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Bezig met laden... Books and Islands in Ojibwe Country (origineel 2003; editie 2006)door Louise Erdrich
Informatie over het werkBooks and Islands in Ojibwe Country: Traveling through the Land of My Ancestors door Louise Erdrich (2003)
Books Read in 2023 (1,985) Bezig met laden...
Meld je aan bij LibraryThing om erachter te komen of je dit boek goed zult vinden. Op dit moment geen Discussie gesprekken over dit boek. The title and subtitle pretty much describe the book - but don't mention that the Author at almost 50 is traveling with her 18 month old daughter. And having what sounds like mostly idyllic times with her. An easy comforting read for the most part with reminder though of the brutally hard times behind the people and the landscape. Author Louise Erdrich recounts a trip she takes with her young child to visit that child's father, see the rock paintings on the islands in the Lake of the Woods in Ojibwe Country in northern Minnesota and southern Canada, and revisit a library kept by a previous traveler. I was expecting more about books and reading, based on the title, but instead Erdrich's book is a meandering and thoughtful pondering of her indigenous culture, the islands and their history and, yes, a little about books and why she finds reading so important. There are a lot of observations about her daughter, taking a boat out on the lake, and exploring. The journey is the tie along which she strings shorter topics, showing her thought process from one to another. A relaxing mix of connected travelogue, stories about the Native American Ojibwe peoples’ spiritual geography and occasional comments about books originally published in 2003. I particularly enjoyed Erdrich’s descriptions of wildlife encounters, appreciating the joy and wonder that can arise from seemingly mundane sightings. I have recently read Indigenous Continent by Pekka Hämäläinen, so this book might have been more accessible to me than someone with no previous knowledge of Native American traditions (I’m British), but this was an enlightening read if you are open minded about those traditions. It would be interesting to know Erdrich’s opinions about these traditions now twenty years later, although my edition includes a positive afterword from 2013. In the final chapter, Erdrich talks about returning to her Birchbark bookstore in Minneapolis, noting the old Catholic confessional over against one wall, which also appears in the fictionalised version of the bookstore in The Sentence, of course! At the age of 47, Louise Erdrich unexpectedly found herself pregnant by a man she refers to here only by the name Tobasonakwut, and whom she never publicly identified, but who almost certainly was this highly respected Anishinaabe teacher, philosopher and activist. When the child known as Kiizhikok (full Ojibwe name Nenaa'ikiizhikok after her grandmother) was 18 months old, Erdrich took her on a quest of sorts, into the island country of Northern Minnesota and Canada, home to their ancestors. This book is a memoir of that journey, and a reflection on the importance of language, both written and oral, in preserving a culture and a sense of belonging. Beautiful reading.
"This book is a treasure and a delight." "We know we are in the hands of an exceptionally skilled, sensitive, observant writer." "Fans of Erdrich's earlier fiction...will glimpse the very foundation of her literary vision." "The dilemma of being caught between two cultures are at the heart of [Erdrich's] work as a novelist. ...She as shown that she is just as capable of using this material to work magic i nonfiction, as well."
Biography & Autobiography.
Travel.
Nonfiction.
HTML: For more than three decades, bestselling author Louise Erdrich has enthralled readers with dazzling novels that paint an evocative portrait of Native American life. From her dazzling first novel, Love Medicine, to the National Book Award-winning The Round House, Erdrich's lyrical skill and emotional assurance have earned her a place alongside William Faulkner and Willa Cather as an author deeply rooted in the American landscape. In Books and Islands in Ojibwe Country, Erdrich takes us on an illuminating tour through the terrain her ancestors have inhabited for centuries: the lakes and islands of southern Ontario. Summoning to life the Ojibwe's sacred spirits and songs, their language and sorrows, she considers the many ways in which her tribeâ??whose name derives from the word ozhibii'ige, "to write"â??have influenced her. Her journey links ancient stone paintings with a magical island where a bookish recluse built an extraordinary library, and she reveals how both have transformed her. A blend of history, mythology, and memoir, Books and Islands in Ojibwe Country is an enchanting meditation on modern life, natural splendor, and the ancient spirituality and creativity of Erdrich's native homelandâ??a long, elemental tradition of storytelling that is in her bl Geen bibliotheekbeschrijvingen gevonden. |
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Google Books — Bezig met laden... GenresDewey Decimale Classificatie (DDC)977.004973History and Geography North America Midwestern U.S.LC-classificatieWaarderingGemiddelde:
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Reading #2: Makes for soothing pre-bed reading and slippery dreams.
Reading #3: I listened to the Kitchen Sisters' "Fugitive Wave" podcast about wild rice and the Ojibwe tribes, and it sparked an urgent craving in me for this book; I had to read it while the sound of the water and the sound of the voices were still in my ears. ( )