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In this literary masterwork, Louise Erdrich, the bestselling author of the National Book Award-winning The Round House and the Pulitzer Prize nominee The Plague of Doves wields her breathtaking narrative magic in an emotionally haunting contemporary tale of a tragic accident, a demand for justice, and a profound act of atonement with ancient roots in Native American culture. North Dakota, late summer, 1999. Landreaux Iron stalks a deer along the edge of the property bordering his own. He shoots with easy confidence-but when the buck springs away, Landreaux realizes he's hit something else, a blur he saw as he squeezed the trigger. When he staggers closer, he realizes he has killed his neighbor's five-year-old son, Dusty Ravich. The youngest child of his friend and neighbor, Peter Ravich, Dusty was best friends with Landreaux's five-year-old son, LaRose. The two families have always been close, sharing food, clothing, and rides into town; their children played together despite going to different schools; and Landreaux's wife, Emmaline, is half-sister to Dusty's mother, Nola. Horrified at what he's done, the recovered alcoholic turns to an Ojibwe tribe tradition-the sweat lodge-for guidance, and finds a way forward. Following an ancient means of retribution, he and Emmaline will give LaRose to the grieving Peter and Nola. "Our son will be your son now," they tell them. LaRose is quickly absorbed into his new family. Plagued by thoughts of suicide, Nola dotes on him, keeping her darkness at bay. His fierce, rebellious new "sister," Maggie, welcomes him as a coconspirator who can ease her volatile mother's terrifying moods. Gradually he's allowed shared visits with his birth family, whose sorrow mirrors the Raviches' own. As the years pass, LaRose becomes the linchpin linking the Irons and the Raviches, and eventually their mutual pain begins to heal. But when a vengeful man with a long-standing grudge against Landreaux begins raising trouble, hurling accusations of a cover-up the day Dusty died, he threatens the tenuous peace that has kept these two fragile families whole. Inspiring and affecting, LaRose is a powerful exploration of loss, justice, and the reparation of the human heart, and an unforgettable, dazzling tour de force from one of America's most distinguished literary masters.… (meer)
This was not really a success for me: except in the beginning the novel simply did not resonate. That start is of course spectacular: a man accidentally shoots down the son of his neighbor and good friend; in exchange, he gives his youngest son, the 5-year-old LaRose, to the affected family. "It's the old way". This fact is of course dramatic and surprising, but a little less if you know that the novel, like all Erdrich's stories, is set in and around an Indian reservation in North Dakota, and that traditions and especially magical-realistic elements are an integral part of the story material. That worked out well, I thought, in other novels I read from her, "The Round House" and especially "Plague of Doves", but here it goes a bit over the edge. The boy LaRose appears to be gifted with the magical powers that family members of previous generations (with the same name by the way) all had: the ability to step out of the body, float above the earth, talk to the dead and to dogs, in short seeing the other side of reality. In this novel, Erdrich exaggerates these elements, to the extent that the credibility of the story is lost. At times LaRose himself is painted too saint-like, and the other main characters, the 'fathers' Landreaux and Peter, who are linked by the drama, remain somewhat superficial. Only the marginal Romeo, a very complex and somewhat macabre figure, is captivating. Of course, the main themes - the grieving process, reconciliation and redemption - are very interesting facts that Erdrich regularly and sensitively elaborates on. But the story meanders in too many directions, so that the effect is lost. ( )
In this literary masterwork, Louise Erdrich, the bestselling author of the National Book Award-winning The Round House and the Pulitzer Prize nominee The Plague of Doves wields her breathtaking narrative magic in an emotionally haunting contemporary tale of a tragic accident, a demand for justice, and a profound act of atonement with ancient roots in Native American culture. North Dakota, late summer, 1999. Landreaux Iron stalks a deer along the edge of the property bordering his own. He shoots with easy confidence-but when the buck springs away, Landreaux realizes he's hit something else, a blur he saw as he squeezed the trigger. When he staggers closer, he realizes he has killed his neighbor's five-year-old son, Dusty Ravich. The youngest child of his friend and neighbor, Peter Ravich, Dusty was best friends with Landreaux's five-year-old son, LaRose. The two families have always been close, sharing food, clothing, and rides into town; their children played together despite going to different schools; and Landreaux's wife, Emmaline, is half-sister to Dusty's mother, Nola. Horrified at what he's done, the recovered alcoholic turns to an Ojibwe tribe tradition-the sweat lodge-for guidance, and finds a way forward. Following an ancient means of retribution, he and Emmaline will give LaRose to the grieving Peter and Nola. "Our son will be your son now," they tell them. LaRose is quickly absorbed into his new family. Plagued by thoughts of suicide, Nola dotes on him, keeping her darkness at bay. His fierce, rebellious new "sister," Maggie, welcomes him as a coconspirator who can ease her volatile mother's terrifying moods. Gradually he's allowed shared visits with his birth family, whose sorrow mirrors the Raviches' own. As the years pass, LaRose becomes the linchpin linking the Irons and the Raviches, and eventually their mutual pain begins to heal. But when a vengeful man with a long-standing grudge against Landreaux begins raising trouble, hurling accusations of a cover-up the day Dusty died, he threatens the tenuous peace that has kept these two fragile families whole. Inspiring and affecting, LaRose is a powerful exploration of loss, justice, and the reparation of the human heart, and an unforgettable, dazzling tour de force from one of America's most distinguished literary masters.
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(3.93)
6
The boy LaRose appears to be gifted with the magical powers that family members of previous generations (with the same name by the way) all had: the ability to step out of the body, float above the earth, talk to the dead and to dogs, in short seeing the other side of reality. In this novel, Erdrich exaggerates these elements, to the extent that the credibility of the story is lost. At times LaRose himself is painted too saint-like, and the other main characters, the 'fathers' Landreaux and Peter, who are linked by the drama, remain somewhat superficial. Only the marginal Romeo, a very complex and somewhat macabre figure, is captivating.
Of course, the main themes - the grieving process, reconciliation and redemption - are very interesting facts that Erdrich regularly and sensitively elaborates on. But the story meanders in too many directions, so that the effect is lost. (