Louise Erdrich's The Mighty Red
Erdrich is one of my favorite authors, but this was kind of a stressful read! It’s set in 2008-2009, and the economic downturn is affecting a lot of the characters, particularly one woman, whose husband embezzled the church reconstruction fund and secretly mortgaged her house before running off. But the main storyline involves her daughter's marriage to the son of the wealthy family who owns the local beet farm—a marriage no one is on board for, besides the groom and his mother. I will say there is a fairly sprawling cast of characters, plus some interludes about history and the environment, so every time I was frustrated with one chapter, the next usually turned things around. It was a slow start for me, but my halfway through I was hooked, and of course the ending was lovely. Erdrich does endings so well. I think this is set in the same corner of Erdrich's literary universe as a few of her other books (particularly The Beet Queen)—someday I’ll reread them all and figure out how they all fit together. A-.
__
A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released on Tuesday.
No comments:
Post a Comment