason, the bookstore reminded me. She also wrote a children's book called "The Birchbark House" that was described as a Native American "Little House on the Prairie." That one I really enjoyed. There's a sequel to it that I haven't read.

georgia, thank you for the summary. As you say magical realism isn't real 'my thing' I'm way too ankle-deep in the mud and don't read a great deal of fiction.
I enjoyed the poem and wish I could use it as an excuse to leave mundane things like housework unattended.

georgia peach-I appreciated the poem. Thanks.

I've been "eyeing" her books for a while but have yet to read one. The one which caught my interest was The Painted Drum, which I believe got some good reviews when it was originally released. But I've been on the fence whether to read it. Has anyone read that one, and if so would you recommend it?

My book group has read two of her books. I enjoyed them and plan to read more.

dorieann-I read "The Painted Drum" and really enjoyed it.
I really liked the newest book too.. "Plague of Doves."

Thanks, Blossomgirl. It's nice to know Drum was a good book. I may get it from the library and try it.

I guess being an Indian author, Erdrich isn't as well-known outside the US. The funny thing is, I actually first discovered her when I was studying abroad for a semester in Ireland. I used the opportunity to immserse myself in Irish authors, but at one point I overdosed and had to find something American.

I also enjoyed A Painted Drum. Maybe it's because I found it less dense and thus more pleasurable than some others of hers that I've read.

I remember enjoying Beet Queen and Tracks back when they were first published, but never felt compeled to read more. Being part Cherokee (only about 1/16th) I suspect I wanted to identify more than I could with her characters and just lost interest.

The poem is terrific! I found one of her books at the library today, The Plague of Doves. I will let you know what I think.