The Sentence

Product Information

a b Alexandra Alter (March 17, 2015). "Louise Erdrich Wins Library of Congress Award". The New York Times . Retrieved March 18, 2015. One of my main issues was the main character, Tookie. Although as a native American woman Tookie should have been a layered and interesting character, I just found that she felt very flat and one dimensional. Events just seemed to happen to her – whether that was going to prison, being released, getting married, starting a job in the bookshop, finding out she had a grandchild or discovering a ghost haunting her workplace. She seemed to keep the reader at arms length and didn’t let us properly into her head. I didn’t feel that I related to her or empathised with her in any way.

Pulitzer Prize: 2021 Winners List". The New York Times. June 11, 2021. ISSN 0362-4331 . Retrieved June 14, 2021. On top of being a creative clever ghost-style-examination of 2019 and 2020, it’s also an impressive Three woman who join together to rent a large space along the beach in Los Angeles for their stores—a gift shop, a bakery, and a bookstore—become fast friends as they each experience the highs, and lows, of love. World Fantasy Convention (2010). "Award Winners and Nominees". Archived from the original on December 1, 2010 . Retrieved February 4, 2011. I thought it was a good way to mark National Native American Heritage Month by reading a book by Louise Erdrich . ( https://nativeamericanheritagemonth.gov/ ) Actually any time is a good time to read a Louise Erdrich book.

Beyond the Book

But Tookie recommends a ton of books in the novel, and Erdrich herself included a list in the appendix. So we have culled three of our favorite reads from that list of books and authors.

Louise Erdrich, author of LaRose, talks about her love of books". YouTube. Archived from the original on November 18, 2021 . Retrieved June 25, 2020.

BookBrowse Review

The Antelope Wife (1998), Erdrich's first novel after her divorce from Dorris, was the first of her novels to be set outside the continuity of the previous books. [2] Erdrich heavily revised the book in 2009 and published the revision as The Antelope Woman in 2016. [34] Though I've never put Norman Mailer and Erdrich together before, sections like this one remind me of Mailer's 1968 masterpiece, The Armies of the Night, his so-called "nonfiction novel" chronicling an earlier time of fracture and unrest in America. A ghost haunting a bookstore is rather alluring to this reader, in theory. But in practice, I just couldn’t buy it. Not that I’m opposed to ghost stories (see my review of Rebecca if you don’t believe me!). I like my ghosts a bit more subtle, and Flora was too over the top for me - as was the main character, Tookie. After finishing the book, I have no real good picture of this Ojibwe woman who had been imprisoned, released early, and who then sought refuge as an employee of a bookstore. Perhaps my imagination is failing me these days, but I had a better impression of some of her coworkers than I did of Tookie herself. But, I have to admit that I was absolutely on board with the interactions between the store employees as well as Tookie’s passion for books and reading. Who wouldn’t be?!

The book felt very jumbled as well that didn’t help. Lots of drawn-out conversations that didn’t seem to move the plot forward and then suddenly a major event would be introduced and skimmed over in a sentence which led to me saying ‘wait, what?’ and having to re-read. After reading a spoiler for the end of the book, I don’t think I particularly missed much - the reader asking a question about it also seemed to have missed an important plot point which meant the conclusion made little sense so I think I may have made the right decision in putting it down. Tookie is strongly defined by identity -- her tribal one and that community she is part of, as well as then her professional one, as, book-obsessed , she comes to work in a bookstore -- and ultimately she comes to some terms with some other, even more fundamental aspects of her identity. Flora died on the second of November, All Souls’ Day, when the fabric between the worlds is thin as tissue and easily torn. Since then, she has been here every morning.” Despite the often serious subject matter, The Sentence is a fairly casual read, Tookie quite amiably and ultimately fairly easily powering through the hardships and bizarreness (especially in the form of that ghost) she faces; Erdrich doesn't let her get too hung up on any single thing for too long (even if certain issues repeatedly come to the fore).We’re in the midst of the first wave of pandemic novels, with likely more to come as time goes on. How do you feel about this one? A book begging to be read on the beach, with the sun warming the sand and salt in the air: pure escapism. I feel quite conflicted over The Sentence. Although I loved the first half of this novel I found the latter to be boring and somewhat disjointed. While I’m sure many will be able to love everything about this book I wish it hadn’t quite tried to juggle so many different themes and genres.” Not so weird, given a complicated and difficult childhood -- but it's no surprise that her (real) name comes to play a role in the story.

Karen Louise Erdrich ( / ˈ ɜːr d r ɪ k/ ER-drik; [1] born June 7, 1954) [2] is an American author of novels, poetry, and children's books featuring Native American characters and settings. She is an enrolled member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians, a federally recognized tribe of Ojibwe people. [3] AP Literature: Titles from Free Response Questions since 1971". Mseffie.com. May 13, 2013. Archived from the original on November 30, 2014 . Retrieved October 23, 2013. What happens when you let an unsatisfactory present go on long enough? It becomes your entire history” What Tookie calls herself is another matter. Because Flora is not the first of Tookie’s ghosts. She is haunted by her mother’s addiction and death, haunted by a misspent youth and her time in prison, and though she is resilient, she is haunted by the idea that there is something flawed about her — that if there is a way to screw something up, she’ll find it.Erdrich's interwoven series of novels have drawn comparisons with William Faulkner's Yoknapatawpha novels. Like Faulkner's, Erdrich's successive novels created multiple narratives in the same fictional area and combined the tapestry of local history with current themes and modern consciousness. [46] Birchbark Books [ edit ] Flora is a contradiction. She was a good customer, but also stole the book. She means well, dropping off potpourri, but then she’s also a clumsy appropriator of culture. She shops at the store, but later haunts it. Do you believe in ghosts? What was Flora’s role in the story?