321 pages
English language
Published April 5, 2012 by Harper Perennial.
One Sunday in the spring of 1988, a woman living on a reservation in North Dakota is attacked. The details of the crime are slow to surface because Geraldine Coutts is traumatized and reluctant to relive or reveal what happened, either to the police or to her husband, Bazil, and thirteen-year-old son, Joe. In one day, Joe's life is irrevocably transformed. He tries to heal his mother, but she will not leave her bed and slips into an abyss of solitude. Increasingly alone, Joe finds himself thrust prematurely into an adult world for which he is ill prepared.
While his father, a tribal judge, endeavors to wrest justice from a situation that defies his efforts, Joe becomes frustrated with the official investigation and sets out with his trusted friends, Cappy, Zack, and Angus, to get some answers of his own. Their quest takes them first to the Round House, a …
One Sunday in the spring of 1988, a woman living on a reservation in North Dakota is attacked. The details of the crime are slow to surface because Geraldine Coutts is traumatized and reluctant to relive or reveal what happened, either to the police or to her husband, Bazil, and thirteen-year-old son, Joe. In one day, Joe's life is irrevocably transformed. He tries to heal his mother, but she will not leave her bed and slips into an abyss of solitude. Increasingly alone, Joe finds himself thrust prematurely into an adult world for which he is ill prepared.
While his father, a tribal judge, endeavors to wrest justice from a situation that defies his efforts, Joe becomes frustrated with the official investigation and sets out with his trusted friends, Cappy, Zack, and Angus, to get some answers of his own. Their quest takes them first to the Round House, a sacred space and place of worship for the Ojibwe. And this is only the beginning.
The telling of the story is humorous and light, but ultimately, it's a very sad tale. Not depressing, but pulling a sadness out.
So painful, and so hard to put down. Not a train wreck — too elegant and even hopeful for that — more like a ballet on sharp rocks, where every step is pain but the dancers keep going, falling (or getting shoved) once in a while and getting even more badly hurt, then picking themselves up dusting themselves off and going on with grace, supporting the other dancers.
This was beautiful in many ways. The story forces us privileged folk to confront events that we know happen every day "to someone else". It's tenderly told, with an unusual voice that resonated sharply with me: narrated choppily yet richly in first-person by a grown man, describing events and feelings from early adolescence. Quick judgments, resentments, the constant surprise of realizing that you acted with incomplete information, over and over, yet without being able to learn the broader lesson that you don't …
So painful, and so hard to put down. Not a train wreck — too elegant and even hopeful for that — more like a ballet on sharp rocks, where every step is pain but the dancers keep going, falling (or getting shoved) once in a while and getting even more badly hurt, then picking themselves up dusting themselves off and going on with grace, supporting the other dancers.
This was beautiful in many ways. The story forces us privileged folk to confront events that we know happen every day "to someone else". It's tenderly told, with an unusual voice that resonated sharply with me: narrated choppily yet richly in first-person by a grown man, describing events and feelings from early adolescence. Quick judgments, resentments, the constant surprise of realizing that you acted with incomplete information, over and over, yet without being able to learn the broader lesson that you don't know it all. Erdrich captures that magnificently. Richly woven with legal and cultural background which enhance the story and the reader.
A smidgen over the top at times — the cruelties too cruel, kindnesses too kind — but as I write this in April 2020, with subhuman monsters in Washington and elsewhere, I no longer have a sense for the depths to which cruelty can sink; and I will gladly take all the kindness I can.
As far as just a story, I enjoyed this but didn't love it. However, Ojibwe fiction by an Ojibwe author is quite interesting just for the glimpse it offers into modern reservation life. I also found it interesting that the story was told, believably, from the perspective of an adolescent boy. Erdrich is quite a good writer - not in way of someone like Tana French, where the beauty of the writing hits you over the head, but more subtly; at several points I found myself thinking how perfectly her words are chosen so that nothing gets in the way of the story - nothing unnecessary, nothing repetitive, just exactly what's required. It's likely I will read more of this author.
It is deeply puzzling to me - and I could not ultimately get past it - that she chose to use a first-person narrator for this book. All the literary prose would have been fine with an omniscient, POV narrator, but instead we had an ostensible 12 year-old who sounded very much like what a well-educated middle-aged woman would think a middle-aged man would sound like talking about his experiences as a 12 year-old. I did appreciate all the chapters titled after TNG episodes though, that was almost worth an extra star.
In the spring of 1988, on a Native American reservation in North Dakota, a white man commits a terrible crime against a couple of Native American women, and this is the story of how the community struggles to bring him to justice. It is also the many bittersweet stories of the reservation's inhabitants and their Objibwe heritage. Louise Erdrich weaves the lives of characters from previous novels into this one, which adds depth to the background stories. This is a page-turner, and beautifully written. And not at all predictable. I highly recommend it.
