Paperback, 451 pages
English language
Published March 23, 2021 by HarperCollins.
Thomas Wazhashk is the night watchman at the jewel-bearing plant near the Turtle Mountain Reservation in rural North Dakota. He is also a Chippewa council member who is trying to understand the consequences of a new "emancipation" bill in the United States Congress. It is 1953, and he and the other council members know the bill isn't about freedom—it is a "termination" that threatens the rights of Native Americans to their land and their very identity.
Since graduating from high school, Pixie Paranteau has insisted that everyone call her Patrice. She works at the plant in a job that pays barely enough to support her mother and younger brother. Determined to find her beloved older sister, Vera, and her child who have disappeared, Patrice makes a fateful trip to Minneapolis that introduces her to unexpected forms of exploitation and violence that endanger her life.
Based on the extraordinary life of …
Thomas Wazhashk is the night watchman at the jewel-bearing plant near the Turtle Mountain Reservation in rural North Dakota. He is also a Chippewa council member who is trying to understand the consequences of a new "emancipation" bill in the United States Congress. It is 1953, and he and the other council members know the bill isn't about freedom—it is a "termination" that threatens the rights of Native Americans to their land and their very identity.
Since graduating from high school, Pixie Paranteau has insisted that everyone call her Patrice. She works at the plant in a job that pays barely enough to support her mother and younger brother. Determined to find her beloved older sister, Vera, and her child who have disappeared, Patrice makes a fateful trip to Minneapolis that introduces her to unexpected forms of exploitation and violence that endanger her life.
Based on the extraordinary life of Louise Erdrich's grandfather Patrick Gourneau, who carried the fight against Native dispossession from rural North Dakota to Washington, D.C., The Night Watchman is a majestic work of fiction from one of the most acclaimed writers of our time.
Reading this book felt like a master class in how to write a novel.
This historical novel by Louise Erdich is a gem. I liked the characters, the plot, and I liked the fact that I learned something, too! This is one of the few times I actually read the acknowledgements.
Highly recommended.
If you watch journalists at Trump rallies ask people there when America was great, the usual answer was the years after World War II, from around 1947 to 1962. [a:Louise Erdrich|9388|Louise Erdrich|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1462224430p2/9388.jpg]'s [b:The Night Watchman|43721059|The Night Watchman|Louise Erdrich|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1560803752l/43721059.SY75.jpg|68041398], which takes place in 1953 and 1954 and is about Chippewa Indians in South Dakota, tells an important part of the reality of that era, when Jim Crow ruled the South and, less well known and the book's topic, over one hundred American Indian tribes were terminated by the federal government and 1.4 million acres of tribal land was lost.
It's a good, interesting, and important novel, which I'd have liked better if it weren't for the common practice of having so many micro-chapters of less than three pages. I know those are perfect for most people these days because they can check their phones without feeling that they've lapsed …
If you watch journalists at Trump rallies ask people there when America was great, the usual answer was the years after World War II, from around 1947 to 1962. [a:Louise Erdrich|9388|Louise Erdrich|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1462224430p2/9388.jpg]'s [b:The Night Watchman|43721059|The Night Watchman|Louise Erdrich|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1560803752l/43721059.SY75.jpg|68041398], which takes place in 1953 and 1954 and is about Chippewa Indians in South Dakota, tells an important part of the reality of that era, when Jim Crow ruled the South and, less well known and the book's topic, over one hundred American Indian tribes were terminated by the federal government and 1.4 million acres of tribal land was lost.
It's a good, interesting, and important novel, which I'd have liked better if it weren't for the common practice of having so many micro-chapters of less than three pages. I know those are perfect for most people these days because they can check their phones without feeling that they've lapsed in concentration, but that's not me. I like chapters that suck you in and make you feel like you're really a part of what's going on.
I know what you're saying. "Put your teeth back in, shut up, and keep reading boring old books, geezer." Got it.
The leaves gold on green, bright in the soaking rain, padded the trails in the woods. All of the Wazhashks were hard at work. In the sloughs the little namesakes stockpiled green twigs. In the fields, the family pitchforked up the last of the carrots. Piles of squash, warty green, orange, mellow tan, solid little pumpkins, filled the cellar and were piled around the sides of the house. Braids of onions. Pale meek balls of cabbage. Crates of cream and purple turnips. Bushels of potatoes. Thomas hauled wagon loads. Wade and Martin argued themselves into the back, arranged themselves around the vegetables. Still arguing, they unloaded produce at the cafe, at the school, and at last the teachers' dining hall. Juggie Blue gave orders, telling them where to stack and pile. Tomorrow, there was going to be a parade, a community feed, a football game, and the crowning of royalty. Sharlo was in the Homecoming court.
