My trip to New Mexico (posts here) piqued my interest in American Indian culture and contemporary life. It is a complicated, evolving topic, and one that there is little discussion on or depiction of in popular culture or journalism.
Louise Erdrich's novels have probably been my best source of understanding the realities of life on a reservation today. The complexities of honoring the old ways while living in the new ones. The poverty and prejudice. The Plague of Doves, which some consider her best novel, has characters who reappear in her latest novel, The Round House, which I recently finished and highly recommend.
The Round House is a crime story and a coming of age novel that takes place on an Ojibwe reservation in North Dakota. The narrative is more straightforward, with less magic realism, than Erdrich's earlier novels. It's a beautifully written story filled with interesting characters--multi-generational and multi-layered, bittersweet and uplifting.
*Pictures taken at Taos Pueblo, New Mexico.
p.s. Lest you think I am not being politically correct, a couple of conversations I had led me to believe that the term Indian or Tribal Member is preferred to the p.c. Native American. I have no idea if that is widespread, but it's what the Indians I spoke to indicated.
Interesting in the contrast between these bright pictures and of the snow days on the last post. The contrast refers the memory and the current situation, and story and reality.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful expression of the juxtaposition, Haricot. I probably subconsciously wrote that post as a virtual escape from winter.
DeleteI read Louise Erdrich's early novels, but not her latest ones. Must get back to her someday. Another highly touted Native American author is Sherman Alexie, a Spokane Indian. The movie Smoke Signals is based on his short stories and is really well-done. Something to watch while waiting for the snow to melt because you can stream it from Netflix to your TV. You do belong to Netflix, don't you?
ReplyDeleteThere is a bookstore in Taos that had a good selection of American Indian authors, and I remember seeing his name. I do belong to Netflix and my kids do the streaming but I haven't yet...
DeleteHello Jen:
ReplyDeleteIt is so good when a writer can transport one into another culture, time or space and one can become totally engrossed with it. We have never read anything by Louise Erdich so this all sounds as if we have a hidden treasure waiting to be discovered. Of course, for you, with the experience of New Mexico to draw upon, we can well see that her novels have an immediacy which makes them particularly satisfying.
My favorite books have a strong sense of place, and I especially love ones that take me somewhere new. I have great admiration for Louise Erdrich.
DeleteJen,
DeleteI was recently in Minneapolis and made sure to visit Louise Erdrich's bookstore, Birchbark Books. The staff is familiar with those of us who visit on literary pilgrimages. I bought The Round House there and finished it in three days. It was engrossing. I'd read many of her books years ago, but had drifted to other authors. Now, I'm catching up on her more recent books. Enjoy New Mexico.
Indian culture is so complex and also sad in that they live so conflicted, through no fault of their own. I recently read "One Thousand White Women" by Jim Fergus, fascinating.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the recommendation--I will look for that.
DeleteAnother interesting post as ever ... your posts always make me want to go and look something up and learn more or to read one of your book recommendations.
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