In Spring of 1988, a woman on a reservation in North Dakota was brutally attacked and raped. The details of Geraldine Coutts’ traumatising event slowly unfold as she reluctantly recounts the account to the police or her husband. Not only will her life be changed forever, but that of her husband Bazil and their thirteen year old son Joe. In just one day, Joe’s life is irreversibly transformed as he finds himself thrust unprepared into adulthood in Louise Erdrich’s National book award winning The Round House.
From the perspective of Joe we follow this tragic story from that one Sunday in the spring through all the challenges that face the family afterwards. Not only is justice difficult to find for the victims of rape but imagine just how hard it would be when there are laws preventing the North Dakota police arresting anyone on an Indian reservation. This is a …
In Spring of 1988, a woman on a reservation in North Dakota was brutally attacked and raped. The details of Geraldine Coutts’ traumatising event slowly unfold as she reluctantly recounts the account to the police or her husband. Not only will her life be changed forever, but that of her husband Bazil and their thirteen year old son Joe. In just one day, Joe’s life is irreversibly transformed as he finds himself thrust unprepared into adulthood in Louise Erdrich’s National book award winning The Round House.
From the perspective of Joe we follow this tragic story from that one Sunday in the spring through all the challenges that face the family afterwards. Not only is justice difficult to find for the victims of rape but imagine just how hard it would be when there are laws preventing the North Dakota police arresting anyone on an Indian reservation. This is a look at the problematic laws between America and native tribes as well as rape victims. Can there be justice in these cases? The tribal judge and Joe’s father, Bazil has faced many problems with finding justice but this time it is so much more personal and really highlights the fact that these laws in America need to be changed which are being worked on but unfortunately due to these tangled laws, 1 in 3 Native women were reportedly raped in their lifetime according to a 2009 report (this figure could be higher as Native women often do not report rape) and 86 percent of the sexual assaults are perpetrated by non-Native men.
Not only is this book trying to show us just how bad the laws are at protecting Native women, but this book, from Joe’s perspective, goes into some other details , such as, a teenage boy growing up in a both a tribal environment and the modern world. The two cultures clash from time to time, not just when it comes to the laws and justice, but through a teenager’s eyes the modern and traditional worlds are so incompatible. Joe was an interesting character whose childhood was cut so short and being ill equipped to deal with adulthood really just added another dimension of struggle to this book.
It felt like this was a coming of age story for Joe, he was thrust into adulthood far too quickly but he was still struggling to grow. The whole sexual awakening and puberty and everything else he would have had to go through at the same time as trying to help his mother heal; I don’t know how someone would be able to manage in that circumstance. Louise Erdrich did try to explore the sexual awakening and rebellious phase of Joe’s life but due to the tragic event of his mother’s life, it become really difficult to balance the two and that was one of the major issues I had with the book. I felt like Erdrich was trying to do too much and maybe didn’t execute the plot well enough to manage her ideal outcome for this novel.
Then I found some of the minor characters to interchangeable and others far more interesting than the primary ones. The rest of the family apart from Geraldine, Bazil and Joe, all felt too similar that they should have been written out of the book completely. But then you have Grandma Ignatia with her raunchy stories, the old man who tell fables in his sleep and the ex-stripper and her past. All three characters, plus a couple more seemed far more fascinating than the main characters; I would have rathered a novel about them instead.
For me the novel started off difficult, the violent nature of rape has that effect. I found it difficult to get started and that never really went away; I wanted the book to end or change perspective or do something to keep me reading but it never did. I had to read this book for book club, so I did finish it. If it wasn’t for book club, I might have abandoned or put this book aside for a long time. Sure, there are interesting points this novel brings up but I don’t think it was deserving of such a prestigious award like the National Book Award. Then again the social spotlight on these tangled laws needed to be brought to the attention of all Americans and I guess this book did a good job at that.
I’m not sure if I want to read more of Louise Erdrich’s novels but I’ve heard good things about them, but I had heard good things about this book too. Rape and the social injustice of Native women are serious problems that need to be addressed so I will give Louise Erdrich credit for The Round House, it did its job. Thank goodness the novel I finished next was Snow Crash; review soon. I would like to know if anyone has read or plans to read The Round House and if they have some thoughts on the book and these issues.
This review originally appeared on my blog; literary-exploration.com/2013/06/24/book-review-the-round-house/
An entertaining coming of age on the reservation story.
I read books like this, coming-of-age or bildungsroman, and think of what my own tale would have been - overcome by cable outages or lacking enough pocket change to complete a year's set of baseball cards. Something a bit too close to nothing to please Scout Finch, I think.
The Round House is a classic. It's Erdrich's To Kill a Mockingbird - modernized and shifted to a different cultural tableau (that still confronts a particular American failing.) It's rich and sympathetic and substantial. I loved Plague of Doves, years ago, but The Round House is the one that keeps Erdrich on reading lists 50 years from now.
(I predict that I will think on this for a couple of days and come back and drop it to 4 stars, but forget to modify anything else in the review.)
