Review of
Instaread Summary of LaRose by Louise Erdrich
Four out of five stars
This novel is
convoluted, with many characters and there is a great deal of temporal
traveling. It is based on the binding theme of the Ojibwe culture of North
Dakota over a span of almost 200 years. The trigger event is a very freak
hunting accident. Five-year-old Dusty Ravich fell out of a tree just when an
experienced hunter (Landreaux Iron) was shooting a deer. The bullet kills Dusty
instead and although the hunter is cleared of all wrongdoing, following Ojibwe
tradition Iron presents his own son to the Ravich family as a replacement.
The summary is
very dense, as the novel has many characters with complex and intertwined
relationships. It is hard to follow the specifics, as the characters have major
flaws such as suicidal tendencies and chemical dependency. There are also
supernatural aspects involving ghosts and other aspects of the Ojibwe culture.
This is a novel
that does temporal shifts, deals with the differences between the Ojibwe and
white cultures and contains many characters with major issues both internal and
relationally. With so much going on in the book, it is unlikely that any
summary could ever truly explain it. This one tries, but after finishing it,
you feel like you just had a book read to you by an auctioneer.
This book was made available for free for review
purposes.
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